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A Muharram victory

Oh boy! Was the US so confident of Allawi’s victory that they didn’t think what would happen if the Shi’i religious party won the elections? It’s not so much that they won, I think everyone but this administration saw them winning a plurality if not a majority, but it dawned on me today that they won the elections during Muharram. The first ten-days were when the Prophet’s grandson Husayn was tortured and killed. It’s one of the formative moments of Shi’ah identity and remains incredibly important for the Ithna’ashari, the type of Shi’ah in Iraq. The symbology of Imam Husayn…

Ramadan Mubarak

Fasting, of course, is not simply about the physical abstention from food, but also of controlling one’s lower self, whether in thought or deed. I am desperate need of that sort of re-centering as I hear that the US is considering outsourcing torture; that we are treating our troops with more and more disregard; that people are actively being disenfranchised, and no one seems to care.