Why We Didn't Make it to the Craft Center

Hubs and I never got to the craft center the other day.

Actually, that's not true. We did get there, but it was very near a Shia neighborhood.

Now, there's nothing wrong with Shia's, but the government had put out an advisory about the fact that it was a shia religious holiday and that there would most likely be demonstrations - which have been known in the past to get violent - therefore, they advised to stay out of, and away from, the shia neighborhoods.

This is a picture of a shia mosque. Their colors are green and black. You can see the green flag in the foreground. If you click on the picture, you can see the black flags on the right hand side of the driveway. The other way to tell it's a shia mosque - the onion bulb dome. Here, that indicates a shia mosque...it's especially easy to spot a shia mosque when that onion dome is painted green. (Hubs has pointed that out to me, and I have seen the domes painted a light green.)

I've learned that the black flags are how you recognize a shia neighborhood. That - and from what I've seen, the shia neighborhoods are poorer and not kept up as well.

A Little Background...

Islam is divided into 2 major groups: Shia's and Sunnis. It's kind of like the split between Catholic and Protestant. Shia's and Sunnis differ over the order of the caliphs amongst other things. (Shia is where you get Shi'ites.)

Just as with the Catholics and Protestants, there are different branches of each...I suppose that the different "branches" is more prevalent amongst the Protestants with the Baptists, the Southern Baptists, the Methodists, etc. The most predominant group of Shia's are the Twelvers who believe in a particular group of twelve Imams.

Here in Bahrain at least - and I think it applies elsewhere - the Sunnis are the ones who typically have more power and more money. Saddam Hussein was a Sunni, for example. Many Palestinians are Shia's. Osama bin Laden is of another group entirely called Wahhabis, and this is the predominant sect in Saudi Arabia.

On the recent religious holiday - called "Ashura" - the shia's commemorate the death of Hussein ibn Ali...the grandson of Mohammed. He was travelling when his party was attacked at Karbala by some Sunnis in 680 AD, and Hussein was killed.

The shia's mourn and grieve his death, and like certain Christian groups at Easter, they will walk through the streets tearing their clothes and flailing their backs with whips until they bleed. (There are Christian groups who do something very similar at Easter.)

Ashura means tenth, and the ashura occurs on the tenth day of Muharram in the Muslim calendar.

Unusual Sighting outside a Shia Neighborhood

What I found interesting...typically, in Muslim art and architecture, you will not see pictures of people or animals. It's completely free of any of this type of ornament. Their decoration consists of Q'uranic scripture - done in various calligraphic styles - and other graphic ornamentation. (There's is a beautiful written language. Gorgeous.) They take the commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me very seriously." Thus, no people or animals in the decoration.

You will NEVER see a picture of Mohammed or any of their prophets. From a Muslim perspetive, many of them consdier it rude or disrespectful to show pictures of Jesus as Christians do...different cultures.

I remember being at a museum in San Diego viewing some special exhibit of far eastern art work. The faces in one of the pictures had been scratched out. Someone had dared make an image of Mohammed. So someone else, out of respect, had scratched off his face.

That's why I found it odd when we drove by a Shia neighborhood on ashura the other day, to see images of Hussein ibn Ali on banners. I had never seen this before. Perhaps the forbidding of images of prophets is more of a Sunni thing. (It caught me by surprise, and we were driving - so I didn't get a picture. Hubs wasn't keen o stoppin gor turning around so I could snap a photo.)

Here is a picture of a storefront all done up for Ashura.

Again, notice the black and green banners. (It looks smeared because I took it from the car.)

I actually got to see some of these also written in English - basically, telling the story of Hussein's death and that he died not just for one person or one group, but that his sacrifice was for all.

As we drove, each banner had a bit of text on it. You'd read one and then the next and the next.

The way bits of each story was told on succeeding banners reminded me of the back roads of the South where instead, each sign has a Bible verse - and it's a requirement that at least one of those signs have Johnn 3:16 on it. "For God so loved the world...".

That's the impression I got from one of the Shia banners - that God so loved the world and Hussein so loved humanity that he gave his life in sacrifice at Karbala.

Made me feel at home.

Here's another picture of the Shia neighborhood with the black flags.

Once I learn the significance of the black flags, I'll share. I haven't looked into that yet, and surprisingly, my hubs - who knows many things - did not know the answer to that question.

I find the back flags ominous - but that's my cultural bias. Different colors mean different things in different countries.

To me, the black flags aren't particularly welcoming, and it doesn't seem they'd do much in the way of good P.R., you know?

I can't help but be reminded of the Raid commercials from when I was a kid...

Remember those Black Flag commercials?

Every time I see one of these black flags I remember that commercial and imagine one of these flags hauling back and going "THWAT"...."Smack the Infidel"...

I should put a disclaimer here saying that I truly believe people are people...some are crazier than others, but we all get attached to our beliefs. Hey, there are people in the south who still wear white robes and masks and who think that the things they believe are justified by God in the Bible.

They'd quote you scripture as the burned that cross on your lawn.

I guess I can admire the conviction.

I think if everyone would heed the, "Judge not" commandment, we'd all be okay.

Last note...I managed to snap this shot of a demonstration as we headed home from the mall the other day. (We went to the mall due to a shamal - a wind storm. I'll show pics of that later.)

We were obviosuly on the other side of a fence - and once again, we were driving, and hubs didn't want to do a U-ey so I could get a better shot.

I believe they were protesting Israel's attack of Hamas...and that's how they see it.

All depends on what side of the fence you're on...or on what side of what line in what country.