video transcript

WARNING: Video contains graphic content Thousands of Shi'ite Muslims stream through a mosque in the Iraqi city of Kerbala. They are celebrating one of the holiest days on the Islamic calendar - Ashura. It marks the death over 1,300 years ago of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed. That led to the division of Islam into two sects - Sunni and Shi'ite - a schism that continues to plague the Islamic world. Shi'ites across the Middle East consider Ashura a day of mourning. Here in Lebanon, worshippers cut their heads and slap their wounds, a sign of solidarity with Hussein's suffering. The ritual sefl-flagellation, though, is considered controversial.