KARBALA, Iraq — Hundreds of thousands of
Shiite Muslims on Tuesday marked the festival of Ashura in Iraq’s holy city of
Karbala, the burial place of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammed.
اضافة اعلان
The emotional event commemorates the seventh century
battlefield martyrdom of Hussein, whom Shiites view as the rightful successor
to the Prophet Mohammed, the issue at the heart of a schism with Sunni Islam.
To mourn his death in the year 680, Shiite
worshippers wearing black cry and beat their chests in unison and some
flagellate themselves with swords and knife-edged chains.
Shiites represent more than 10 percent of the
world’s 1.8 billion Muslims, and Ashura is marked by millions of people from
Afghanistan and Pakistan to Iran and Lebanon.
Hussein lies entombed in a golden-domed mausoleum in
Karbala, where he was killed by the Sunni troops. His mausoleum is linked to
that of his brother Abbas, who also died in the battle.
This year’s festivities, which began on Monday
evening, come as Iraq’s majority Shiite population is split between rival
political camps.
Backers of the influential cleric Moqtada Sadr were
continuing a sit-in outside parliament in Baghdad for a 10th day on Tuesday.
They oppose the Coordination Framework, an alliance
of pro-Iran Shiite factions that has tried to appoint a prime minister against
Sadr’s wishes.
“The Shiite house is divided,” said Yussef
Al-Ardawi, 50, an employee of the Abbas Mausoleum. “We didn’t expect this from
Shiite politicians.”
Another worshipper, 24-year-old medical laboratory
worker Hussein from Nasiriyah in the south, said the tensions come as Iraqis
face a litany of problems.
“We are in 2022 and we don’t even have electricity,”
he said about the oil-rich but corruption-plagued country now enduring blistering
summer heat.
“Imam Hussein rose up against injustice, against
oppressive power,” he said. “All the people should rise up.”
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