ABSTRACT
During Muharram processions, Shia Muslim males beat their breasts with their bare hands, flog their backs with sharp metal instruments, or scar their heads.2 The ritual has deep roots in Shia Islam and has been considered constitutive of Shia identity and habitus by scholars and believers alike. Equally, however, the sight and the smell of agitated flagellators drenched in blood making their way along streets made slippery by their blood has raised the issue of whether this form of penance should be considered legitimate in the light of Islamic precepts, acceptable in the light of reason, legal in the eyes of the state, politically expedient, or warranted in multiethnic urban environments. According to Sam Harris, the controversial critic of religions, Muharram is an example of irrational behaviour:
Witness the rebuilding of Iraq: What was the first thing hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Shiites thought to do upon their liberation? Flagellate themselves. Blood poured from their scalps and backs as they walked miles of cratered streets and filth-strewn alleys to converge on the holy city of Karbala, home to the tomb of Hussain, the grandson of the Prophet. Ask yourself whether this was really the best use of their time.
