Word: ritualizes
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...observed the hundreds of thousands of Shiites performing a religious ritual in Iraq this week, you might question Wolfowitz's assumptions. In fact, Iraq's 15 million Shiites, around 65 percent of the population, are not by and large secular. They are, indeed, extremely sensitive about having holy cities of Islam on their territory. Yes, Mecca and Medina are in Saudi Arabia, but this week's ritual was performed in Kerbala, which along with Najaf are Iraqi cities which have been venerated for 14 centuries by Shiites as the resting places of their two most revered imams, Ali and Hussein...
...Imam Hussein, has been far more than a religious event. Around one million Iraqi Shiites crammed into the southern holy city in an emotional outpouring not only of spiritual fervor, but also communal pride and identity. Comprising 60 percent of Iraqis, they had long been banned from performing the ritual, and their celebration at Kerbala marked a conscious effort - encouraged by their clergy - to assert their determination to claim for the first time a say in Iraq's future commensurate with their number. It was an impressive end to two weeks of organizing in which local imams around the country...
...over the room. Three hundred people sit motionless, eyes down, concentrating on the cards in front of them. Their felt-tipped pens hover over the numbers, ink cobras ready to strike. The air is thick with anticipation, or at least cigarette smoke. Then the man up onstage begins his ritual call: "One and two, 12. All the sixes, 66 ?" Suddenly, the place is alive with movement - hands zipping back and forth, dabbing at the cards with sniper-like precision. Everyone racing to be the first to fill a row, two rows or a full house. Racing to win. Okay...
...order to fully enter into Harvard mainstream a capella, the group had to go through an arduous ritual. First, the Lowkeys had to become an officially recognized student group. With Harvard’s official seal of approval in Fall 2000 the group could then operate a website on Harvard’s network, get a student mailbox, be listed among other official student groups, poster on campus, and most importantly, use Harvard space for rehearsal and performance...
With each of Schutt’s windups, an array of a dozen or so scouts wound up as well. Guns up, click, back down. Windup, aim, click, down. Their ritual followed the almost tidal flow of Schutt’s delivery, mechanical but calm, as the men with briefcases with stickers bearing Twins and White Sox and Dodgers logos concentrated coolly and fiercely on their scientific exercise...