Someone recently blew up the shrine of the 17th century sufi mystic Rahman Baba, mostly likely the psychos of the Taleban. Cricket games, Sufi shrines… (Via Shahnaz Habib in The New Yorker.) In the BBC:
Rahman Baba is considered the most widely read poet in Pashto speaking regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The Taleban had warned they would blow up the shrine if women continued to visit it and pay their respects.
Literary experts say the poet's popularity is due to his message of tolerance coupled with a powerful expression of love for God in a Sufi way.
The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says that his lasting appeal reflects the historic popularity of Sufism in South Asia.
But our correspondent says that his views are anathema to the Taleban, who represent a more purist form of Islam and are opposed to Sufism, preventing people from visiting shrines of Sufi saints in areas they control.