Juloos Syed e Sajjad - Bandra East 2009

Juloos Syed e Sajjad - Bandra East 2009, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

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I start a new series at Flickr - the Bandra East Juloos known as Syed e Sajjad Juloos that is an important event in the ives of the Shias of this area , the Shia influence and population is miniscule in this commercial cosmopolitan hub.

But the juloos has been kept alive since almost 20 years, and this has nothing to do with religious sectarian politics, this juloos is about sacrifice of Imam Hussain and his family and a message of peace, Shiasm is nothing but a protest against spiritual terrorism , hegemony of hate and oppression against Humanity.

Maulana Hasnain Karari who translates our side of the Battle of Karbala talks of mutual coexistence , brotherhood among all Muslim factions including Hindus and other communities.So I tell most of my Shia friends in town , this is one place they must gather to propagate this message of Peace.

And I will digress , with a very personal thought on the subject of peace brotherhood and tolerance , before I was to come here to this juloos , I was waiting for my wife , and I got a call from Mr Salman Khan , asking me to come to his house urgently , he had some urgent work for me , I told him I was going to an important juloos with my wife , but he requested me to come for a few minutes , so I took my wife and Marziya my 2 year old grand daughter to his house, and here I must add Salman Khan his family specially his father Salim Khan epitomize Peace without bigotry , without hate , the very message of Peace and human bonding that Maualana Saab explicitly cited in his sermon to all of us.

Whether Salman Khan goes to Lal Bagh Cha Raja to pay respect does not take away the basic sense of propriety of respecting our culture our country and our people.

I shoot all religion , and it is this mutual respect that my birth in a Shia household taught me..my religious beliefs may differ from the next man , but the next man is still my brother..and the only time I reserve this right is when it offends my faith by people who call us heretics..the so called puritans who preachify hate on the Soul of Islam and the soul of Humanity.

When I came to the juloos Maulana Saab was on the mimber about to start his sermon I made Marziya and my wife sit on the sidewalk of Bandra East with the other Shia woman as I went to shoot this event.