But Is There A Good Point To This?

Express.co.uk

Daily Mail October 24

By APP

Cited

'Huge crowds of black-clad Shiite faithful massed in the Iraqi city of Karbala Saturday, crying and beating their chests to commemorate the 7th century killing of the prophet's grandson.

The holy day of Ashura was marred by attacks in Pakistan and Bangladesh but unfolded peacefully in southern Iraq, where last year's security fears have given way to political grievances.

Gathered under the golden dome of Imam Hussein's mausoleum in Karbala, devotees clutching paper tissues wailed and wiped their tears as they listened to accounts of Hussein's death.'

Cited

'The dirge cantor himself repeatedly choked back tears as he sang the praise of Hussein, whose 680 AD killing by the armies of Caliph Yazid lies at the heart of the Sunni-Shiite schism.

Many Shiite worshippers travel from neighbouring Iran and other countries each year to visit the shrine, which lies about 80 kilometres (50 miles) southwest of Baghdad.

Millions of others across the Shiite world, from Lebanon to south Asia, hold processions in their home towns, performing a variety of rituals, many involving flagellation.

Some beat their backs to a drumbeat using chains or blades. Others beat their heads with a sword until their faces and their white mourning robes are covered in blood.

Karbala and other cities hosted traditional reenactments of Hussein's martyrdom, complete with horseback warriors and the torching of the camp where the third Shiite imam and his vastly outnumbered followers made their last stand.

The 10th day of the mourning month of Muharram has been marred by attacks in the past and Iraq deployed tens of thousands of security forces across the country.'

End Citations

From a Christian perspective, I would point out that non-Christians can definitely be spiritual but the human being and human spirit is of a sinful nature (Romans 1-8) since the Biblical fall (Genesis 3). Spiritual does not necessarily equate with connection to the true God in a direct sense.

Although I acknowledge in a Western societal context the rights of other law abiding worldviews to exist and do so publicly, I would state that Islam and Shiite Islam has a different worldview and different core theology than does Biblical, New Testament Christianity which also uses the Hebrew Bible for historical and religious support.

1 John 1:5-10

English Standard Version (ESV)

5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Verse 7, the blood of Christ Jesus Christ cleanses those of Christ from sin.

In other words, the atoning work of Christ, covers and is applied to the sins of those that are in Christ, those that believe. This also connects to the resurrection of Christ and the future resurrection of believers (1 Corinthians 15, Revelation 21-22).

Another New Testament example

Hebrews 9:18-22

English Standard Version (ESV)

18 Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood.

19 For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,

20 saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.”

21 And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship.

22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

Jesus Christ was both perfect man, that did not sin (1 Peter 2: 22) and was God incarnate (John 1, Colossians 2: 9).

Therefore there was a reasonable and meaningful eternal point to the shedding of his blood.

The atonement.

However this Islamic Shiite ritual is in my mind misguided spirituality. The core views on God and theology are in error by a theological system that arose hundred of years after the New Testament in a different era, from a different group of persons in a different part of the world. Islam and the Qur'an, not in reality connected to the religious history of the New Testament and Hebrew Bible although claiming its own connection with its own newer revelation.

The gospel rejected.

But, I do acknowledge within a Western context, the need for lawful exercise of religious and intellectual freedom, private and public.

Possibly Turkey: Facebook and Travel+Leirsure