TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Tens of millions of Shiite Muslims in Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and all over the world on Friday commemorated Ashoura, a remembrance of the Seventh-century martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Hussein, that gave start to their religion.In Afghanistan, the Taliban lower cell phone providers in key cities holding commemorations for worry …
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Tens of millions of Shiite Muslims in Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and all over the world on Friday commemorated Ashoura, a remembrance of the Seventh-century martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Hussein, that gave start to their religion.
In Afghanistan, the Taliban lower cell phone providers in key cities holding commemorations for worry of militants focusing on Shiites, whom Sunni extremists think about heretics. Safety forces in neighboring Pakistan as nicely stood on excessive alert because the commemorations there have seen assaults up to now.
Not all Shiites, nevertheless, had been to mark the day Friday. Each Iraq and Lebanon deliberate their remembrances for Saturday, which is able to see a serious suburb of Beirut shut down and the trustworthy descend on the Iraqi metropolis of Karbala, the place Hussein is entombed in a gold-domed shrine.
Shiites characterize over 10% of the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims and think about Hussein because the rightful successor to the Prophet Muhammad. Hussein’s dying in battle by the hands of Sunnis at Karbala, south of Baghdad, ingrained a deep rift in Islam and continues to this present day to play a key function in shaping Shiite id.
Over 1,340 years after Hussein’s martyrdom, Baghdad, Tehran, Islamabad and different main capitals within the Center East had been adorned with symbols of Shiite piety and repentance: pink flags for Hussein’s blood, symbolic black funeral tents and black costume for mourning, processions of males and boys expressing fervor within the ritual of chest-beating and self-flagellation with chains.
In Iran, the place its theocratic authorities views itself because the protector of Shiites worldwide, the story of Hussein’s martyrdom takes on political connotations amid its tensions with the West over its advancing nuclear program.
Iranian state tv aired photos of commemorations throughout the Islamic Republic, tying the occasion to criticizing the West, Israel and the U.S. drone strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in 2020. Anchor Wesam Bahrani on Iran’s state-run English-language broadcaster Press TV referred to America because the “largest opponent of Islam” and criticized Muslim nations allied with the U.S.
Males wore black, rhythmically beating their chests in mourning or utilizing flails to strike their backs. Some wore pink headbands, as black and pink banners bore Hussein’s identify. Some sprayed water over the mourners within the intense warmth.
The commemoration in Iran additionally comes as Tehran prepares for the one-year anniversary of the dying of Mahsa Amini. Her dying launched protests nationwide in Iran that reportedly noticed greater than 500 protesters killed and a few 20,000 others detained. Authorities have begun stepping up their enforcement of obligatory hijab, or scarf, legal guidelines for ladies in latest weeks.
In Pakistan, authorities stepped up safety as an Inside Ministry alert warned “terrorists” may goal Ashoura processions in main cities. The primary Ashoura processions can be held within the jap metropolis of Lahore within the Punjab province, the place 1000’s of law enforcement officials have been deployed. Processions additionally can be held in Karachi and elsewhere.
___
Related Press writers Munir Ahmed in Islamabad and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.
Keep in touch with our news & offers
