Atlas Shrugs

An Independence Open Thread

What better to close the week and kick off my favorite annual holiday then with a little patriotic Louis Armstrong? It's his birthday tomorrow, so look for lots of wonderful Armstrong this holiday weekend.

Happy Fourth!

Self Flogging: RoP Teach Your Children Well

What is it about Europe that the Democrats are so desperate to emulate? This is the UK. What has Europe accomplished that Barack Obama wants so desperately to copy?

Man goes on trial accused of encouraging two boys to flog themselves during Muslim ceremony in Britain

A court heard how a man whipped himself until he bled during a Muslim religious ceremony before allegedly forcing two boys to do the same.

Syed Mustafa Zaidi, 44, is accused of encouraging the boys, aged 15 and 13, who cannot be named for legal reasons, to beat themselves at a community centre in Levenshulme, Manchester, on January 19.

A 20-minute film of the event, entitled 10th Muharram Jaloos Longsight, was played to the jury of five men and seven women at Manchester Crown Court.

Zaidi flogs himself with a zanjeer zani, an implement which has a wooden handle with chains and blades attached, until his back becomes bloody from the cuts.

Participants at the men-only event take it in turns, in small groups, to flog themselves, while the crowd around them chant the name of Husayn, a central figure in the Shia faith whose death they are commemorating.

Some men are openly crying during the chanting. One man with a bloodied back kneels against a wall and sobs, another has plasters on his back. Another man has his back squirted with antiseptic spray.

The film also shows the 13-year-old boy flogging himself with the zanjeer zani.

Andrew Nuttall, prosecutor, said the 15-year-old boy, who is not seen in the film but was allegedly forced to take part in the ceremony, suffered multiple lacerations to his back and shoulders, including a wound measuring up to 1cm.

Mr Nuttall said Zaidi then went on to encourage the 15-year-old boy to flog himself and gave him 'no choice' about participating in the ceremony.

He said Zaidi took the arm of the 13-year-old boy, took off his T-shirt so he was bare chested and put the zanjeer zani in his hand and told him to flog himself.

WaPo HEARTS BLOODY ISLAMIC RITUAL, ASHURA

Unfathomable. (WaPo video) "extraordinary ritual"

The Washington Post's account of the bloody, masochistic ritual of Ashura is jaw dropping. It calls to mind the puff piece The New York Times did on clitorectomies. The fact that Muslims have brought this vile (blood borne disease anyone?) practice to the streets of New York is bad enough (here and here), but the media's exaltation of such violence is twisted. They want to impose Islam on our us.

In the first in a series of "Islam's Advance", the Washington Post shows extraordinary willingness to throw themselves onto the pyre.This takes dhimmitude to a whole new level. "Islam's advance" - advance? Certainly this medieval ritual is no advance (as in modern) so the advance they are referring to is the advance of Islam on Western civilization. They  seem to be welcoming our eventual surrender. These leftards are ill. Morally ill and void of reason.

BLOODY RITUAL, MODERN MEANING Washington Post (hat tip rut)

For the first installment of Islam’s Advance, I want to take you into the heart of this ritual and explain what Ashura means today. Throughout the Shi’ite world, adherents express their mourning by beating themselves. In some regions this involves hitting one’s chest with a fist

[...]

To watch Ashura in Afghanistan is to be plunged into a world that may seem, at first, seem medieval in its intensity. It hasn’t always taken this form. There have been long periods in Afghanistan, under the Taliban and Communist regime in the 1980s, when Ashura observances were banned. Then the rituals were forced underground, and performed in windowless rooms in private homes. Over time, too, the nature of the ritual has changed, with the use of knives prevailing over swords, flails, and the traditional chest-beating.

I met two old men in Kabul, during the build-up to the ritual, who refused to watch. They believed that Ashura in recent years had become “too showy”. The knives they used in their day were longer, they said, and only sharp on one side. “The fashion is for them [the knives] to get shorter and shorter, and now they’re double edged. That means a lot more blood,” said the man, “I think people are forgetting about the purpose of Ashura.”

Their comments, I thought, were a little grouchy. After all, Ashura is a rite overwhelmingly performed by young men, often in their teens, with the older generation cast as onlookers.

But clearly something about Ashura, in its various forms over the centuries, fulfills a deep, human need. I repeatedly asked Fouad Hussein, the subject of this video, what that was - just what made him beat himself. His answer – “for love” – was baffling at first until I witnessed the ritual.

I began to see Ashura as a test of love and devotion: for the Prophet’s grandson, but also for each other and for the community. Over the course of the morning these young men, who lead remarkably complex lives – often poor, with little job security, and caught between the radical voices in the Islamic world and allure of Western consumerism they see on television or the cinema – manage to resolve their tensions in an act of catharsis.

ASHURA UPDATE: BLOOD IN THE NY STREETS

UPDATE ON my post: ASHURA IN NY
I was wrong................ there was bloodletting in the streets of New York. Over at Jihadwatch;

Ashura in Queens, New York

Ain't multiculturalism grand?

