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Monday, November 3rd, 2014 | Posted by Kevin Barrett

Ashura-JFK-9/11 and the beauty of Shia

Islam
Ashura commemorates the tragedy of Karbala the martyrdom of Hussein by the evil scumbag
Yazid

By Kevin Barrett, Veterans Today Editor

Today is Ashura, a major Muslim holiday.

But dont say happy Ashura. At least not to a Shia Muslim.
For Shia Muslims and anyone else who chooses to lament the martyrdom of the Prophets
grandson Hussein on this day Ashura isnt about happiness.
A holiday that isnt about happiness?! Thats a hard concept for Americans to grasp. Here in the
USA every holiday is a celebration of the pursuit of happiness: We say happy Fourth of July,
happy Halloween, happy Easter, happy Veterans Day, happy Presidents Day, happy
Thanksgiving, happy Groundhog Day, happy National Secretaries Day, you name it. The only
non-happy American holiday is Christmas not because weve officially admitted that most
people are miserable, but because for some reason we always say merry Christmas not happy
Christmas. And merry basically just means sufficiently happy while drunk on eggnog to
tolerate ones relatives.
So for Americans, every holiday is ostensibly happy or merry. An unhappy holiday is an
oxymoron.
There are only two exceptions to this rule, and both are unofficial holidays: September 11th and
JFK Day. Every time 9/11 and 11/22 roll around, people remember Americas two greatest-ever
national tragedies: The killing of the last real President, and the final death of the Republic. 9/11
and JFK day are a bit like Ashura: They commemorate evil, unjust, murderous coups dtat.
Shia Muslims commemorate the slaughter of a good ruler, the Prophets grandson and legitimate
heir Hussein, by the evil S.O.B. Yazid, by beating their chests and backs with light chains. I
wouldnt mind seeing Americans likewise beating themselves every November 22nd to
commemorate the murder of a relatively good leader, JFK, by a bunch of evil SOBs including
LBJ, Allan Dulles, George H.W. Bush, Cord Meyer, James Jesus Angleton, Meyer Lansky, and
very likely David Ben Gurion. And I wouldnt mind seeing Americans beating themselves with
HEAVY chains every 9/11 to mourn the murder of the American dream by a bunch of
neoconservative scumbags who make the Elders of Zion look like small-timers.
The same neocon propagandists who brought you 9/11 are trying to make you hate Ashura so
watch out for made-in-Israel reports about Crazy Shia fanatics beating themselves bloody.
Alongside the self-flagellating processions, Shia Muslims also stage theatrical re-enactments of
the Passion of Hussein on Ashura. Maybe Americans could borrow that idea too, and have a
parade re-enacting the doomed Dallas motorcade in every American city, town, and village. Now
that Sherwood Ross and Jim Fetzer have identified every one of the six shooters who fired at
JFK in Dallas, we can outdo the Shia by featuring a whole slew of villains in our re-enactments:
Deputy Sheriff Harry Weatherford firing from the top of the County Records Building; US Air
Force marksman Jack Lawrence firing from the south end of the Triple Underpass; George H.W.
Bushs protg Tony Nestor Izquierdo, supervised by Bush himself, firing the only unsilenced
bullets from the Dal-Tex building; CIA asset Roscoe White firing from the Grassy Knoll; LBJs

personal hitman Malcolm Mac Wallace firing from the Texas School Book Depository; and
CIA asset Frank Sturgis firing from the north end of the Triple Underpass.
Alongside the shooters, Kennedy Day re-enactments could also feature the big villains: the
psychopaths LBJ, Bush, and Dulles; the paranoid-psychotic schemer Angleton, the genocidal
fanatic Ben Gurion, and the mobster scumbag Lansky.
And alongside the martyred hero JFK, they could feature smaller heroes including Lee Harvey
Oswald, a federal informer who was trying to stop the assassination; and Abraham Bolden, the
Secret Service Agent who exposed a parallel Chicago plot to assassinate JFK.
If we really work at it, JFK day could be bigger than Ashura and more dramatic than
Shakespeares Julius Caesar.
And I wont even get into what we could do on 9/11 day.
Though I will say that if we beat ourselves with heavy chains for going along with such a
transparent, and transparently evil, coup dtat as 9/11, we should also make sure to beat the
neocons with some really, REALLY heavy chains.
Getting back to Ashura and I know this has been a long digression, but hey, we Americans have
our heads you-know-where and mostly only talk about America as I say, getting back to
Ashura, there is something truly beautiful about a huge public holiday that mourns the murder of
a good, just, pious, holy, legitimate leader by a psychopathic scumbag and his henchmen.
Though Shia and Sunni Muslims generally observe Ashura differently, there is no disagreement
whatsoever about the bottom-line issue: The murder of the good, holy, just, and legitimate ruler
Hussein by the psychopathic scumbag Yazid was a cosmic tragedy and a terrible turn for the
worse in human history. All Sunni Muslims agree with their Shia brothers and sisters about that.
The Sunnis just dont go around beating their breasts about it.
But maybe they should. Maybe we should all make a point of beating our breasts once a year in
mourning for horrific injustice in general, and the slaughter of good leaders by bad ones in
particular.
The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said: Anyone of you who sees wrong, let him undo it with his
hand; and if he cannot, then let him speak against it with his tongue, and if he cannot do this
either, then (let him abhor it) with his heart, and this is the least of faith.
Since the early days of Islam, Muslims have often found it difficult to raise their hands to defend
good leaders against bad ones; and to strike down bad leaders in favor of good ones. This
problem, of course, afflicts all of humanity, not just Muslims. But since Islam was the seal of
prophetic revelations, containing a blueprint for social as well as spiritual order, it experiences
the problem in especially acute form.

Shia Muslims, through their rites of Ashura, are hating injustice with their heartsand speaking
out against injustice not just with their tongues, but with their whole bodies as they act out the
tragedy of karbala. Though I am not Shia myself, and definitely not into self-flagellation of any
sort, no matter how good the reason and Lord knows I have done a few things that merit
expiation I find the Shia celebration of Ashura beautiful and inspiring.
So today Ashura, the Tenth of Muharram, the 1,375th anniversary of the martyrdom of Hussein
my heart is with everyone who is mourning the cosmic tragedy of Karbala, and vowing to fight
for truth and justice with heart, tongue and hand, come what may.