Friday February 18, 2005

I've Been Thinking:

Four bombs went off in Iraq today including 2 in mosques and 1 on a religious procession, in total, killing close to 50 people.

Last year on this day exactly massive bombings in Iraq murdered over 181 Shiites. Why?

Ashura. Because of the holiday of Ashura.
Surprised?
No one knows about Ashura. And that is part of the problem.

Ashur means fast.
Ashura takes place on the 10th day of the Muslim month of Muharram.
Ashura commemorates the killing of Muhamed's grandson, Hussein, in 680 when he attempted to take over the caliph.

Holiday traditions include fasting and marching while self flagellating, that's right, whipping oneself. Believers also slit their foreheads and splash blood.

Not surprisingly the Sunnis also celebrate Ashura but from a very different angle. Sunnis celebrate the day Noah left the ark. For them it is the day of atonement (Yom Kippur) on which ancient Arabs fasted, long before the creation of the month long fast of Ramadan.

Without going out on a proverbial limb --- Next year, regardless of what happens between now and then there will be another set of explosions on Ashura.

It's all about the context of the conflict.
And that is that part that our leaders and their advisers just do not get.