Here's this years look at the Muslim ritual of Ashura. Pamela has many photos and news links from around the Muslim world.
If this isn't an unambiguous image of the fanaticism of Islam, what is?
This is what many (millions) of Muslims want to impose on Western society. This is already taking place every year in New York city.
From Atlas Shrugs:
Here's an astounding report from Atlas Shrugs on one of the more barbaric rites of Islam. I can't figure out how to include the video in Pam's report, but go to Atlas Shrugs to see it, the still picture here doesn't do is justice. This is the fanaticism we are facing in the global march of Jihad. This year there were a number of fanatics doing this in New York City. Islam is here and working to topple Western society.
FROM ATLASSHRUGS:
WaPo HEARTS BLOODY ISLAMIC RITUAL, ASHURA
Unfathomable. (WaPo video) "extraordinary ritual"
The Washington Post's account of the bloody, masochistic ritual of Ashura is jaw dropping. It calls to mind the puff piece The New York Times did on clitorectomies.
The fact that Muslims have brought this vile (blood borne disease anyone?) practice to the streets of New York is bad enough (here and here) , but the media's exaltation of such violence is twisted. They want to impose Islam on our us.
In the first in a series of "Islam's Advance", the Washington Post shows extraordinary willingness to throw themselves onto the pyre.This takes dhimmitude to a whole new level. "Islam's advance" - advance? Certainly this medieval ritual is no advance (as in modern) so the advance they are referring to is the advance of Islam on Western civilization. They seem to be welcoming our eventual surrender. These leftards are ill. Morally ill and void of reason.
BLOODY RITUAL, MODERN MEANING
Washington Post (hat tip rut)
For the first installment of Islam’s Advance, I want to take you into the heart of this ritual and explain what Ashura means today. Throughout the Shi’ite world, adherents express their mourning by beating themselves. In some regions this involves hitting one’s chest with a fist
[...]
To watch Ashura in Afghanistan is to be plunged into a world that may seem, at first, seem medieval in its intensity. It hasn’t always taken this form. There have been long periods in Afghanistan, under the Taliban and Communist regime in the 1980s, when Ashura observances were banned. Then the rituals were forced underground, and performed in windowless rooms in private homes. Over time, too, the nature of the ritual has changed, with the use of knives prevailing over swords, flails, and the traditional chest-beating.
I met two old men in Kabul, during the build-up to the ritual, who refused to watch. They believed that Ashura in recent years had become “too showy”. The knives they used in their day were longer, they said, and only sharp on one side. “The fashion is for them [the knives] to get shorter and shorter, and now they’re double edged. That means a lot more blood,” said the man, “I think people are forgetting about the purpose of Ashura.”
Their comments, I thought, were a little grouchy. After all, Ashura is a rite overwhelmingly performed by young men, often in their teens, with the older generation cast as onlookers.
But clearly something about Ashura, in its various forms over the centuries, fulfills a deep, human need. I repeatedly asked Fouad Hussein, the subject of this video, what that was - just what made him beat himself. His answer – “for love” – was baffling at first until I witnessed the ritual.
I began to see Ashura as a test of love and devotion: for the Prophet’s grandson, but also for each other and for the community. Over the course of the morning these young men, who lead remarkably complex lives – often poor, with little job security, and caught between the radical voices in the Islamic world and allure of Western consumerism they see on television or the cinema – manage to resolve their tensions in an act of catharsis.
I didn't think we'd see this till next year, but here it is.
ASHURA UPDATE: BLOOD IN THE NY STREETS
UPDATE ON MY ASHURA IN NY POST
FROM ATLASSHRUGS:
I was wrong................ there was bloodletting in the streets of New York. Over at Jihadwatch;
Ashura in Queens, New York
The New York Daily News (thanks to Ruth King) has a slide show of photos from the Ashura celebration of the al-Khoei Islamic Center in Queens, where flagellants drew blood from their backs and heads.
The News says:
"Although self-flagellation is a painful and bloody act, Shi'ites believe it to be a statement against violence." Uh huh. How long will it be before we start seeing this in New York? What will prevent it? The News also says: "The event, which takes place around the world, is painful both physically and emotionally to those who take part in it." That much is certainly true.
