Ashura is considered sacred among Sunnis as well, who make up the majority of Muslims worldwide. It is customary to fast from sunrise to sunset on that day, although it is not obligatory. In some countries, it is even observed as a public holiday. According to Islamic tradition, the Prophet Muhammad established it as the first fast day before the month of Ramadan was designated for fasting, giving the day religious significance for most Muslims.

Among Shiites, however, the day has a completely different meaning and has shaped the sect's identity for centuries. It all began on Ashura in the year 680 CE, when Husayn ibn Ali was journeying toward the camp of his supporters near the city of Karbala, in present-day Iraq. Husayn was the son of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the fourth caliph, and the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. On that basis, he laid claim to the caliphate.

Husayn's supporters believed that leadership of the emerging Muslim empire should remain with Ali's descendants, not with the Umayyad dynasty, a different branch of the Quraysh tribe. However, the newly appointed Umayyad caliph, Yazid ibn Muawiyah, seized the opportunity to assert his control. On October 10, 680, his army attacked Husayn's convoy and massacred dozens of his followers. Since then, Ashura has been observed as a day of mourning for Husayn's death for over 1,345 years.

After the massacre, Husayn's head was severed and sent to Caliph Yazid in Damascus. His body was buried in Karbala. The event became a symbol of ultimate sacrifice in Shiite Islam and a mythic tale of the few standing against the many. As a result, believers commemorate the day each year through prayers and weeping. The tragedy also marked Shiites as a persecuted minority by the Sunni majority, a reality that persisted for centuries, with few exceptions.

Shiites continued to uphold the legitimate claim of the imams, Ali and his descendants, to leadership. These imams were venerated as saints, and many were persecuted and executed by Sunni Islamic empires.

Today, some Shiites still hold public rituals that involve self-flagellation to the point of bleeding. During the ceremony known as "tatbir," participants strike their heads with sharp objects to draw blood as a sign of mourning for Husayn.

Experts suggest these rituals originated outside the Middle East. One theory posits that the custom came from Central Asia to Iran and then spread to the broader Middle East. Another suggests it derived specifically from Christian Orthodox communities in the Caucasus, who practiced bodily self-torment to mourn the death of Jesus. This has led to controversy among Shiite clerics over the legitimacy of the practice.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has publicly banned the tatbir ritual, calling it a fabricated tradition that should not be practiced. Nonetheless, he did not issue an outright ban, merely stating he would be "disappointed" if it continued. His predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, said the ritual was acceptable as long as it caused no harm, but advised against it in general. To curb the practice, some Shiite clerics have suggested donating blood as an alternative.

Ashura is also a time for sermons and proclamations by Shiite clerics, which sometimes stir controversy. Just days ago, influential Iraqi Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr declared that Allah's curse still applies to the descendants of the Umayyad dynasty for killing Husayn, calling it a "divine decree." In response, Iraqi Sunni cleric Mohammed Ayash al-Kubaisi pointed out that members of the Umayyad family were closely related to the Prophet Muhammad's family through intermarriage within the Quraysh tribe.

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Iraq's influential Shiite cleric who emerged as a winner in last month's general elections on Thursday called on the country's myriad pro-Iran Shiite armed factions to disband if they want to join his upcoming government.

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Muqatada al-Sadr also asked the factions to hand over their weapons to the government-sanctioned umbrella known as Popular Mobilization Forces. In turn, he also asked the PMF to "purify" its ranks from "undisciplined elements" and surrender "corrupt individuals" to the judiciary.

The militias are certain to reject the demands, which in turn could complicate al-Sadr's efforts to form a government after the vote. It could also increase tensions between Shiites who support the pro-Iran factions and al-Sadr's own followers.

The pro-Iran factions lost a significant number of parliament seats in the Oct. 10 elections and have called the vote fraudulent, rejecting the results. Their supporters have held protests outside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, home to government offices and foreign embassies.

The protests turned deadly earlier this month when demonstrators tried to enter the Green Zone, demanding a ballot recount. One protester affiliated with the militias was killed in an exchange of fire, for which the militias blamed Iraq's incumbent Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi.

Tensions were further ratcheted up after a failed assassination attempt against al-Kadhimi at his residence the next day. The prime minister suffered a light cut and several of his guards were wounded in the Nov. 7 attack by armed drones on his Green Zone residence. There was no responsibility claim for the attack, although suspicion immediately fell on the armed factions.

