Children's foreheads slashed in Muslim saint's name

CNN ^ | January 31. 2007

[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.

[Earthdweller]

You are full of it.

[stormer]

I'm not familiar with the passage (I don't happen to be Christian), but I would be interested in learning where it could be found. There are, I believe, a number of directives in the Bible that are no longer adhered to, are there not? Killing children for being disobedient, that sort of thing. Certainly glad that one's not taken literally.

[stormer]

LOL. Now that's a cogent argument!

[twonie]

See Post #61.

[NordP]

Yep, in the U.S. we love our children so much we feel guilty about subjecting them to their illness-preventing vacinations!

I'm hoping that by hearing this, many of those in this Country will begin to get a clue...

Thank God President Bush is our Commander in Chief in the WOT.

[stormer]

LOL, a twofer. Seriously, where in the Good Book does god direct his followers to lop off body parts?

[firewalk]

.

[tioga]

Just plain wrong. How can the liberals imply this is the road to "sainthood"? By all the evidence I have seen this is the work of the devil, not God.

[dfwgator]

"Head Off! Apply Directly To the Forehead!"

[kildak]

Genesis 17:12; the act signifies Israel's covenant with God.

[stormer]

Thank you. So both Judaism and Islam require that the pact between Abraham and god is kept. Am I correct in understanding that there is no such religious requirement in Christianity?

[kildak]

The Protestant doctrine of Christianity is the sufficiency of the work done by Jesus Christ is all that is required for salvation. No other requirements are necessary as the death of Christ on the cross reconciled us to God and paid our sin-debt in full.

[stormer]

Again, thank you.

[ichabod1]

Where does it say to kill children for being disobedient? I think you're trolling. Knock it off.

[stormer]

Well, we could start with Deuteronomy 21:18-21

"If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not harken unto them: Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place; And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, and will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. And the men of the city shall stone him with stones, that he die…."

[Alter Kaker]

Look at those savage Muslims! Look at their disrespect for the human body! Those animals!

A Fillippino Catholic man crucifies himself during Lenten celebrations as a testament of faith.