The New York Daily News (thanks to Ruth King) has a slide show of photos from the Ashura celebration of the al-Khoei Islamic Center in Queens, where flagellants drew blood from their backs and heads.

The News says: "Although self-flagellation is a painful and bloody act, Shi'ites believe it to be a statement against violence." Uh huh. How long will it be before we start seeing this in New York? What will prevent it? The News also says: "The event, which takes place around the world, is painful both physically and emotionally to those who take part in it." That much is certainly true.

Queens NY

ASHURA CHILD ABUSE

Remember my surprise stumbling upon an Ashura festival on Park Avenue, NY this past weekend? Brian an Snapped Shots has pics of the festivities in other parts of the world here,

To those of you who think there's no savagery in the 21st century:

A Kashmiri Shia Muslim boy beats himself with chains during a Moharram procession in Srinagar January 17, 2008. Muslims all over the world mourn the slaying of Imam Hussein, grandson of Prophet Mohammed, during the first ten days of the Islamic month of Moharram. Imam Hussein was killed by his political rivals along with 72 companions in Iraq some 1,300 years ago. REUTERS/Fayaz Kabli (INDIAN-ADMINISTERED KASHMIR)

 

Yeah, keep telling us that it's the West that's barbaric, and that Islam means "peace." I'll be rounding up all of the classiness beyond the fold.

There's mre. go.

 

Ashura on Park Avenue, NY

So there I am, with two of my little infidels in tow, dashing across town to hit Carnegie Hall. It seems Red has to have a classical concert in the bag for a report due tomorrow. I love these mandates, the kids as an impetus for some culchuh for a change. So imagine my surprise to stumble upon a sea of black down Park Avenue against a backdrop of loud Muslim prayers blaring over loudspeakers, no less. We were running late and I didn't have a picture card in my camera but Red said, "ma, there's a Staples down the block, you've got to get this". It was surreal.

The cop tells me, Moe's grandson along with 72 other Muslims beat back an army of 70,000. Yeah 72 guys beat an army of 70,000 and they are mourning the death of Husayn (the grandson). The mock coffins represent Husayn and his followers who "were denied proper burial." When I saw them beating themselves up, I asked the cop, "is this Ashura"? He said, yeah I think that's in the pamphlet. Indeed it was. He told me there was a large number from Pakistan (but no sign of mourning for Bhutto, or any sign of her for that matter), Iran Iraq, Lebanon.

ASHURA! Regular Atlas readers are familiar with this ritual as I have covered it here and here and here. Every year in fact. Remember Ashura?

Ashura in NY. Ironic how it plays out in front of the mixed LOVE artwork on Park and 57th. Mixed up indeed

What flag is that? Anybody know?

The women brought up the rear (but of course)

The flag of Husayn (Hussein) carried into battle. TMI? Too bad.

Crowds surround the men fiercely beating their chests

The most disturbing image was all those black clad women (from head to toe) en masse down Park Avenue. My 13 year old said, "ma that's scary". Indeed. Mind you, it was scary, as in an altered reality.

On every corner a young girl in full dress would stop you to explain the meaning and the beauty of this festival of mourning (did I just say that) and give you Islamic propaganda.  The taqiya was in full blast mode. Check out my inter-faith dialogue with an attendee in my video.

Considering the number choice for President among Muslims, I may have hit upon something in that my video of events on Park Avenue, eh?

Religion of Peace thru Barbarism

It's that time again. Ashoura "Festival." Remember last year, click here? I expect this to be all the rage in Hollywood shortly, cutting in a big way - Insane Fonda,  Penn, Sarandon - this is one rally they ought to be leading.

The blood stains are seen on the back of an Afghan Shiite Muslim flagellating himself with knives during the Muharram procession in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Pakistani Shiite Muslim beats himself with chains to mourn the death of his spiritual leader Imam Hussein, grandson of Prophet Mohammad in Lahore.

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Afghan Shiite Muslim flagellate themselves with knives during the muharram procession in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Muslims Across Islamic World Take Part in Ashoura Festival FOX New 

Muslims across the Islamic world took part Monday in the religious festival of Ashoura, marked by fasting and bloody mourning rituals for the death of Prophet Mohammad's grandson Imam Hussein.

Speaking at a mosque in the capital, Afghan President Hamid Karzai spoke of the significance of Ashoura: "This day teaches us about resistance and to fight for our rights, even if we are weak and not armed with weapons."

Ashoura, or 10th day of the lunar month of Muharram, is marked by Muslims as a whole with a day of fasting that commemorates the day Noah left the Ark, and the day that Moses was saved from the Egyptians by God.

UPDATE: Maternity wards or bomb factorys? Don't forget the babies, click here, don't ever forget the child abuse

Eurabia!

Video of Ashoura festival, click to play. You have to see it to believe it. I posted on the festival here a few weeks back.

 

More child abuse here

AVI DAVIS: AWAITING THE FALL OF ROME