"Your losses can't be a pretext for ruining the democratic process," al-Sadr said at a rare press conference Thursday, addressing the factions.

Political analyst Ihsan al-Shammari, who heads the Iraqi Political Thinking Center in Baghdad, said al-Sadr's comments underscored "clear and deep Shiite divisions," which will not help speed up the formation of a new government. Shiite armed factions serve as Iran's arms in Iraq, he said, and are being used to pressure political leaders.

As the winner in the elections, al-Sadr's bloc will seek coalition partners and name the next prime minister. The protests staged by supporters of hard-line Iran-aligned militias appeared to be aimed at pressuring al-Sadr to ensure that they are part of the next cabinet.

But al-Sadr's call on Thursday practically ruled that out, instead asking the armed factions who function outside the PMF to disband.

The PMF is an umbrella organization of mostly Shiite groups officially under the prime minister's command. It was created during the war against the Sunni extremist Islamic State group, which in 2014 seized large swaths of western and northern Iraq. ISIS was eventually defeated but the thousands of mainly Shiite paramilitary fighters who fought against it never disbanded or surrendered their arms.

Some of the most Iran-friendly militias under the PMF have shown signs of splintering into new, previously unknown groups, allowing them to claim attacks targeting US interests under different names to mask the extent of their involvement.

A senior official with Kataib Hezbollah, one of the hard-line pro-Iran militias, said he welcomed in principle al-Sadr's call to hand over weapons. But that can only happen, Abu Ali Al-Askari said, after al-Sadr's own armed group, Saraya al-Salam, surrenders its weapons, as Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters should also do.

"Only after these two things happen can the project of limiting arms in the hands of the state succeed," Al-Askari said.

Al-Sadr commands the devotion of millions of Iraqis, including those who fought in his former Mahdi Army militia, a force that battled US troops in the early days of the US-led occupation. In 2014, al-Sadr revamped the militia under the name the Peace Brigades – Saraya Salam – that fought against Islamic State militants.

He recently announced the closure of the offices of his Saraya al-Salam fighters in various provinces – a largely symbolic move apparently meant to show he is serious about bringing all arms under state control.

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A senior New York Police Department official has formally confirmed that man reported to be a Lebanese Muslim masquerading as a Haredi Jewish man, who married a Jewish woman in a Haredi wedding ceremony in New York some two weeks ago, is in fact a Muslim from Lebanon.

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Speaking to The Yeshiva World website, NYPD Community Affairs Deputy Inspector Richie Taylor, an observant Jew, explained that the incident comprised "no credible threat to the Jewish community and there are no ties to this situation and terrorism."

Taylor's remarks sought to calm the community after rumors that the groom in question had ties to Hezbollah.

According to the original reports, the man – who called himself Eliyahu Haliwa, has admitted to both the NYPD and his wife that he is not Jewish. He says that he is not an anti-Semite and married a Jewish woman because he wanted to be Jewish. However, he had previous claimed that he worked for the National Security Agency and visited Israel, both of which are untrue.

Haliwa's story began some years ago, when he arrived at the University of Texas and tried to take part in the activity of Jewish groups on campus, including Chabad and Hillel. According to Lazarov, who manages the Chabad House at the university, Haliwa never studied in any Chabad-affiliated yeshiva and neither spoke nor read Hebrew.

After the start of the COVID pandemic, Haliwa met a girl from the Syrian Jewish community in Brooklyn via a dating site, where he presented himself as a religious Jew.

"When the relationship grew more serious, the girl reached out to me to check him out, and we – my wife and I, based on what we saw the few times he arrived for Shabbat dinner or to pray – that his lifestyle was not that of a religious Jew, to say the least," Lazarov said.

A few days ago, the man's new bride discovered – how remains unclear – that there were grounds to suspect that her husband wasn't Jewish at all, but rather a Shiite Muslim. According to various unconfirmed reports, the woman has sought shelter outside the couple's home.

Meanwhile, the local Jewish community continues to flagellate itself over the incident. After Rabbi Yosef Lazarov, who accompanied Haliwa to his chuppah, clarified that he had never looked into whether the groom was Jewish or not and said he was not involved in the engagement ceremony, Rabbi Ezra Zafrani, who prepared the couple's ketubah and sent his son, Rabbi David Zafrani, to conduct the engagement and marriage ceremonies, issued a public apology and accepted responsibility.

