This is a really, really bad sign of things to come :

Car bombs exploded at a crowded jewelry market and a historic landmark in Bombay on Monday, killing at least 44 people, wounding 150 others and shaking buildings in India’s financial capital.

The bombs, hidden in the trunks of two taxis, blew up within five minutes of each other, police said. Several people were being interrogated, including one taxi driver.

Police were focusing their investigation on Muslim militant groups.

“There are many jehadi groups out, let loose by the enemy country,” said Ranjit Sharma, a police commissioner. Jehadi groups are operated by Islamic militants.

The “enemy country” was a clear reference to Pakistan, India’s longtime rival. Such an accusation could threaten to increase tension between the nuclear-armed neighbors, though Pakistani officials quickly denounced the attack as “wanton targeting of civilians.”

The hatred between India and Pakistan is every bit as intense as the tension between Israel and Palestine, except in this case, both sides have nuclear weapons. What’s so sad about all this is that it’s all about some religious nonsense :

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the lunchtime bombings, which came hours after the release of a long-anticipated archaeological report on a religious site in northern India claimed by both Hindus and Muslims. The dispute has been linked to previous bombings.
. . .
Police say those bombings were in retaliation for the 1992 destruction by Hindus mobs of the 16th-century Ayodhya mosque, and to avenge Muslim deaths in riots that followed. A bloody attack on Hindus who want to build a temple at the site of the destroyed mosque set off revenge rioting in western Gujarat state that killed more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, in early 2002.

Some Hindus claim the mosque was built centuries ago on the ruins of a Hindu temple that marked the birthplace of their supreme god, Rama.

The report, issued by the government archaeological agency, indicated there had been some sort of ancient structure at the site, lawyers for both sides said, though they disagreed on whether it said there had actually been a temple.

Is something as silly as religion really worth killing for? Just imagine how many millions of lives would be saved of everyone just gave up their territorial and xenophobic superstitions and started playing nice. America’s recent turn toward religious fundamentalism makes me wonder how long it will be before our citizens start blowing themselves up for God.

Before you get too depressed about the state of the world, here’s some pictures of an all-dwarf Kiss tribute band to cheer you up :