Shiite Pilgrimage Reaches Climax Near Karbala
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: In Iraq's holy city of Karbala, a religious ritual that was largely unobserved for decades is being revived now that Saddam Hussein's regime is over. Hundreds of thousands of Shiite Muslims have made pilgrimages to the city in a mix of religious fervor and anti-Americanism. CNN's Nic Robertson, live in Karbala, joins us now from this celebrations -- Nic.</s>NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, this is an odd day that's been all about freedom, about religious freedom about freedom of expression, freedom of speech. People here have been -- have been gathering in Karbala for the last couple of days. They've been coming from cities across the country many people walking. Under Saddam Hussein's regime they could not have gathered in this way in these numbers. They could not have walked from, let's say, Baghdad or any of the other cities that they've come from. People tell us if they tried to do that, they would have been arrested, they could have spent years in jail or even death. What we've been witnessing here, people, like these people here right now, even at this late hour, marching between the two holy shrines here in Karbala. The people beat themselves. It's self flagellation, a way of expressing their guilt. Their religious leader who is buried here, Imam Hussein (ph), died in a battle that they Shia community never came to support him and they -- they beat themselves in this way to express their guilt. This couldn't have happened and didn't happen under Saddam Hussein. And while people here say they're very grateful for the United States for getting rid of Saddam Hussein, they are also telling us that they're very happy for the United States to go. They saying the forces can pull out. They're not need at this time. That the Iraqi people, they say, are quite happy to be left on their own. Perhaps the reason that the Shia community, that it makes up two- thirds of the population of Iraq, feels happy for that to happen, or says it's happy for that to happen, is because their religious leaders have already begun to fill these power vacuums left by Saddam Hussein's regime. They're providing security for their people, they're dealing with welfare issues, dealing with education issues, providing security on the streets of some areas. These religious leaders already giving a political voice, and certainly some of these religious leaders who have been speaking politically say they think that the United States would try and divide their Shia community, to lessen their political voice in the whole of Iraq. And this comes at a time when some of these leaders are calling for theocracy, are calling for an Islamic state inside Iraq -- Kyra.</s>PHILLIPS: Well, Nic, I hope you can hear me OK. The energy and the singing is so strong, you can't help but feel it. And I just wanted to ask you, we've seen these pictures of the slapping of chests and -- and the fake blood on the faces and the shirts. And I just -- could you just expand a little bit on the symbolism behind this? You see it and it's -- you don't really understand it at first, so explain it to us.</s>ROBERTSON: Hugely symbolic. Imam Hussein, the grandson of the prophet Mohammed, who is so important to Muslims throughout the world -- Imam Hussein fought a battle here in Karbala, about 13 centuries ago. He was massacred. The reason he was massacred? Because the Shia community who supported him did not come and fight on his side. Today these people expressed their guilt, seek atonement by beating themselves because their ancestors didn't support this religious icon, Imam Hussein, who is buried in one of the shrines here. That's why it happens. So brutal has been the beating -- people beating themselves today, that some of their religious leaders have called on them to calm down. They're saying that just because you haven't been able to do this for so many years, calm down. Take it easy. Don't beat yourselves up so much. And that's been coming from their leaders here -- Kyra.</s>PHILLIPS: Well, it's an interesting twist of irony. Our Nic Robertson there in Karbala, thank you very much. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com