The ten days of Shia lamentation for Hussein, the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, end this year on July 6th, with Ashura. They are always filled with anguish but this year that is even more true. In shrines across the Middle East, eulogists lauded the recently dead. Worshippers beat their chests and lashed themselves with chains as the coffins of the hundreds killed in Israeli strikes were paraded past. In the rubble of their southern villages and the suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon’s Shias cried for their fallen leaders and footsoldiers. From Lucknow to London, Shias asked whether their brief revival was over, and whether they faced a future, once again, as Islam’s oppressed.
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