Pilgrims to Shia Shrines in Iraq Killed

Al-Askiriya Mosque as rebuilt, Samara, Iraq

Source: Wikipedia Commons

Iraq contains some of the most important shrines for the Shia sect of Islam including those at Karbala where in past years a number of pilgrims have been killed. Yesterday's New York Times reported on a series of killings of pilgrims, including persons coming from predominantly Shiite Iran to visit the sacred sites in Iraq. The paper reports seven blasts at various sites around Baghdad killing at least 16 people and injuring many more. The Shia pilgrimage sites in Iraq were off-limits for pilgrims from Iran for many years. While the government of Iraq now allows Iranians to visit, friction between Sunni and Shia in Iraq has resulted in periodic, violent and deadly attacks against Shia pilgrims at and en-route to or from the shrines. Both Iraqi and non-Iraqi pilgrims have been targets of Shia bombs over the past eight years.

Pilgrims have been targets of terrorists in Iraq, but so also have been the pilgrimage sites themselves. In 2006 a terrorist bomb destroyed the golden dome of the al-Askari mosque at Samarra, about 125 km from Baghdad, and much of the mosque was left in ruins, Al-Askari and its golden domed mosque is one of the most important Shia pilgrimage sites, behind only Karbala and Najaf in significance. The next year the two golden minarets and a clock tower on the site were also destroyed by terrorist bombs. While none of the buildings were very old, they were covered in gold leaf and contained the remains of two of the most revered early imams of Shia Islam. The mosque and minarets have been rebuilt, and pilgrims have resumed visiting the sacred site. Among some Sunni Muslims in Iraq the pilgrimage site at al-Askari is also revered.

The Shi'ite Askariya shrine in Samarra, Iraq, June 23, 2003. The sacred mosque was destroyed February 22, 2006. (Mandi Wright/Detroit Free Press/KRT)

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2009/03/06/63436/iraqi-pilgrims-visit-samarras.html#ixzz17LjRA6Tj

A New Session of the Pilgrimage Course, ALRI Spring 2011

St. James Major (Santiago), 16th Century, Alabaster 

Victoria & Albert Museum, London

©eop

The Pilgrimage course, one I greatly enjoy leading, is to be offered at ALRI again in the Spring 2011 term, and I am looking forward to it. As always when a course it repeated, it is a chance to do some additional research and to flesh out ideas and topics covered in the past. 

I have been doing some reading about pilgrimages in exotic places including the Shikoku pilgrimage, about 1,300 kms on the island of that name in Japan. The husband of a former student was so kind as to give me a copy of a book I had scan read a long time ago, Japanese Pilgrimage by Oliver Statler (1983. New York: Morrow. ISBN 0688018904). I plan to do enough reading about that fascinating Buddhist trek to comment more intelligently on it in the Spring, having just shown a map and said the route existed the last time I taught the course. I also plan to spend a little time looking further into the Qoyllurití pilgrimage in Peru. If time allows, I would also like to do a little work on pilgrimages in Africa, a part of the world largely ignored in the past editions of the course due to my ignorance.

The year 2010 was a holy year for Santiago de Compostela, and I had hoped to walk at least a part of one of the pilgrimage routes. An ankle injury in last winter's ice and snow made that impossible, but I do hope to be in shape to walk some section of one of the Camino routes this coming autumn. As a consequence I have been doing some reading about routes other than the popular Camino Frances from the Pyrenees to Santiago. Having walked that 800 kms twice, this next time I am considering the possibility of the short Camino Portuguese from Lisboa or perhaps only from Oporto as well as the rugged Camino del Norte (also called the Camino Primitivo) and the spectacular Camino de la Plata from Sevilla via Extremadura through Salamanca and onward to Santiago. The last is the most attractive but also by far the longest (2 months about) and most difficult option.  

