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Thursday, February 1st, 2007
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Children's foreheads slashed in Muslim saint's name
Children's forheads slashed in muslim saint's name
NABATIYEH, Lebanon (AP) -- The 6-year-old boy screamed and shook his head to avoid the razor blade. But his father held him firmly as Hajj Khodor parted the boy's black hair and sliced his forehead three times with the blade. Ali Madani's cries became more violent as blood gushed from the wound, covering his small, terrified face. His father and a few other men, waving daggers, broke into a religious chant, recalling how the 7th-century Shiite Muslim saint, Imam Hussein, was decapitated, his head placed on a lance. (Watch Shiites flagellate themselves as part of an Ashura ritual Video) In marking the holiest day of Ashura, some Shiites believe children should learn at an early age about Hussein's suffering, which is at the heart of their faith. Lebanon's top Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, has banned bloodletting during Ashura, even for adults. Clerics in mainly Shiite Iran forbid it as well, saying the practice is un-Islamic because it harms the body. But traditions die hard, especially in a rite as fervent and emotional as Ashura, marked Tuesday by Shiites across the Islamic world. (Attacks on Shiite pilgrims kill 38 in Iraq) Toddlers and babies cut In the southern Lebanese town of Nabatiyeh, hundreds of nervous young boys -- ranging from early teens to toddlers -- were ushered by their fathers into a hall hung with black banners and paintings of Hussein's last moments. Hajj Khodor, a businessman and organizer of the Ashura ceremonies, and several other men wiped blades with alcohol before swiping each boy three or four times on the forehead. Some boys cried and resisted, but the cutting proceeded. "We're used to it," said Mahmoud Jaber, 43, who brought his five boys and two girls for the ritual. "We've been doing this since we were kids. I started when I was 3. It doesn't hurt because the cry of pain goes away with the faith." Hussein Shihab, 13, wrapped in a white sheet symbolizing Hussein's burial shroud, said he felt a burning sting -- "from the alcohol" -- as the blade hit. His father, Jaber Shihab, told Hussein not to be "a wimp," and to "be brave" as a reporter photographed him after the cut. It was "for the sake of Hussein" that he had his head cut, the boy said. "Because blood came from Hussein's head. They cut his head off and blood flowed." For their blood, cookies and juice In the Ashura rites, Shiites march in huge processions, beating their chests in mourning for Hussein's martyrdom at Karbala -- a city in present-day Iraq -- in A.D. 680. The most fervent cut themselves with swords or razors or lash themselves with razor-lined chains to draw blood. The bloodletting is a reminder of Hussein's suffering, as well as punishment for the failure of Muslims to help Hussein in his battle against Islamic ruler Yazid, leader of what became the majority Sunni branch of Islam. Hussein was the son of Ali, the Prophet Muhammad's cousin, who Shiites believe should have been his rightful successor. The loss at Karbala effectively consigned Shiites to minority status in the Islamic world -- and it became a symbol of the sense of oppression that runs through the sect's beliefs. Women in Ashura processions usually confine themselves to striking their chests with their fists, without drawing blood. But in Shiite areas of Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, India and elsewhere, processions of men marched drenched in blood -- along with boys. In the Nabatiyeh hall, splashes of bright red blood covered the floor from the cutting. Some of the children held back tears and tried to put on a brave face as Hajj Khodor sliced the skin of their foreheads. Their reward was fruit juice and cookies. A father shoved a pacifier into his toddler's screaming mouth, the boy's forehead stained with blood. Ali Madani's screams did not save the 6-year-old from the razor blade. His father, Bilal Madani, said his son was crying because the smell of blood scared him. Afterward, Ali said he was happy he had gone through with it -- "for Hussein's sake." What did he expect in return? "God will make me do well in school," he said, sipping juice from a straw. Hajj Khodor, wrapped in white and wearing a white turban, said he has done cuttings on boys as young as 1-month-old and men as old as 100. Asked if it was difficult for him to hurt the children, he said: "The child doesn't understand what's going on. The parents are faithful and believe by doing this, their children will be protected and will enjoy a long life." Hind Abinabi, a 52-year-old Shiite woman and mother of four, said to maim children was not only cruel, but also against the religion. "When the rest of the world is going to the moon, look where these people are -- still drawing blood from their heads," she said. One boy's screams and resistance Tuesday did pay off. "No, no, I don't want it," the terrified boy kept yelling at the top of his voice. After a few failed attempts, his mother quietly walked him down the stairs and out of the hall. source: Children\'s foreheads slashed in Muslim saint\'s name - CNN.com
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"I failed my metaphysics exam when my teacher caught me looking into the soul of the boy next to me" Some find it in a flag, some in the beat of a drum Some with a book, and some with a gun Some in a kiss, and some on the march But if you're looking for Europe, best look in your heart -Sol Invictus
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Friday, February 2nd, 2007
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Re: Children's foreheads slashed in Muslim saint's name
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Materialism has produced far more insane horrors.
