Ashura, A Day Like No Other 1335 years ago, on Ashura ; the tenth day of the new Islamic year (Muharram), in the early hours of the afternoon, on a sand-dune at Karbala, south of the current Iraqi capital, a convoy of men, women, and children was savagely massacred and 110 were killed by an army of over 30,000. It took the monstrous military force little more than four hours to completely and utterly annihilate the small group. The small camp led by Imam Hussain, though mythically defiant, suffered a crushing defeat. All the men were killed, as well as a dozen children and infants. The remaining women and children were taken into custody. The caravan along with the severed heads of the martyrs was paraded around the nation in a humiliating spectacle amidst demented festivities and celebrations and then, everything was over. Today, over 1.5 billion people around the world come to a standstill on Ashura . A solemn commemoration of the single most tragic event