Eternal Ziyara كافي يمعودين

There are two places where it would especially suck, life-wise, having a Shia supremacy: Arabia and Iraq.

In Shi'i belief: There are 14 Infallibles = 12 Imams + Muhammed + Fatima (PBUH's daughter.)
Seven of those are in Iraq, (six, but counting the Mahdi)
The others, with the exception of Ridha, who's in Iran, are in Saudi Arabia.

So, what's the big deal? Okay, the big deal is that the Shia hold a mourning ritual and a birth ritual for each of those 14 dudes, that's about an entire month in the calendar where the whole country would have to galvanize all of its resources to protect and serve the hordes of visitors of the shrine of this Imam and that. Not to mention of course, the roads blocked throughout the city for the on-foot visitors, in short, the entire country would have to shut down.

So just when the supposedly 9 million Shia gathering in Hussein's Arabien at Kerbala dispersed, another ziyara was soon taking place in Najaf (where Ali is) - on top of it all, the ceremony is not related to Ali, but it is actually The Martyrdom of the Prophet. I mean, seriously!

and martyrdom? Gee, the Prophet was murdered? upon research, it seems that I have overlooked another feature of the tapestry of the Nasibi Sunni oppression against Shia, it seems that the Prophet was poisoned by Aisha and Hafsa, so that their parents, Abu Bakr and Umar could undertake the plot to deny Ali the caliphate.

All right, I have already established that Sunnis and Shia have little to claim in the vein of friendship or unity, but dude! I'm all for co-existence, but from a statesman point of view, should the year be completely dedicated to one ziyara after the next? Is that all you have to show for being liberated from Saddam Hussein? Secular Shia MP Iyad Jamal al-Din said that the overwhelming attendance of the Shi'i rituals in 2003 and 2004 was because people were trying to release the pent-up pressure of years where those religious rituals were denied by the Ba'ath. But it's 2008 now and it seems to get bigger than ever, Jamal al-Din himself seem to share my view, he was complaining about the politicization of those flagellation ceremonies and its use by political parties to re-assert themselves, Shia claim it's about establishing identity, but shouldn't that have already taken place now? We get it, you're in power! Thank you very much.

Here's the ِABRIDGED!!!! Shia festivities calendar, looking at it, I guess I should be thankful there are ONLY 7 shrines here. In general, martyrdoms are much more important than births, which are only massively celebrated for the principal Imams (Ali, Mahdi, etc)

10 Muharram: Hussein (Kerbala)
24 Muharram: Al-Askari Shrine Explosion, Samarra
25 Muharram: Zain Al-Abideen (Medina)
7 Safar : Hasan (Medina)
17 Safar : Ridha (Mashhad)
20 Safar : Hussein 40 (Kerbala)
28 Safar : Muhammed (Najaf - should be Medina)
5 Rabi1 : Sakina (Damascus?)
9 Rabi1 : Fatima's Joy [At Umar's Death]
17 Rabi1 : Birth Muhammed & Sadiq (Medina)
8 Rabi2 : B Askari (Samarra)
5 Jamad1 : B Zainab (Damascus)
17 Jamad1 : Fatima (Medina)
20 Jamad2 : B Fatima (Medina)
1 Rajab : B Baqir (Medina)
2 Rajab : B Hadi (Samarra)
3 Rajab : Hadi (Samarra)
25 ٌRajab : Musa al-Kazim (Baghdad) <-Al Aimma Bridge, 2005
3 Shaban : B Hussein (Kerbala)
5 Shaban : B Zain Abideen (Medina)
15 Shaban : B Mahdi + 1991 Rev (Kerbala) <- Sadr/Badr clashes, 2007
15 Ramadan : B Hasan (Medina)
19 Ramadan : Ali, Day 1
21 Ramadan : Ali Martyrdom (Najaf)
8 Shawal: Destruction of Shia Shrines in Arabia by Wahabis, 1920s
25 Shawal : Sadiq (Medina)
11 Qi3da : B Ridha (Mashhad)
7 Hijja : B Baqir (Medina)
18 Hijja : Ghadir (Najaf)