Posted on 01/31/2007 6:13:31 AM PST by NYer
NABATIYEH, Lebanon (AP) -- The 6-year-old boy screamed and shook his head to avoid the razor blade. But his father held him firmly as Hajj Khodor parted the boy's black hair and sliced his forehead three times with the blade.
Ali Madani's cries became more violent as blood gushed from the wound, covering his small, terrified face.
His father and a few other men, waving daggers, broke into a religious chant, recalling how the 7th-century Shiite Muslim saint, Imam Hussein, was decapitated, his head placed on a lance. ()
In marking the holiest day of Ashura, some Shiites believe children should learn at an early age about Hussein's suffering, which is at the heart of their faith.
Lebanon's top Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, has banned bloodletting during Ashura, even for adults.
Clerics in mainly Shiite Iran forbid it as well, saying the practice is un-Islamic because it harms the body.
But traditions die hard, especially in a rite as fervent and emotional as Ashura, marked Tuesday by Shiites across the Islamic world.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Get used to having that stupid look on your face kid.
Feh! "Religion of peace" my wide Aunt Fanny!
And how do you know this?
Saint or no saint, if these shiite-head "parents" are serious, it should be imperative that they follow 'Imam' Hussein's example -- exactly...
Any volunteers willing to offer assistance...?
You forgot your /sarc tag.
Awesome!
Well said.
Sick is excusable.
Evil isn't.
These things are not even human.
Islamozoids?
Better not hear anyone defend circumcision.
It's too bad there are people in this country who want to take that thanksgiving away from you,your family and all American children.
Slicing a kids head without anesthesia is sick and inexcusable. There is no comparison.
Yeah, it's pathetic. You know what's even scarier.... I'm going back to college (career change time!) and I'm just disgusted at some of the garbage these professors/instructors spew. My speech guy will be talking about something and then throw in a little dig at Bush or the Republicans or anything conservative or anything that has a Christian basis to it (all Christian faiths are under fire with him) and he'll stop and say, "but I digress" and then go back into the educational part. It's really starting to tick me off. Why doesn't he just keep his opinions to himself since there's no relevance or anything to what he's discussing. Arrrrghh.
Tell him that you really wish that he would learn to focus on the subject you're paying him to teach. His private opinions on politics and religion are wasting your time and money.
I went back to college for some refresher classes when I retired from the Army in '88. Luckily it was in central Texas and the teachers seemed to be only interested in instructing the syllabus, of course that was 19 years ago. Good luck, don't let 'em get you down. :o)
You know I've thought about that but as I'm learning in one of my other classes.....the teacher has the power over me to give me a bad grade and how would I prove otherwise, especially in such a subjective class as speech? Rock the boat and you might rock your grade down a notch. Nope, I may say something to him when everything is over and done with and complain to the dean but that's about all I can do as far as I see it, pragmatically speaking, that is.
THANKS! You know what else has changed? I went to college for the first time after I had worked several years so that was in the early 80's. They were professional then. I have "professors" now that are my son's age and they come in to teach with wrinkled shirts hanging out of their jeans. How do you respect that? Unreal.
I have a sister-in-law and a daughter-in-law who are both professors here in Texas. One teaches "urban studies" and the other business courses. You can pretty much guess how each one dresses.
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