One very important factor that captivates the media attention is the number of participants in these festivals and ceremonies, and indeed, the larger the number of the participants, the bigger the news significance and broader coverage of the event. This issue is so important that even in 1955, Guinness World Records was created to register the most record-breaking of these events.
However, despite the fact that these days the world’s biggest religious congregation is underway and millions from the seven continent’s and from all religions and faiths are arriving in the Iraqi holy city of Karbala to mark Arbaeen of Imam Hussain and millions others mark the event in their home countries as they do not have the chance for presence in Karbala, to surprise of all, this annual festival is put under targeted media boycott as if the magnificent presence of 20 to 30 million pilgrims in Karbala to mark Arbaeen has no attraction to the mainstream media.
This contradictory behavior of the international media prompts a question: Why is this huge human ceremony facing media boycott in a concerted move?
Certainly, this media boycott in this big scale cannot be accidental or it is not because of the news subject being of little importance, and as it was mentioned, the religious ceremonies such as Diwali among Buddhists, which is held every three years, gets media focus and reflection. Therefore, the main reason should be sought elsewhere.
Zionism dominating the Western media
The massive and powerful influence of the Zionist lobby in the main centers of power in Western countries is no longer a secret and even Western thinkers and experts acknowledge it. Along with the financial and political centers, the media and cinema industry is also one of those influential, decisive and money-making areas in the political structure of the West and the Zionists have an extensive influence over its management.
Painting the Jews as victimized and oppressed to justify the support for the child-killer Israeli regime has been a permanent policy of this lobby in the cinema industry of the West, and anything opposite to the Zionist policy faces media blackout.
Arbaeen and Ashura culture inspire fight against oppression, fight for rights and embracement of martyrdom for the human values, and also showing no compromise to imperialism among the Palestinians and other pro-freedom nations that witness the Israeli slaughter and oppression machine.
Everyone who cherishes Arbaeen and Ashura culture certainly finds turning a blind eye to the Israeli crimes opposite to the principles and vision of of Imam Hussain, the third Shiite Imam and the grandson of Prophet Muhammad.
Arbaeen carries message of genuine Islam
Today, due to the spread of culture of consumerism and Western secularism, the world is struggling with the crisis of lack of spirituality and global injustice as the root crises of humanity. Driven by this, more and more people from various countries and communities and faiths convert to Islam, a religion seeking life balance and prosperity for humans.
This trend is increasingly worrying non-Muslim governments especially in the West that resort to campaigns of blackening against the Muslims under what is called Islamophobia. They highlight the ideology of takfiri groups, mainly founded by the West, and generalize their thinking to all Muslims in a bid to present a blackened picture of the Muslim world.
In such a situation, acquaintance to progressive and pro-justice culture of Ashura and also observation of culture of sacrifice and peaceful coexistence of millions of people from various nations in the Arbaeen marches are spellbreakers of Islamophobic propaganda.
Admitting that resistance and Iran’s Islamic Revolution discourse are expanding
During the four decades of the Iranian Islamic Revolution’s life, the enemies of the Revolution, especially the US and the Israeli regime, have used every means of pressure to block the inspiring concepts of anti-arrogance, independence, self-belief and religious democracy of the Iranian nation from reaching other regions in the Muslim world. Now and after forty years of the Islamic Revolution, the Islamic Republic of Iran has not only yielded to the pressures and sanctions, but also with the formation of the Axis of Resistance and its growing power, the US and Israeli regime’s power to interfere in the internal affairs of regional countries grows weaker day by day. Now with equations underergoing a shift, security becomes the main obsession of the Israelis and Americans in the region.
Indeed, it is hard for the
Americans to acknowledge that after they spent over $7 trillion and
losing thousands of military personnel, Iraq is now a strategic ally to
Iran. This is a message any viewer can get by seeing millions from Iraq,
Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen and other countries marking the Arbaeen
in Karbala , and this is a picture the Western and affiliated Arab
media are afraid to send out to the world.
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