"I was completely misled by this man and others about his Judaism," Zafrani Sr. said in remarks published overnight on the site Haredim 10.

Zafrani admitted his mistake and said he had been wrong to allow the couple to marry without confirming the man's true identity ahead of time. "I'm amazed at myself for allowing this to happen, and I have no one else to blame. I have no words to describe the pain that this has caused our rabbis and our community. No apology can heal the wounds, but it must be made."

The rabbi has apologized to the bride's family and to the rabbis, and promised to be more careful in the future.

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In the latest development of a recent assassination attempt against Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi on Sunday, Iraqi security officials claimed Monday that Iranian-backed militias were behind the attack.

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As widespread condemnation from within and outside of the country surfaced, one group has remained particularly silent on the incident, i24NEWS reported.

In an emergency security meeting held after the failed attack, Al-Kadhimi vowed to find the perpetrators and prevent foreign intervention in the country.

"There are those who are trying to tamper with the security of Iraq… with Iraq's future. They want a country of gangs… and of loose security," Al-Kadhimi said during the meeting.

"They" most likely refers to Iran via Iranian-backed Shiite paramilitary groups that are part of an organization known as The Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).

The mostly Shiite-Muslim groups have been protesting rigorously in recent weeks following a poor election result in early October, with protesters claiming election fraud.

However, Iran was quick to condemn the attempted killing, and the Iraqi Foreign Ministry stressed Iran's firm and consistent support of "Iraq's stability, peace, and security" via Twitter.

Inside Iraq, the Iran-backed PMF continued on Monday to ignore the assassination attempt and has issued no statements.

However, the rival Shiite faction of militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr, who opposes Iranian interference in Iraq, condemned the incident.

"The terrorist act that targeted the highest level of the country is a clear and explicit targeting of Iraq and its people, targeting its security and stability and returning it to chaos," al-Sadr tweeted.

Not only was the assassination attempt thwarted, it could potentially backfire and wind up granting greater legitimacy to Al-Kadhimi in Iraq and throughout the Arab world.

This article was first published by i24NEWS 

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Lebanon was on edge over the weekend after seven people were shot and killed during a pro-Hezbollah march in Beirut calling for the removal of the judge investigating last year's Beirut port blast.

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In the wake of accusations that the Christian "Lebanese Forces" party and its leader Samir Geagea were behind the incident, Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, which is affiliated with Hezbollah, ran a front page story depicting Geagea as Adolf Hitler under the headline, "No Doubt."

In the article, the newspaper's editor-in-chief, Ibrahim al-Amine, wrote that Geagea "still doesn't care about faces, names or loved ones."

"Samir Geagea, you were the first to know what happened yesterday. Not through intelligence you never knew existed, but because you planned and prepared and carried out a crime that matches what you have done since you took up arms. It is a crime. Greater than all the crimes you have committed here and there, as [you strive] to start a widespread civil war… And you were not the only one to know what happened yesterday," al-Amine wrote.

A Beirut resident who spoke with Israel Hayom said the shooting at Shiite protesters was carried out by snipers and gunmen stationed on the roofs and balconies of buildings located along the route of Hezbollah and Amal supporters.

"Hezbollah and Amal [activists] deliberately passed through the Christian neighborhoods to provoke and defy the Christian residents as most of those killed and injured in the blast at the port were Christian residents in neighborhoods west of Beirut near the port," the resident said.

"They thought we would sit quietly while Hezbollah tried to steal Lebanon and turn it into another Iranian province as is happening in Syria. We are tired of Hezbollah doing everything to destroy Lebanon. The criminal negligence that caused the port explosion is also a result of Hezbollah's corrupt conduct in the country," he added.

Late Friday, Geagea denied that his group had planned the street violence and said a meeting held the day before was purely political.

Geagea told Voice of Beirut International radio that a meeting held on Wednesday by a political grouping the Lebanese Forces belongs to had discussed action options should Iran-backed Hezbollah succeed in efforts to remove the judge, Tarek Bitar.

He said the option agreed upon in that event was to call for a public strike, and nothing else.

Asked whether the presence of Lebanese Forces members in the areas of the Christian Ain al-Remmaneh and Teyouneh neighborhoods, where the shooting erupted, meant the incident was planned, Geagea said they were always present in these areas.

