‘Get rid of double standards’
On the tenth of Muharram every Hijri year, the Shiites around the world commemorate the death of Imam Hussein at the hands of Yazid’s army, who installed himself as a caliph in the Levant.
With time, the occasion has turned into a sad memory that witnesses all expressions of self-torture, bloodshed, disruption of interests, school closures and contributes to the rise in backwardness of societies and states in every field.
It is unfortunate to note that a majority of those who take part in such rituals exaggerate and inflict injuries on themselves, by slapping their chests and some extreme tortures which causes bleeding. Most of these people are from the ‘simple’ class and a majority of them don’t even known truth about Hussein and why he was killed.
What are the circumstances of his death? They don’t even know how old he was when he was killed or why he left the city with his family, including a baby and headed for Iraq? And how many days he lived in Iraq before he was killed? Or why did Yazid seek to get rid of him?
Almost nobody knows when and where the remembrance of Ashoura began, the bloodshed of those who mourn and lament and hit themselves on their backs with chains and indulge in torture and humiliate the soul.
Such exaggerated rituals have increased year after year. Despite the increasing number of religious men protesting against this, none of the followers of the pulpit of Al-Hussein especially those who benefit from this annual demonstration is ready to stop it.
Therefore the problem is not the insistence of the simple people and the mobs in their approach but it is the problem of who directs them and incites them year after year. Some people ask that if we assume that the date of holding these ceremonies dates back to five hundred years ago, more or less, what social, moral or religious progress have been achieved by exercising them let alone industrial or humanitarian and progress in the countries that strive to revive this occasion in this sad manner?
Of course there is no objection to the love or sanctification of religious symbols as this is a human right that is only objected to by an ignorant person, and it is necessary as some see to learn lessons from the stories of martyrdom and making these incidents a guiding light.
In the meantime, we wonder about tens or hundreds or thousands of people suffering from various diseases, who die every year due to a lack of blood, unavailability of doctors or hospitals, the deterioration of buildings, the destruction of equipment, water pollution and malnutrition?
What about dilapidated roads and sewage flow in every street and area? What about the lack of schools, the overcrowding in existing schools, the poor curricula, the scarcity of books, and the absence of a teacher? What about the inability of governments to provide dignity to their people, and at the same time their willingness to spend with unparalleled generosity in holding and protecting religious ceremonies?
Why we mourn and lament Al-Hussein for ten days each year but we do not seek for revenge for one day from those who have destroyed the homelands and undermined the dignities and insulted mothers and sisters, and failed to establish a semi-respectable state, and at the same time filled the prisons with innocent people?
Why such matters do not become top priorities for these nations and peoples? Why we accept this level of living and not revolt for our dignity? Everyone has the right to care about his hereafter, but what about this world? Should we not pay even a little attention?
Any group or sect has the right for intolerance towards its doctrine, but not at the expense of its homelands. If the homeland is lost, and our homeland was lost for seven frightening months, fanaticism will not help its return without serious worldly work and upholding the word of truth.
Almost all Shi’ite societies are in tatters. Only the Kuwaiti Shiites have survived. If they want the situation to remain as it is and strive to develop it for the better they only have to think deep about what happened to the rest of the societies that drifted in the direction of religious conflict.
They also have to adhere to the nation’s constitution and leadership and not be dragged by fatwas and counter-fatwas issued by this and that party. Be Shiites, but be Shiites of the homeland as you are used to be. There is nothing more precious than the country.
e-mail: habibi.enta1@gmail.com