Shiites in Lebanon and Bahrain mark Ashoura with bloody marches (GRAPHIC PHOTOS)

Associated Press Newswires | 3-24-02 | By BASSEM MROUE

[TheOtherOne]

Shiites in Lebanon and Bahrain mark Ashoura with bloody marches
By BASSEM MROUE
 

12:30 ET

Associated Press Newswires

Copyright 2002. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Thousands of Shiite Muslims staged religious marches on Sunday, some slashing their heads and beating their chest to mourn the 7th century death of one of their most revered saints, Imam Hussein.

Hussein was a grandson of Islam's prophet Muhammad killed in a battle in 680 A.D., the event which led to the split in Islam between Shiites and the majority Sunnis.

The commemorations, known as Ashoura, were held in southern Lebanon and Bahrain, while Iran, the world's largest Shiite nation, marks the occassion on Monday.

In Lebanon, more than 20,000 Shiites marched in the southern town of Nabatiyeh amid tight security because of concerns about violence between two Shiite rival groups, Hezbollah and Amal.

On Saturday, at least 15 people were wounded in a fist fight between the two groups. Two more demonstrations planned for Sunday were cancelled to prevent more trouble.

Hundreds of people slashed their heads as they marched through the streets of the town. Those who collapsed were rushed to hospitals while others were treated in tents set up by civil defense units.

Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, a senior Muslim cleric, urged fellow Shiites not to slash their heads, as is tradition, but to donate the blood to the Palestinians.

In Beirut, hundreds of thousands of Shiites, all clad in black, marked Ashoura with denunciation of Israel and the United States for its support for the Jewish state.

Waving Hezbollah and Palestinian flags, they chanted "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" as they marched in the streets and narrow alleyways of Beirut's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold.

Units of barefooted Hezbollah followers beat their chests in rhythm in a show of sorrow and pain over the death of Hussein.

A huge Hezbollah banner carried by the demonstrators read, "The Islamic nation will not abandon Palestine."

In Bahrain, where Shiites make a slight majority, religious songs eulogizing Hussein and his followers were broadcast on loudspeakers as thousands of men marched down the streets, beating their chests, heads and whipping their backs with chains.

Some bare-chested men revealed bruised and bleeding skin. A large sword-wielding crowd of white-clad mourners bled lightly from cuts on their shaven heads.

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AP Photos BEI103-108

[FITZ]

Of course don't forget ---Spain had been under Islamic control for 700 years right before it came to the New World. Some of what passes as Christianity in Mexico isn't at all ---some of those traditions are a holdover from the pre-Colombian days.

[FITZ]

I've seen some of the Indians making their pilgrimage to the Basilica de Guadalupe in Mexico ---it's amazing because they'll fall to their knees and continue on ---with their knees bleeding and raw. I don't think it's a Catholic thing though ---you won't catch many Catholics in the US or Europe doing that kind of thing. I don't think many Catholics would even wear the hair shirts the Mormons wear for sacrifice.

[wingnuts'nbolts]

True, but flagelants are in the Catholic Religion, such as Sir Thomas Moore, who wore a hair shirt and beat himself daily.

[Travis McGee]

Radical islam is an insane death cult, and "moderate" islam is its trojan horse.

[Petronski]

Nine out of ten mentally ill fanatics prefer Islam over all other religions.

The rest are Scientologists.

[RIGHT IN SEATTLE]

May AIDS-fast track be with them!

Islam is the religion of peace!

[Victoria Delsoul]

Oh my! This is utterly disgusting.

[dennisw]

They got too much time on their hands and Mullahs who fill up their empty heads with Muslim nonsense.

[Victoria Delsoul]

I think so, too.

[anapikoros]

Bump for juxtaposition - says more than 10,000 words.

[sixmil]

Islam-is-a-beautiful-religion BUMP

[anapikoros]

Interesting - wonder if the Spaniards learnt it from the Moslems who occupied Spain for centuries and the Spaniards in turn introduced it to the Mexicans.

Could be the Spanish cults who practice this today were originally Moslems forced to convert to Catholocism during the inquisition but kept up their primal rituals akin to the Marranos secretly keeping Pesach etc.

[jodorowsky]

OH, CRAP! I forgot it was Ashoura! Now I won't have any scabs to put under my pillow for the Ashoura fairy :(

[sheik yerbouty]

A picture is worth a thousand word!

[freeforall]

The evening news made it seem like a harmless celebration.

[jodorowsky]

It's all worth it when you wake up the next morning and feel under your pillow to find the scabs have turned to delicious unleavened, sugary flatbread!

Thank you Ashoura Fairy!