These folks sure are worked up. I wonder what could drive men (no women allowed) to flail themselves in the head? Could it be Islam? Earlier this week Atlas documented several thousand Muslims in New York City beating themselves on the chest while chanting. So far, no bloodletting in NY. Maybe next year.
The dhimmi reaction by the city government will only encourage a more outrageous display next year. Each demonstration pushes a little more because those in government prefer to take the easy way out and give in "just one more time".
FROM JIHADWATCH.ORG:
68 killed on Shi'ite holiday in Iraq
No, not by this
"The group's bloody aims are seen as a bid to bring the return of the 'Hidden Imam'" -- because, according to Twelver Shi'ite tradition, the Hidden Imam will only come at a time of great upheaval and bloodshed, when the Muslims are being persecuted as never before.
"Shiite holiday marred by violence in Iraq: Death toll from fighting in two mainly Shiite cities at least 68," from AP (thanks to all who sent this in):
BAGHDAD - Hundreds of thousands of frenzied Shiites beat their heads and chests in unison and whipped themselves with chains Saturday across Iraq to honor the martyrdom of one of their most revered saints. The processions were marred by violence with a deadly bombing in northern Iraq and clashes south of Baghdad.
The street battles between members of a messianic cult and Iraqi troops raged for a second day as the death toll from the fighting in two predominantly Shiite southern cities rose from 50 to at least 68.
Iraqi authorities said at least 36 people were reported killed in Basra, Iraq's second largest city, and at least 32 in Nasiriyah, including Iraqi security forces, civilians and gunmen. At least 10 people were reported slain in Nasiriyah Friday.
Video footage broadcast on Iraqi state TV showed several dead or wounded men lying on bloodstained streets in Basra, where officials said the situation was under control. An Iraqi soldier held the yellow bandanna of one man, apparently signifying that he was a member of the Soldiers of Heaven cult.
Nine blindfolded detainees sat hunched over on a curb as men held a sign behind them that said "criminal investigation department in Basra."
There were conflicting accounts about how the clashes erupted, but all signs pointed to the radical Shiite group, which last year mounted a ferocious attack after Iraqi security forces raided its stronghold near the holy city of Najaf to foil an alleged plot to slaughter pilgrims and leading clerics during Ashoura.
'Hidden Iman' [sic]
The group's bloody aims are seen as a bid to bring the return of the "Hidden Imam" -- also known as the Mahdi -- a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad who disappeared as a child in the ninth century. Shiites believe he will return one day to bring justice to Earth....
Another award winning report by Pamela. How can this be happening in America, in New York City? This is here, now, and growing every day. Islam must be stopped from encroaching on America. Watch the video, it's chilling that such things are going on here.
Atlas Shrugs, NY city Ashura
FROM ATLASSHRUGS:
So there I am, with two of my little infidels in tow, dashing across town to hit Carnegie Hall. It seems Red has to have a classical concert in the bag for a report due tomorrow. I love these mandates, the kids as an impetus for some culchuh for a change. So imagine my surprise to stumble upon a sea of black down Park Avenue against a backdrop of loud Muslim prayers blaring over loudspeakers, no less. We were running late and I didn't have a picture card in my camera but Red said, "ma, there's a Staples down the block, you've got to get this". It was surreal.
The cop tells me, Moe's grandson along with 72 other Muslims beat back an army of 70,000. Yeah 72 guys beat an army of 70,000 and they are mourning the death of Husayn (the grandson). The mock coffins represent Husayn and his followers who "were denied proper burial." When I saw them beating themselves up, I asked the cop, "is this Ashura"? He said, yeah I think that's in the pamphlet. Indeed it was. He told me there was a large number from Pakistan (but no sign of mourning for Bhutto, or any sign of her for that matter), Iran Iraq, Lebanon.
ASHURA! Regular Atlas readers are familiar with this ritual as I have covered it here and here
and here. Every year in fact. Remember Ashura?
The most disturbing image was all those black clad women (from head to toe) en masse down Park Avenue. My 13 year old said, "ma that's scary". Indeed. Mind you, it was scary, as in an altered reality.
On every corner a young girl in full dress would stop you to explain the meaning and the beauty of this festival of mourning (did I just say that) and give you Islamic propaganda. The taqiya was in full blast mode. Check out my inter-faith dialogue with an attendee in my video.
Considering the number choice for President among Muslims,
I may have hit upon something in that my video of events on Park Avenue, eh?
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