Greater than 21 million Shiite Muslims took half within the Arbaeen pilgrimage in Iraq this yr, which reached its peak on Sunday with attendees displaying their assist for Gaza.
Arbaeen, which implies forty in Arabic, marks the fortieth day of mourning for the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed and a founding determine in Shiite Islam.
It is likely one of the world’s largest spiritual gatherings and a significant occasion for Shiites, who’re the bulk in Iraq and Iran.
Karbala, the place Hussein and his brother Abbas are buried in two huge mausoleums going through one another, is the centre of the Shiite world throughout this time.
Pilgrims freely specific their struggling, weeping and wailing in reminiscence of Hussein, who was killed in 680 throughout a battle in Karbala with the Umayyad caliph Yazid.
This yr, the occasions have included distinguished shows of Palestinian flags by pilgrims, AFP photographers reported, amid the struggle in Gaza.
“The full variety of Arbaeen pilgrims… reached 21,480,525”, the establishment that manages the Abbas mausoleum and is answerable for the rely, mentioned.
Amongst them had been about 3.5 million Iranian pilgrims, in line with official figures reported in Tehran.
Mohammed al-Tamimi, a 32-year-old pilgrim informed AFPTV that the Palestinian flags waving among the many pilgrims are “in assist of our brothers in Palestine and in response to the Zionists, saying that Muslims stand as one in opposition to the Zionist actions and in opposition to the crimes going down in Gaza.”
The Arbaeen celebrations, which all the time happen amid tight safety, drew round 22 million pilgrims final yr, in line with official figures. Iran supplied probably the most overseas guests, with 4 million.
The struggle in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s October 7 assault on southern Israel, which resulted within the deaths of 1,199 folks, most of them civilians, in line with an AFP tally based mostly on Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory army marketing campaign has killed at the least 40,405 folks in Gaza, in line with the Hamas-run territory’s well being ministry, which doesn’t break down civilian and militant deaths. The UN rights workplace says many of the useless are ladies and kids.
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