The security coordinator in the party contacted the authorities when they heard a protest was planned and asked for a heavy military presence in the area "as our priority was for the demonstration to pass by simply as a demonstration and not affect civil peace," Geagea said.

Geagea said his party was assured that would be the case.

"The army has arrested snipers so they need to tell us who they are and where they came from," he told the radio station.

Nineteen people have been detained so far in relation to the incident.

Geagea, whose party has close ties to Saudi Arabia, also criticized Lebanese President Michel Aoun over a phone call between the two during the incident.

Aoun's party, the Free Patriotic Movement, Lebanon's largest Christian bloc, is an ally of Hezbollah.

"I didn't like this call at all," Geagea said, saying Aoun implicitly made the same accusations of involvement that Hezbollah has by asking him to calm down the situation.

"This is totally unacceptable," said Geagea.

Perhaps surprisingly, meanwhile, the leader of the Free Patriotic movement, Gebran Bassil, said on Saturday that the investigation into the Beirut port blast should not be stopped, contrary to the position of ally Hezbollah.

"The Free Patriotic movement is [in favor of] continuing the probe, revealing the truth and putting those responsible on trial," Bassil said in a speech.

Bassil, who is Aoun's son-in-law, was hit with US sanctions last year for alleged corruption and his ties to Hezbollah. He has denied the allegations.

France, the United States and United Nations have appealed for calm but also insisted on the need to allow the port explosion probe to continue unhindered.

Thursday's violence has added to concerns for the stability of a country that is awash with weapons and grappling with an economic meltdown.

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At least five people including three Hezbollah members were killed on Sunday south of the Lebanese capital when gunmen opened fire at the funeral of a Hezbollah commander who was killed a day earlier, an official from the Shiite terrorist group said.

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The Lebanese military said it deployed in the coastal town of Khaldeh to contain the tension after heavy fire – including from rocket-propelled grenades – terrorized residents and brought traffic to a standstill. The gunmen remain at large.

The military warned it would fire at any source of fire or anyone carrying weapons on the main road. It said one of its soldiers was wounded in the shooting.

The violence is rooted in a personal vendetta but could be a sign of growing sectarian strife in the economically beleaguered country.

Lebanese media reported that a man from one of the Sunni Arab tribes of Khaldeh had opened fire during a wedding party at a club on Saturday night, killing Ali Chebli, a Hezbollah fighter.

Chebli's killer was apprehended, and his family explained the attack as revenge. It accused Chebli of killing a 15-year-old relative of theirs in a shooting a year earlier. The family, who are Sunnis, said in a statement that authorities never brought Chebli to justice because he was under the protection of Shiite Hezbollah.

A grouping of Arab Sunni tribes in Lebanon also issued a statement saying they did not want to be drawn into an armed confrontation but blamed Hezbollah for the troubles and accused it of stirring sectarian tensions.

Prime Minister-designate Najib Mekati called on the army to increase its security presence in Khaldeh, which lies on a coastal highway leading to the south of the country.

Local television networks showed footage of armed youths rampaging in the area.

The Hezbollah official said gunmen ambushed Chebli's funeral procession when it reached the family home, firing at the mourners, killing his brother-in-law and a friend, and wounding others.

The army deployed to defuse the tensions and free family members, who had taken shelter in the house with the body. The official called for the perpetrators of the violence to be brought to trial.

Sectarian conflict in the area was sparked last year after a dispute over a Shiite religious banner that was hoisted in the area of the Sunni Arab tribes. Tensions often flare in the area.

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The Czech parliament on Wednesday moved to classify the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, according to a statement from Israel's Foreign Ministry.

Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi hailed the move made by Israel's longtime ally and urged other countries in the European Union bloc to follow suit.

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"I call on the European Union and additional countries to recognize Hezbollah in all its forms as a terrorist organization," Ashkenazi said in the statement.

While the EU designates Hezbollah's military wing as a terrorist entity, its political arm is still able to operate in most parts of the continent.

Earlier this year, arguably the bloc's most influential partner, Germany, moved to ban the group outright from its soil as it conducted raids on Hezbollah members operating in the country.

This article was first published by i24NEWS.

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Speaking with Egypt's Alghad TV on Aug. 19, al-Mahdi, the head of Sudan's Umma Party, said that establishing relations with Israel would give Sudan access to Israeli and western technology, help remove Sudan from the list of countries that support terrorism and help Sudan out of its current economic crisis.

