Ashura celebrations growing more popular worldwide outside traditional Shia homelands.
In Tokyo, an imam from England, Jafar Ali Najam, spoke to Japanese-speaking Muslims with roots in Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. And a Muslim leader from Dearborn, Imam Husham Al-Husainy, lectured at a mosque in Toronto.
At Hussaini Imam Bargah in Tokyo, about 50 Shi’ite Muslims gathered Saturday night to hear lectures and perform a lamentation ritual known as latmiya.
“It’s getting bigger” in attendance, said Bijan Shalchi, 49, an Iranian-born Muslim who lives in Japan.
Mosques throughout Dearborn also are seeing more people attending Ashura services, said Tarek Baydoun, 25, of Dearborn.
Ashura commemorates the 7th-Century death of Imam Hussain, the grandson of the Prophet (pbuh).
