What Ashura Should Mean
Today is Youm-e-Ashur, the tenth day of the lunar month of Muharram, the first month of the Hijri or Islamic calendar. In the photo right, Shi'ite women take part in a re-enactment of the battle of Kerbala during an Ashura procession in Istanbul. Shi'ite communities throughout world gather to commemorate the Ashura religious festival, a day of sorrow on which Imam Hussein, one of Prophet Mohammad's grandsons, was killed in 680 A.D.
Sadly, it is all just ritual without meaning, for the lesson of Hazrat Imam Hussein - that oppression, tyranny, and falsehood must be resisted - has been lost on modern day Shiites. As long as Shia Muslims read the Qur'an and follow its teachings, they are doomed to practice oppression, tyranny, and falsehood against their fellow man.
Is there a country to rival Iran (93.4% Shia) in barbarity and brutality? In its oppression of women and gays? Can one find men who are more tyrannical than her mullahs? Can one find the leader of a country who spreads more falsehoods about the Jews than her President?
While Shia Muslims consider Ashura to be a sad occasion, Sunni Muslims observe it as a happy festival. Many pious Sunnis fast on this day based on the words and deeds (Hadith) of the prophet Muhammad. According to the "Hadith", the Prophet saw the Jews fasting on the 10th of Muharram in commemoration of their escape from slavery and the extermination of Pharoah's army in the Red Sea. Mohammed liked the custom for he believed that it was Allah who saved the Israelites from the Egyptian enemy.
Looking at history, at the modern world, and what they have done, both Shias and Sunnis should be ashamed.
