May 9, 2021 (Ramadan 27, 1442 AH) - Bomb blasts at a school in the Afghan capital, Kabul, have left at least 50 dead, most of them girls.

Scattered school bags painted a grim picture of the explosion’s carnage which took place as students were leaving the school on Saturday in the Dasht-e-Barch neighborhood, home to the Shi’ah Muslim Hazara minority community.

The Hazara community is subjected to persistent persecution in Afghanistan. Just a year ago, a maternity unit at the local hospital was attacked leaving 24 women, children, and babies dead. In 2018, IS suicide bombers struck tuition centers in the area killing more than 70 people.

These incessant killings happen because the so-called Islamic State group (IS) views Shi’ah Muslims as heretics and continues with impunity in the killings of innocent men, women, and children. The Taliban, though having been blamed by Afghan president Ashraf Ghani for the school attack, has denied any involvement. As they are proponents of an ideology of dehumanizing others, they, too, bear the responsibility of perpetrating these crimes.

Painfully, this is yet another atrocity adding to the grief of the Muslim community this Ramadan as we see, amongst other injustices, the recent brutal oppression of Palestinians by the Israeli forces in Jerusalem.

Shia Muslim Council of Southern California (SMC) condemns every act of violence and terror, including this horrendous act of terrorism in Afghanistan which took the lives of so many innocent children.

We call upon all governments, the United Nations, and all those who have an influence on the global stage to go beyond mere verbal condemnations and act urgently to help the affected Afghan children recover from this life-changing, traumatic experience.

According to the charity 'Save The Children,' more than 26,000 children have been killed or injured in Afghanistan since 2005 - an average of five youngsters every day highlighting the "appalling cost of the decades-long conflict on children.”

Sadly, the dead will not return, but our raised voices will echo and record that when such crimes against humanity were being committed- we were steadfast on the right side of history.

May Allah grant safety and peace to all oppressed people.

We ask you to recite Surat Al-Fatiha for the souls of victims of this massacre.