Hajj 1431 ( November 2010 in the Western Calendar)

Grand Mosque, Mecca 2010 Hajj

Source: Chiru Fans Site, India

The 2010 Hajj saw a peak of nearly 3 million pilgrims in Medinah and Mecca over the period 14-18 November, and it passed without major problems. Torrential rainstorms near the end of the Hajj made for slippery conditions, but otherwise the weather was cooperative, and there were no problems of terrorism, no stampedes or other events which have marred pilgrimages in past years.

Meanwhile the Saudi government is remaking Mecca with the eventual goal of allowing 5 times as many pilgrims to make the Hajj annually. Much redevelopment of the core of the city has already occurred, but it mostly provides luxury accommodations for the rich. Poorer pilgrims making the required visit to the sacred city have not fared so well. The Pakistani government has arrested the official in the Ministry of Religious Affairs responsible for Hajj and there has been a call for the minister to step down after poor pilgrims were badly housed in Mecca. The charge is misappropriation of funds after housing in the Saudi city was unfinished and pilgrims stayed in places without adequate water and sanitation and no electricity. At nearly $3000 each charged by the Pakistani government for transportation and housing, poorer Pakistanis must save over many years to pay the cost of the pilgrimage.

An American company arranging for visas to Saudi Arabia for United States Muslims returned passports somewhat late, and those passports were, in turn, delayed by the customs service. The delay caused a number of pilgrims from northern Virginia to miss scheduled flights. The customs service was forced to pay for replacement flights in order to get those pilgrims to the international airport at Medinah on time to make Hajj. The Saudi goverment has been concerned with firms not meeting contractual obligations when providing services for pilgrims.

St James in London

Statue of Peregrino atop Clock

St. James Garlickhythe, City of London

© EOP

London
5 September 2010


It has been a little difficult to find time to write a blog while on holiday here, but I have found a few things worthy of mention. As all know, London is a city rich in museums and especially rich in collections relating to the Middle Ages. There are worthwhile images of St. James in the medieval collections of the Victoria & Albert and in the National Gallery. A fascinating little gem is the small Wren Church of St. James Garlickhythe. It is a little difficult to locate and even more difficult to access since one of its walls faces on a busy street without a pedestrian footpath. The short walk to the Church is well worthwhile, for the still active parish church includes all kinds of St. James symbols as part of its decoration.

Bomb Threat or Hoax at Lourdes

Basilica of Lourdes, Hautes-Pyrénées, France

source: Wikimedia Commons

Assumption day, a very popular time for pilgrims to visit the shrine at Lourdes, was marred by the threat of bombs at the sanctuary. About 30,000 pilgrims were forced to evacuate the shrine and mill about for several hours until the police determined there were no bombs. BBC News Europe has a good report.

The major Christian pilgrimage sites have not had actual acts of terrorism or massive casualties caused by terrorists and bombs, but as with all places where large numbers of people congregate, national authorities fret constantly about the possibility. Security was a major concern during the recent celebrations at Santiago de Compostela, and some pilgrims complained of the massive presence of police, the Guardia Civil and the military over the St. James Day weekend in July. French authorities have been on high alert during the summer pilgrimage season at Lourdes and quickly responded with evacuation orders when the bomb threat, apparently a hoax, was received. The horrors which have accompanied pilgrimages to the Shia Islamic holy city of Karbala in Iraq are not far from the minds of security planners. In a very real way the terrorists have won a major battle, scaring all and sundry even when the threat is not real.

Notes on Pilgrimages to Santiago and Karbala

Chemin St, Jacques Paraphernalia, Le Puy-en-Velay, France 2005

©EOP

Years when St. James Day is a Sunday are designated Holy Years, and I had planned to write a few lines on Sunday 25 July, St. James Day. Events precluded the posting, so I though I would post a few notes on a hideously hot afternoon waiting for plumbers to install a new water heater.The number of pilgrims walking at least the last 200 km to Santiago in 2010 has greatly escalated, as it always does on Holy Years. That growth in numbers is in part a reflection of the fact that the next Holy Year is 11 years away. At Santiago de Compostela and along the routes (Camino, Chemin, Weg etc.) leading toward it the entire year is important, with many special events. In Santiago itself, the Holy Door of the Cathedral is open, the King of Spain has visited at least twice, and the Pope is planning a visit in November. I had hoped to do at least a bit of the pilgrimage this year, perhaps along one of the less popular routes, but an ankle injury in February made that impossible.

