A Look at Ashoura, the Holiest Day of the Shiite Muslim Calendar

The series of deadly blasts Tuesday struck important shrines on the holiest day of the Shiite Muslim calendar, Ashoura, which marks the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the prophet Muhammad, in a 7th century battle for leadership of the Islamic world. Hundreds of thousands of Shiites around the world traditionally gather at the Hussein's tomb in Karbala and other Shiite holy sites in Iraq. Black-garbed pilgrims flagellate themselves with chains and cut themselves with swords in grief at Hussein's death while others perform plays recreating the battle in which he was killed.

The A.D. 680 battle in the desert plain around Karbala was a defining moment in the split between Islam's Sunni and Shiite sects.

Hussein's father, Imam Ali, had been killed 20 years earlier, and leadership of the Islamic community was taken by the Damascus-based Sunni Ummayad dynasty. But Ali's followers, the Shiites, rallied behind his son.

Hussein and his followers moved from the Arabian peninsula into Iraq, harried by forces of the Ummayad caliph Yazid. Finally, Hussein was left with only handful of supporters, women and children, thirsty in the desert and surrounded by Ummayad forces.

On the 10th day of the Muslim month of Muharram, the Ummayads attacked the band and devastated them. Hussein and the men with him were decapitated, and the women taken prisoner.

Ashoura festivals depict events of the battle in ritual detail - the bravery of Hussein's half brother, Abbas, killed while searching for water for the thirsty group, the defiance of the women taken prisoner, the gloating of Yazid when Hussein's head was brought to him.

Leadership of the Shiites was then passed down through a series of imams. The seventh and ninth imams, Mousa Kadhem and Muhammad al-Jawad, are buried at the Kazimiyah shrine in Baghdad, which was one of the sites attacked Tuesday.

All muslims are not radicals or terrorists.

Yeah, just the practicing ones. Definitely a case of the 98% ruining it for the 2%.

islam, the religion of peace…

Actual Quotes from the Koran: (Yusufali's translation of the Qur'an, the most widely trusted)

"Kill the disbelievers wherever we find them" (Koran 2:191)

"Ye are the best of peoples evolved for mankind." (Koran 3:110)

"The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and his messenger and strive after corruption in the land will be to be killed or crucified, or have their hands and feet and genitals cut off, or to be expelled out of the land. Such will be their humiliation in the world, and in the next world they will face an awful horror." (Koran, 5:33-34)

"Not to make friendship with Jews and Christians" (Koran 5:51)

"Remember Allah inspired the angels: I am with you. Give firmness to the believers. I will instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers: you smite them above their necks and smite all their fingertips off of them." (Koran, 8:12)

"In order that Allah may separate the pure from the impure, put all the impure ones [all non-Muslims] one on top of another in a heap and cast them into hell. They will have been the ones to have lost." (Koran, 8:37)

"If there are twenty amongst you, you will vanquish two hundred: if a hundred, you will vanquish a thousand of them [infidels]" (Koran 8:65).

Allah and his messenger announce that it is acceptable to go back on our promises (treaties) and obligations with Pagans and make war on them whenever we find ourselves strong enough to do so (Koran 9:3)

"Fight and slay the Pagans, seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem" (Koran 9:5)

Our God tells us to "fight the unbelievers" and "He will punish them by our hands, cover them with shame and help us (to victory) over them" (Koran 9:14).

"Until they pay the Jizya [a penalty tax for the non-Muslims living under Islamic rules] with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued" (Koran 9:29)

"Unless we go forth, (for Jihad) He will punish us with a grievous penalty, and put others in our place" (9:39).

"O Prophet! Make war against the unbelievers [all non-Muslims] and the hypocrites and be merciless against them. Their home is hell, an evil refuge indeed." (Koran, 9:73)

"Murder them and treat them harshly" (Koran 9:123)

"When you meet the unbelievers in jihad [holy war], chop off their heads. And when you have brought them low, bind your prisoners rigorously. Then set them free or take ransom from them until the war is ended." (Koran, 47:40)

"When we decide to destroy a population, we send a definite order to them who have the good things in life and yet sin. So that Allah's word is proven true against them, then we destroy them utterly." (Koran, 17:16-17)

"How many were the populations we utterly destroyed because of their sins, setting up in their place other peoples." (Koran, 21:11)

"strike off the heads of the disbelievers" (Koran 47:4)

"Seize ye him, and bind ye him, And burn ye him in the Blazing Fire. Further, make him march in a chain, whereof the length is seventy cubits! This was he that would not believe in Allah Most High. And would not encourage the feeding of the indigent! So no friend hath he here this Day. Nor hath he any food except the corruption from the washing of wounds, Which none do eat but those in sin." (Koran 69:30-37)

"You (i.e. Muslims) will fight wi the Jews till some of them will hide behind stones. The stones will (betray them) saying, 'O 'Abdullah (i.e. slave of Allah)! There is a Jew hiding behind me; so kill him.' " (Sahih Bukhari Volume 4, Book 52, Number 177)

The Prophet killed the men of the Jewish tribe Bani Quraiza (some 600 to 800 of them) and distributed their women, children and property among the Muslims All the other Jews of Medina were exiled. (Bukhari 5:59:362)

The Prophet had the date-palms of the Jewish tribe of Bani-Al- Nadir burnt and cut down. "It was with Allah's permission" (Koran 59:5)

The Prophet said to Sa'd, :The Bani Quraiza have agreed to accept your verdict" Sa'd said, "Kill all their men and take their women and children as slaves" The Prophet replied, "You have judged according to God's Judgment" (Bukhari 5:59:447)

"The Christians say: The Christ is the son of Allah; "Fight against such as those to whom the Scriptures were given [Jews and Christians]...until they pay tribute out of hand and are utterly subdued." (Surah 9:29)

These are the words of their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved before; may Allah destroy them." (Sura 9:30)

"Unbelievers are those who say: 'God is one of three.' There is but one God. If they do not desist from so saying, those of them that disbelieve shall be sternly punished." (Surah 5:73)

Owl_Eagle

" WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
DIVERSITY IS STRENGTH"

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