Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Hundreds of Shia Muslims in Kampala participated in a procession on the streets on November 13 to observe Ashura, the tenth day of the first month (Muharram) of the Islamic lunar calendar.
The day, marked by all Muslims, is special for Shias who remember the martyrdom at Karbala (on banks of River Euphrates in Iraq) of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.
According to Sheikh Shams, director of Ali Mustaphah Islamic College in Kampala, Ashura is 'a day of mourning' the martyrdom of Hussein, the third Shia Imam killed 1,400 years ago.
To mark the occasion, the Shia congregation held a street procession. After prayers and rituals at their William street-based mosque, they marched halfway through Kampala road and back.
Participants dressed in black chanted slogans while the sect's sheikhs and other leaders made speeches and recitations in intervals, affirming the significance of Hussein's martyrdom to the modern-day Muslims. As they marched, they donated sodas, milk and foodstuffs to onlookers.
The spiritual leader of the Shia Muslims in Uganda, Ayatollah Said Twaba Twabahi; the Iranian ambassador to Uganda, Amir Hossein Nik Bin and Crane bank managing director, A.K. Kalan, were part of the procession.
source : abna24
