Word: karbala
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...were the Mahdi's father and grandfather. Most Shi'ites believe that the Mahdi will one day reappear as a messiah to bring justice to the world. That makes al-Askari one of Shi'ite Islam's holiest sites, exceeded in veneration only by the shrines of Najaf and Karbala. Even Samarra's Sunnis hold al-Askari in high esteem. The expression "to swear by the shrine" is routinely used by both communities. Insurgent groups that have occasionally operated out of Samarra since the fall of Saddam's regime made sure to give al-Askari a wide berth. And when...
...Sunnis, who constitute about three quarters of the world's Muslims today - and instead followed a series of 12 imams who were direct descendants of Muhammad. The schism originated as a violent power struggle, with both Ali and Hussein murdered by rivals. The latter, killed at the battle of Karbala in Iraq, came to symbolize the cult of martyrdom in the Shiite tradition, with followers still today flagellating themselves during the annual Ashura festival for their failure to rally to Hussein and prevent his death...
...passionate displays of Iraqi freedom after U.S.-led troops toppled Saddam Hussein's regime in the spring of 2003. Saddam had banned the holiday, which commemorates the battlefield death of Muhammad's grandson Hussein in A.D. 680. But tens of thousands of pilgrims suddenly appeared in the streets of Karbala after the coalition troops swept through, scourging themselves bloody in the traditional attempt to replicate the pain of Hussein's death. In 2004 and 2005, a different sort of pain was imposed, by terrorists-most probably the followers of al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia leader Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi-who launched...
...Ashura was just a fluke; there was plenty of violence elsewhere in Iraq last week. Insurgent attacks-about 70 a day-are significantly higher than they were last year. But there are curious patterns to the violence, which may have something to do with the absence of carnage in Karbala. Last summer al-Zarqawi apparently received a letter-later released by the U.S. government-from the al-Qaeda leadership ordering him to stop bombing Islamic innocents. Recently al-Zarqawi's terrorists seem to have found a new preoccupation: assassinating Sunni leaders who are planning to participate in the new Iraqi...
...palaces. But al-Jaafari knew not to make himself too comfortable. Boxes are backed up in the corner of his office, never unpacked. Framed pictures lean against the wall, unlikely to be hung. He often recalls a discussion he had as a young student in the holy city of Karbala, when he told a friend of his ambition to launch an opposition movement. The friend stopped him and warned that managing Iraq would be much harder than getting to power. "He was right about this," al-Jaafari says. A lesson the next Prime Minister should note...