IN the NEWS - Pagan custom lives on in Islam

"Shiite Muslims observe Ashura through mourning rituals such as self-flagellation and reenactments of the martyrdom. Many travel to Karbala in Iraq, where Hussein was killed, as a pilgrimage on Ashura. Most observers wear black and march through the streets chanting and hitting themselves in the chest. Some use whips and chains -- or cut themselves on the forehead -- to ritually punish their bodies. This practice has been condemned by some Shiite leaders, so Ashura blood drives are often organized as a substitute.
Ashura marks many things: the creation of the world, Noah's departure from the ark, Moses' flight from Egypt and the martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson, Hussein ibn Ali, in 680 A.D." hp

And they cried aloud, and cut themselves
after their manner with knives and lancets,
 till the blood gushed out upon them.
1 Kings 18:28
The ancient pagan ritual of Baal priests
lives on through the self-flagellation of today
in Shiite Islam during their Ashura festivities