61 Canadian Shiites detained in Cairo after visiting Karbala in Arbaeen

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - For a group of 61 Canadian adult and youth Shiite Muslims, an emotional two-week pilgrimage ended this weekend when they were detained in Egypt on their way home to Toronto. The group had recently finished an annual 80-kilometre trek from the Iraqi city of Najaf to a shrine in Karbala in central Iraq, one of the holiest cities in the Islamic faith.“It’s a very significant event — if you do it once in a lifetime, it’s an achievement,” said Mazahair Dhirani, secretary of the Islamic Shia Ithna-Asheri Jamaat of Toronto. “It’s an emotionally charged event. It’s very disciplined.”Even young children often participate, along with hundreds millions of others who make the pilgrimage each year to observe Arbaeen, which marks the end of 40 days of mourning the death of the revered Shiite figure who was martyred in Karbala, Imam Hussain (a.s.), grandson of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).“Every Shiite Muslim goes there to commemorate what happened 14 centuries back,” Dhirani said. Shiites visit the grave to offer prayers, and stay for several days in the region to visit other religious sites.The trip was organized privately through a travel agency, Dhirani said. The group had flown out of Baghdad International Airport and expected to stay in Cairo during a two-day layover but were not permitted to leave the airport by Egyptian security officials.Dhirani said he had been in direct contact with a member of the group of adults and youths as they prepared to board an EgyptAir flight on Sunday evening. They were expected to land in Toronto on Monday morning. On Sunday evening, the group leader told Dhirani: “We are all fine. Yes, we had this small episode here, but as of in the next one hour we are boarding the plane . . . pray for us. We should be landing in Toronto at six in the morning.”The annual pilgrimage is a time of reflection and contemplation. “It’s more a commemoration or mourning ceremony. It’s not a celebration,” said the Jamaat’s Imam Sayyid Rizvi. All that came to an abrupt end when the Shiites were detained at the airport. It’s unclear why the group was prevented from entering Cairo, Rizvi said. He added the group, which included many of his members, was also confined to one small area of the airport but were given food and water.Canadian officials said Sunday night they were aware of the detention.“Canadian consular officials are in contact with the group and monitoring the situation,” Beatrice Fenelon, spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, wrote in an email. “As well, it is the sole prerogative of each country to determine who is allowed to enter.”Normally a tourist visa can be purchased at the airport on arrival, according to the federal department, which also advises against non-essential travel to Egypt because of ongoing instability. According to a 2013 report on Egypt’s religious freedom by the U.S. Department of State, the government “continued to harass Shiites and prevent conversion to Islam,” and that Shiites and other minorities faced individual and collective discrimination. “Government and official Islamic institutions also used anti-Shiite rhetoric,” the report says. Shiites make up less than one per cent of Egypt’s 80 million population. About 90 per cent of the population identifies as Sunni Muslim.In September, Canadian filmmaker John Greyson and doctor Tarek Loubani were detained in Egypt. They were freed in October after more than six weeks.Last Sunday Canadian journalist and producer for Al Jazeera English Mohamed Fadel Fahmy was arrested along with several others and remains in Egypt’s Tora prison./149