Last week

Shia Muslims around the world celebrated the bloody holiday of Ashura. Ashura is one of the ways that Sunni and Shia Muslims differ – and my be the biggest reason that these two sects hate each other and are so prone to violence against each other.

Ashura marks the assassination of Hussein, the grandson of Muhammad, by the Umayyad clan. Millions of Shia Muslims all over the world took part in remembering Hussein’s death by gathering together at their local mosques and in festivals, and beating their heads and chests with chains, knives and swords to show their sadness and share in the pain of Hussein.
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Shia Islam is the minority sect, but is the dominant form of Islam in Iran, Azerbaijan, southeastern Iraq, and a few other pockets of the Middle East. However, Ashura is also celebrated in small pockets and enclaves of Shia Islam all over the world.

In fact, Ashura is now also “celebrated” in Europe and the United States of America. Here’s some proof.

This video was shot on Monday November 3rd in the city of Atlanta, Georgia.





If you caught the young boys and teenagers running around without their shirts, some with the knives and chain flails, there is a reason for it. To make matters worse, this is a Department of Justice and American Civil Liberties Union sanctioned mosque.

The Imam encouraged them to bring the whole family. The children were encouraged to participate and even handed the standard flail.

Shiite Muslims commemorate his death through self-mutilation with knives, chains and flails. The adults and children here are using a Zanjeer which consists of five knives attached by a chain to a stick. The knives are usually sharpened on both sides. (Front Page Magazine)

Here’s another video from the same event.





This is from a similar Ashura event in Greece.





If this were happening as a random act in the streets of Atlanta – the police would immediately step in and arrest those involved. However, because the practice is considered a religious ritual, these Muslims participants are allowed to beat themselves bloody out in the open… on our streets. Even worse, the ritualized event applies peer pressure to those who may not wish to be involved but feel a duty to do so because of the very public event. How could they not participate and still seem to be faithful?

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What about the children who are forced to view and encouraged to participate in this violence? If this were happening in the home of an Atlanta resident, the department of child services would take the child from that home as quick as they could. If a family in Atlanta were encouraging their child to beat themselves or cut themselves… the state would not allow it!
Yet, because Islam has strangely become some kind of protected cult in our society – we allow these children to be abused right in front of us. In view of the public and even our legal authorities. It’s abhorrent.