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The traditions of the Irish people are the oldest of any race in Europe north and west of the Alps, and they themselves are the longest settled on their own soil - Edmund Curtis (A History of Ireland: From Earliest Times to 1922) The Irish are one of the most ancient nations that I know of at this end of the world, and are from as mighty a race as the world ever brought forth. For it is certain that Ireland hath had the use of letters very anciently and long before England; that they had letters anciently is nothing doubtful, for the Saxons of England are said to have their letters and learning, and learned men, from the Irish. - Edmund Spenser (writer, and British Government Official in Ireland, AD 1596). The renaissance began in Ireland seven hundred years before it was known in Italy. And Armagh, the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland, was at one time the metropolis of civilisation. - Arsene Darmesteter, Professor of Old French and Literature Ireland can indeed lay claim to a great past; she can not only boast of having been the birthplace and abode of high culture in the fifth and sixth centuries . . . but also of having made strenous efforts in the seventh and up to the tenth century to spread her learning among the German and Romance peoples, thus forming the actual fountain of our present continental civilisation. - Heinrich Zimmer, Professor of Celtic and Sanskrit, Member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences
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Friday, February 2nd, 2007
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Re: Children's foreheads slashed in Muslim saint's name
Atheism and materialism produce far bigger horrors than any religion. People who view man as a mere animal have no restraints...
Horror of abortion and the American half-genocidal wars (Vietnam, Iraq, etc.) are abundant proof to it. Nothing to say about Gulags in the USSR. (As for American insane protestant sects, I consider them only as forms of atheism.)
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Friday, February 2nd, 2007
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Yes, 
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Friday, February 2nd, 2007
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Re: Children's foreheads slashed in Muslim saint's name
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Would you say that things are normal and stable in Europe nowadays, or are we living the most insane days since the fall of Rome? Of course, we are living the most insane days.. probably more insane that the days of Roman decay. We are conducting our own ethnic destruction, increasingly more laws are made to protect immigrants who rape our sisters and daughters, and who kill our brothers and our parents and sons. And not just. We are seeing utter insanities like that of paedophiles campaigning for their rights, and much, much more. And guess.. all of this comes at a moment when spirituality and religion has dissappeared from the mind of the Europeans and the only one god is materialism. Quote:
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My Catholic upbringing taught me a respect to women that no longer exists in modern materialistic and atheistic society and that I'm sure that you couldn't even imagine. Quote:
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'Dardanidae duri, quae uos a stirpe parentum prima tulit tellus, eadem uos ubere laeto
accipiet reduces. Antiquam exquirite matrem: hic domus Aeneae cunctis dominabitur oris, et nati natorum, et qui nascentur ab illis.'  We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. –Plato–
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Friday, February 2nd, 2007
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Re: Children's foreheads slashed in Muslim saint's name
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__________________
The traditions of the Irish people are the oldest of any race in Europe north and west of the Alps, and they themselves are the longest settled on their own soil - Edmund Curtis (A History of Ireland: From Earliest Times to 1922) The Irish are one of the most ancient nations that I know of at this end of the world, and are from as mighty a race as the world ever brought forth. For it is certain that Ireland hath had the use of letters very anciently and long before England; that they had letters anciently is nothing doubtful, for the Saxons of England are said to have their letters and learning, and learned men, from the Irish. - Edmund Spenser (writer, and British Government Official in Ireland, AD 1596). The renaissance began in Ireland seven hundred years before it was known in Italy. And Armagh, the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland, was at one time the metropolis of civilisation. - Arsene Darmesteter, Professor of Old French and Literature Ireland can indeed lay claim to a great past; she can not only boast of having been the birthplace and abode of high culture in the fifth and sixth centuries . . . but also of having made strenous efforts in the seventh and up to the tenth century to spread her learning among the German and Romance peoples, thus forming the actual fountain of our present continental civilisation. - Heinrich Zimmer, Professor of Celtic and Sanskrit, Member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences
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Saturday, February 3rd, 2007
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Re: Children's foreheads slashed in Muslim saint's name
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As for the South America, well, before the advent of Christianity they had such beautiful things like human sacrifice and cannibalism. Quote:
Today women are in lower status than in old times when Christianity reigned supreme. They are allegedly "liberated", but infact enslaved (to the capitalists). They are not respected anymore. Women have to work and raise children, or sometimes because of their work they are not able to have children and family, which makes them frustrated. Women are presented as whores by the media. The biggest victims of the "liberation of women" are - women themselves. Quote:
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Murder, theft, lying is always wrong. Some people do it for some "higher good", but nevertheless they know it is wrong. You don't have even to read Bible to come to such conclusion. It is common sense. Europe is at the brink of extinction precisely because of this "modern" and allegedly "scientific" worldview. Your statement about the alleged "fundamentalists" who want to "dictate lives"...well, I would put this question in the opposite direction: why is it that media entertainment and governments want to dictate our lives. Promoting homosexualism, debauchery, sexual licence - we have been overwhelmed by such messages for decades. They want to dictate our lives. They tell us homosexualism is normal, they tell us gay-marriage and adoption are OK. I have problems with them and not with your fantasized "fundamentalists". But according to your atheism, I guess you think of a man as of mere animal, who is entitled to do anything, so these things don't bother you. But nevertheless, Christianity has left such a deep imprint on our civilization, our way of thinking. Even your moralizing about the presumed evils of Christianity is in a way so profoundly Christian. There is no way for you to escape from it! Last edited by Arthur Gordon Pym; Saturday, February 3rd, 2007 at 12:49.
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Saturday, February 3rd, 2007
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Yes,
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Saturday, February 3rd, 2007
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media doesn't dictate with laws and fear like religion, you see things that don't exist, it gives people freedom and choices to live according their own views and ideals Quote:
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Yes,
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Saturday, February 3rd, 2007
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As for your father being a preacher...well...I don't consider Calvinism as a Christian denomination, but a strange sect of Swiss bankers and American "pioneers". But here I can feel even some sympathy towards you: your situation is similar to mine, but from the opposite standpoint. I was raised in atheism and materialism, but subsequently rejected it all with disgust as a heap of nonsense. Quote:
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As for fear, yes, media do create fear, many |
