Hundreds of Afghans gather in Herat to condemn ISIS-K attacks

HERAT – As the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" Khorasan branch (ISIS-K) intensifies attacks on Afghanistan's Shia minority, close to 500 Afghans recently came together in Herat to condemn its terrorist acts.

The September 23 "Unity Among Muslims" gathering aimed to demonstrate solidarity between the Shia and Sunni communities.

The event demonstrates that "long-standing unity between Shia and Sunni followers in Afghanistan cannot be undermined by ISIS-K," said one of the participants, Hussain Ali Rustapour.

"Every attempt by ISIS to create division among the people of Afghanistan is futile and ineffective," he told Salaam Times.

"We condemn ISIS's attacks on the people of Afghanistan, especially against Shias," Rustapour added.

ISIS-K is a common enemy of all Muslims, with both Shia and Sunni followers losing their lives in its terrorist attacks, said Mohammad Tahir Shermasti, who also attended the gathering.

"ISIS is our shared enemy, and we are fighting against it together," he said.

The group's goal is "to create division among nations and people... but it will not succeed in Afghanistan because the people are united," Shermasti said.

ISIS's actions are condemned from both a human and Islamic perspective, he added, noting that the terrorist group has no place among the Afghan people.

Failed objectives

ISIS-K's main objective in attacking Shias is to create religious division among the Afghan people, participants at the gathering told Salaam Times.

ISIS-K aims to create discord among Afghans by killing innocent people, but Afghans have thwarted this plan with their unity and solidarity, said Herat-based religious scholar Mohammad Masoom Alizada.

"For hundreds of years, Shias and Sunnis in Afghanistan have lived side by side like brothers, and no one has been allowed to create division between them," he said.

"The friendship and unity between Shia and Sunni communities is a strong blow to ISIS," he added, condemning all the group's attacks, "whether in Daikundi or elsewhere."

Afghanistan's Shia and Sunni communities have shared in each other's joys and sorrows, and ISIS-K will never be able to divide them, said Mohammad Sayeed Rezazada, who attended the gathering.

"Over the past few years, ISIS has tried to sow division between Shia and Sunni Afghans by assassinating religious scholars and carrying out suicide bombings and explosions in mosques, hospitals and schools," he said.

"But we tell them that their conspiracy and efforts are in vain."

"We Afghans have paid with our blood to thwart ISIS's plots," he added.

"Shias and Sunnis in Afghanistan have never been separated, and we have shown this not just in words, but in action," Rezazada said.