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In addition, al-Mahdi praised the United Arab Emirates and the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, for opening "new horizons" for peace in the Middle East.

He said that the combination of Arab money and Western innovation could be of great benefit to the Arabs, and that an alliance between Israel, Sudan, Egypt and the Gulf states could stand up to Iran and stop the spread of Islamic extremism.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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According to a report in The Media Line, some of the Jews living in Yemen's Amran Governorate, north of Sanaa, have been deported.

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A man by the name Ali Qudair, head of one of the local tribes in Amran, was quoted saying that in July, soldiers had surrounded a village and interrogated the members of at least one Jewish family that lived there about their alleged "contacts" with foreign officials.

"The soldiers entered the house of a Jewish family in the village and questioned members about their correspondence with the State of Israel, their property in the village and other areas, and whether or not they were in contact with relatives residing in other countries," Qudair told The Media Line.

Some of the people questioned were reportedly taken away to an undisclosed location and held there for 48 hours.

Qudair claimed that this incident was part of the persecution of the remaining Yemeni Jews that has gone on for years.

"Jews have been denied many of their rights. They no longer can travel except with prior permission from the Houthi-appointed area supervisor," he said.

There are also reports that Jews have been banned from traveling from various counties and regions to Yemen's major cities, and are allowed to work only as merchants or farmers. They are also reportedly banned from holding any Jewish ceremonies in public.

Saeed Ahmad (his name has been changed for his protection), who lives in the village Qudair spoke about, confirmed his report.

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"On July 12, the Houthis arrested seven individuals from the Jewish community after questioning them and searching some of their homes," Ahmad told The Media Line.

Ahmed claimed that the Houthis had told Jews to leave Yemen and placed restrictions on Jewish property, including a prohibition on Jews selling property to anyone other than local residents.

"The Jews are getting ready to leave Yemen," Ahmad said.

A source in Yemen's Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor spoke to The Media Line and expressed concern for the fate of the Jews.

The Houthis started "killing, jailing and deporting many of the Jews in the governorates of Saada and Amran," the source said, pointing out the example of one man who was stabbed to death after being accused of witchcraft.

He also said that many Jews had been imprisoned as a way of pressuring the entire community to leave, without sparking international outrage.

An official in Yemen's Interior Ministry said: "Decisions regarding deportations, investigations or any action against the Jews come from intelligence officials under the Houthis' command."

According to the ministry source, few Jewish families remain in Yemen.

"The remaining Jews in Yemen do not exceed 22 families, most of them living in Amran Governorate," the source continued. "Others live in the Sanaa and Saada governorates," he noted.

The Interior Ministry source claimed that the last Jews could be expelled sometime in the next few months, and said that international superpowers had been involved in the matter.

Other reports said that Jews from Yemen had left the country for the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.

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The findings from Jusoor show that Israel might have cause for concern. The Syrian governorate with the largest number of Iranian outposts is Deraa, where the Iranians have set up 37 military locations. There are another 22 Iranian outposts in and around Damascus, 15 in Aleppo, and another five each in Quneitra and al-Suwayda.  

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A number of strikes on Iran's Imam Ali base and other bases in the E-Zor Governorate have been attributed to Israel. Jusoor reports that the district boasts 13 Iranian outposts and military bases, one of which -- located at Bukamal near the Iraqi border -- hosts thousands of troops.

The Jusoor study reports that the base is well-defended and serves as a major weapons smuggling station on the Shiite axis.

However, the Iranians have not refrained from establishing themselves farther from Israel, and nearer Turkey, and have set up six outposts in Latakia, six in Hama, four in Idlib, and 12 in Homs.

The Jusoor study said that Iran had the largest military presence in Syria after Russia, the United States, and Turkey, and said that the Iranian military presence played a role in maintaining the ceasefire in northwest Syria. The study also said that Iran was considered the main military support for the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The Turks, like Israel, do not want to see Iran establish an extensive military infrastructure in Syria, but for obviously very different reasons.

In Israel, the main concern about the Iranian presence north of the border is a defensive one, whereas the concern for Turkey -- which enjoys relatively strong ties with Iran -- is that the Iranian presence in certain areas of Syria is preventing Turkey from occupying the northern parts of the state. 

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