Word: islamics
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...chanting grows more frenzied, and as the seated men raise their voices to join in with shouts of "Ya Hussein!" (Oh Hussein!) and "Islam Zindabad!" (Long Live Islam!), a few move to the middle of the circles, chain flails gripped in both hands. The chest pounding grows stronger, quicker and louder. Following the rhythm, the men in the middle crouch down, spring from the ground and use the full force of acceleration to slam the flails down on their exposed backs. Bruises bloom, dark and malevolent, but their faces register no pain, only grief, or an almost otherworldly conviction...
...couple of other Shi'a friends forwarded me texts of sermons from Sunni mosques, which indeed were hair-raising. The Sunni prayer leaders call the Shi'a apostates, a Jewish conspiracy inside Islam, one that must be rooted out - by blood...
...Hizballah's leaders have long spoken out against a schism between Shi'ites and Sunnis, arguing that it only benefits Israel and the enemies of Islam. And one reason it called off its general strike earlier this week was that Hizballah has probably concluded that the government, buoyed by roughly equal support to that of the opposition and backed by the weight of the international community, will not buckle regardless of any new measures undertaken by the opposition. That was implicitly acknowledged to TIME by Qassem Hashem, an opposition parliamentarian and member of the Lebanese branch...
...parties go much deeper than the personal feuds of their leaders. The Awami League came of age during the liberation struggle in the early 1970s when Bangladesh broke away from Pakistan. The party paints itself as the protector of those early secular, nationalist ideals, and a bulwark against radical Islam. The BNP, which is closer to Pakistan and embraces political Islam, argues that it is more religious and tougher on crime. During its recent stint in power the BNP counted on the support of fundamentalist Islamic parties such as Jamaat-e-Islami, sparking Western concerns that the government may have...
...study abroad, says he has lost all faith in Bangladesh's leaders-in "the way they talk, the way they express themselves, the way they act like kids, the way they don't compromise." Nearby, beneath election posters strung across a street and fluttering in a gentle breeze, Nazrul Islam, a father of three, agrees. Nazrul sells flags for a living. The past few months have been tough going-the unrest has halved his earnings to about $4 a day as fewer people have dared to venture outside. "The future," he laments "doesn't look too positive...