Never Too Young to Bleed (How Religion of Peace celebrates Ashoura holiday Warning-graphic photos)

Front Page Magazine ^ | January 29, 2007 | David Melle

[SJackson]

 

This week many Muslims around the world celebrated the holiday of Ashoura. I have found a page that explains what this barbaric ritual is all about:

How Muslims in Lebanon
"celebrate" the holiday of Ashoura

Ashoura in Lebanon

The observance of Ashoura is one of the most important events in the Shia calender. Ashoura marks the anniversary of the martyrdom of Husayn, grandson of the Prophet Mohammad, in what is now Kerbala, Iraq. The death of Husayn was the beginning of the Sunni/Shia split, which persists in Islam to this day.

In the past, many Shia men have demonstrated their devotion to Husayn by letting their blood flow freely from self-inflicted wounds. Today, however, many governments have tried to ban this practice, with varying degrees of success. In Lebanon, the practice is permitted, and a bloody commemoration of Ashoura takes place in Nabatieh every year.

Most participants make a small cut on their head, and then beat the wound with their palm--or in this case a sword--to keep the wound open and bleeding.

Participants then march in groups around the town, yelling chants to express their devotion to Husayn and the Prophet. [...]

Many children participate, and the tradition seems to be an important rite of passage for many Shia boys.

The article above fails to mention that participants also call for the death of Jews, America and Israel. In my opinion, there's a direct link between this culture of blood and death, and the hate and terrorism executed by certain Muslims around the world.

I don't think I can trust Shiite Muslims that celebrate Ashoura with defending women rights, gay rights, democracy or freedom. They'll have to stop cutting themselves like barbaric morons from the 4th century before there's a chance they'll reject intolerance, violence and hate.

For more barbaric pictures, see below (Warning: babies and children are also cut - please be aware that the images below are quite graphic).

[Calpernia]

ping

[Melas]

Think again: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~millado/flagellationfolder/flagellation2.html

[Melas]

Think again: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~millado/flagellationfolder/flagellation2.html

[Michael81Dus]

We came over it several hundreds of years ago. When will the Muslims realize that it´s not 1400 AD?? When will they finally start to introduce their very own secularization?

[kabar]

Don't some Christians practice self injury too?

At one time, yes. Flagellantism was a 13th and 14th century radical Christian movement

[Esther Ruth]

Daddy, can we go to the park instead and would you push me on the swings, please!

[kabar]

In the Western religious tradition, the desire to be beaten and whipped reflected the desire for "penance" which often involved humiliation, shame, pain, worship and submission. In monasteries and churches, bowed heads, bent knees, folded hands, covered heads and full-body prostration reflected the basic masochistic posture. The writers of the New Testament made frequent mention of flagellation and physical pain. The entire "passion play" of Christ, a narrative that has been embedded in our collective psyches for thousands of years, involves bondage, flagellation and crucifixion as part of being subjected to the will of a higher power and the subsequent resurrection to a transcendent consciousness. The Psalmists were in the practice of lashing themselves every day. It was part of the Jewish tradition, 500 years after Christ; to lash one another with scourges after they had finished their prayers and confessed their sins.

Flagellation in monasteries and convents were the order of the day. Saints such as St. William, St. Rudolph and St. Dominic would routinely order their disciples to lash them on bare backs. From flagellating themselves, priests began to flagellate their penitents as part of their penance. It came to be regarded as a necessary act of submission to God. Some holy men maintained that whipping had the power to rescue souls from hell. They believed that humiliation and physical pain provided a way in which one could become fully human.

All of the early Christian orders used flagellation as part of their spiritual discipline. St. Theresa, founder of the Carmelites, used severe flagellation as part of her daily practice. Through the birch and the scourge, she entered into states of ecstatic mysticism. The Carmelite nun, Caterina of Cardona, continuously wore iron chains which cut into her flash. She flogged herself with chains and hooks as often as possible and would sometimes flagellate herself for two or three hours at a time. It was said that through these practices, she was subject to mystical ecstasies and visions of heavenly grace. Similar stories abound among the Franciscans, the Dominicans and the Jesuits. Apparently a heavy dose of masochism was an essential part of Christian monastic life.

[CarrotAndStick]

"...1400 AD"

1400 AD would be quite modern, by Islamic standards. You certainly meant the 7th century, didn't you?

[duckbutt]

this has Satan's fingerprints all over it....

[stentorian conservative]

You know, if ya wanna cut yourself open and bleed all over the place, fine--have a ball. But to do that to a toddler?!

I am actually physically sick from seeing the pics of the kids. Barbaric. I will take "pic warnings" more seriously from now on.

[Fairview]

Your picture is insulting to cave men.

[cookcounty]

"Don't some Christians practice self injury too?"

Yes, some fringe groups, but the practice will get you kicked out of every church that I know of.

[DieHard the Hunter]

I'm with you on that.

If these filthy stinking pigs want to cut themselves up -- just fine by me, I hope it goes septic. But to do *that* to a wee innocent kid...!

It makes my blood boil. No wonder these Muslim terrorists grow up to be psychopathic killers: what kind of childhood do they get to have? A jolly childhood where Daddy cuts them up once a year to celebrate their Religion of Peace.

These mungrels make me sick.

[stm]

First off I'm not totally in love with your tone right now!

[stm]

Does self abuse count? :-)

[Sword_Svalbardt]

I have a solid method for covering themselves with their own blood.

[dljordan]

That is too funny! LOL!!!

[dljordan]

You are saying some Christian sects don't practice flagellation? They practice crucifixion in the Philippines.

[NRA2BFree]

Too bad they don't all bleed to death. LOL