[An unrelated reason for many more pilgrims in 2010 may be the Spanish team's triumph in the football World Cup in South Africa and the victory of a Spaniard in bicycling's Tour de France. Some football-crazed Spaniards (and perhaps some cycling crazed ones as well) promised to make the pilgrimage to the shrine of Spain's patron if their team was successful.]

Pilgrims to Santiago are rarely, if ever, victims of political violence even in the restive Basque region where most walk for a week or more on their way west. Sadly that is not the case for pilgrims to the Shia Islam shrines in Karbala, Iraq.

Shrines in Karbala, Iraq

Source: Muslim Herald

"Eight people killed as violence against Shiite pilgrims continues in Iraq"
By Leila Fadel
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, July 9, 2010; A09
"BAGHDAD -- At least seven people were killed in bombings targeting Shiite pilgrims in the Iraqi capital Thursday, and a pilgrim returning home on foot was shot dead outside the northern city of Kirkuk, on the third day of deadly violence by militants apparently intent on stoking sectarian tensions amid a months-long political stalemate."

The article in the right-wing newspaper went on to describe the violence and how it has become an annual event as millions of Shia Muslims from Iraq but also from neighboring countries, particularly Iran where Shia Islam is the dominant cult, make the trek to Karbala and the tomb of Imam Hussayn. Under Saddam, the pilgrimage was curtailed and even prohibited, but subsequent to the Cheney-Bush military adventure for benefit of the oil cartel, pilgrims have returned in great numbers to the purported tomb of Mohammed's son-in-law, a founding figure of the Shiite cult. In 2009 PBS released a documentary film, made of the 2006 pilgrimage, to the shrine. [I have not as yet viewed the film but expect to before the next time I teach the pilgrimage course]. Though it is cold comfort to those mourning loved ones or suffering personal injuries, the violence in 2010, horrible as it was, was far less than that of earlier years.

Santiago in Philadelphia

Fairmount Waterworks, Philadelphia Museum in back, Philadelphia, PA, 1998

© EOP

Earlier this week I spent several days in Philadelphia, a city well-endowed with things to see and do, W. C. Fields notwithstanding. In the midst of a heatwave, the Philadelphia Museum was a cool respite from the outdoors. The large exhibit of medieval materials, most from France but with a few representative pieces from elsewhere in Europe, was new to me and well worth the visit.Included in the medieval collection is a Romanesque arched Portal from the Abbey Church of Saint-Laurent, France a 12th century building near Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire, a pilgrimage church on the Chemin St.Jacques. It is one of many churches and other facilities along the Chemin influenced by the Benedictines of Cluny. The arched doorway leads to a small cloister with a Spanish fountain from Monastery of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa in Catalunya, an exhibit that brings back many memories of France and Spain and of the Chemin/Camino!


Tickets to view the Barnes Collection in Merion were a primary reason for the trip to Philadelphia. The collection is due to be moved to a site in central Philadelphia in a couple of years, and the current year is the last to visit the peculiar museum in its suburban splendor. Most people go to see the awe inspiring collection of French art from the impressionists through the 20th century. Scattered among the gems of that part of the collection are a number of pieces of other provenance, including some fine sculptures and paintings from Renaissance Europe. Spread in several galleries are a third life size statute of St. Roch, a painting of St. James the major in a guise largely unrecognizable to those of us familiar with Santiago Peregrino (pilgrim accouterments including staff, hat and scallop shell)  and Santiago Matamoros astride a horse, and a painting of St. Sebastian with Santiago Peregrino. I foolishly did not carry a notebook, and the museum prohibits photographs and does not offer reproductions in its shop. Any follower of Santiago able to visit the museum is advised to look for the statue near the head of the stairs on the second floor and the paintings in the galleries east of the main room on the first floor.