Shooting Moharam and The Soul of The Shia

Shooting Moharam and The Soul of The Shia, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

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A Blog Speaks Out Of Turn..

Perhaps you think because I am a Shia it has been easy shooting Moharam or the Shia ethos , but you will not believe it in spite of being barefeet in Shia decorum black clothes and I wear only black during Mohram and Saffron and black after Moharam..its been very tough for reasons I dont understand .

I have in spite of my financial shortcomings no sponsors tried to cover Moharam in about 10 years all on my own, Kolkatta Hyderabad Jaorah Hussain Tekri Delhi Mahmoodabad Lucknow the city of my birth including Mumbai the city of my domicile.

I am a Pucca Maharashtrian and a Pucca Mumbaikar..


I shot Shiasm to show the non shia our traditions our ritual the story of our eternal everlasting pain Ghame Hussain.

My primary audience was never the Shia as he knows it all it was the foreigner my friends on social networking sites like Buzznet Facebook and Flickr.

I wanted to make them aware of my roots why I posted pictures of blood and gore that got me a lot of hate comments at Flickr , its another story that I have disabled comments on Flickr Wordpress Blogspot I could not respond to hate comments and whatever you distaste does not change my status quo as a Indian born Shia Muslim.

Because you are bought up differently from me does not mean I should tow your line of thought , your narrow mindedness or the bigotry that your parents bequeathed you.

My parents gave me respect for other religions respect for my country respect for my neighbor and respect for myself.

I have been taken to task by Shias educated ones for shooting pictures of Moharam and abused provoked and many a times in my anguish pain thought I would call it a day and stop shooting pictures but as soon as Moharam comes I am at the doors of Ghame Hussain.

Others have a right to know about us and from grass root level and not the pulpit of the Mullah.

As the non Shia cannot enter certain places of Shia worship I became his eyes to show our angst our pain, we are the only community among the Muslims with a unique demarcation of pain, we mourn for the Martyrdom of Imm Hussain son of Imam Ali and Princess Fatima only daughter of the Holy Messenger of Islam.

The Karbala genocide carnage and there is no denying it is only the Muslim that loves killing Muslims its part of our historical fate and history even those days the killing of Imam Hussain was considered to be a Jewish conspiracy simply to absolve Yazid and Co and shift the blame on an unknown hand by the conspirators.

So we as Shias relive the pain of Imam Hussain and through our blood sweat tears hope to keep another Karbala happening , but it happens everyday a Shia shrine or mosque is blown away by a Muslim jehaddi or Shia hating terrorist..this is the basic fact and I laugh when someone tells me the terrorist has no religion he has more religion than you and me so he kills with impunity and who would not want a nubile virgin the rogue Mulah offers for his sacrifice.

Killings in Ramzan hit us all but than the show has to go on..

So I shoot the soul of my pain and your pain.

And I shoot other religiosity too ,something the Shia bigot hates , too bad my mothers legacy was to love all and everyone tomorrow barefeet dressed in saffron , limping on a badly bruised leg and fasting I shall shoot the Dahi Handi..at Dadar and at Thane and break my fast on the streets will it make me more Hindu or less Muslim God knows better and I shall shoot the Visarjan and I shall shoot my culture a thought that hurt a very educated London returned Shia I met at Moghul Masjid recently..

It hurt me more when he said he was bough up in the lanes of Moghul Masjid I have some of my best friends from this lane who are a pride of my Shia community.

So there is a flip side to in every religiosity...and the greatest religiosity is Humanity respect for Humanity, Religion cannot pre exist without Humanity Humanity is what keeps God Alive too as he is as Human as we are godly in our humility and our love for the humans he created .. different fingers but part of the same Hand of God.

So this is an early morning blog before I hit myself back to sleep with a cudgel


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