ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)<br/> <br />STORY: Hundreds of Shi'ite Muslims in Greece observed the religious festival of Ashura on Sunday with prayer, song and self-flagellation to mark the killing of Imam Hussein bin Ali believed to be grandson of the Prophet Muhammad and the third Shia Imam.<br/> <br />In a small side street near the Greek port of Pireaus, barefoot Shi'ite immigrants from Pakistan, Iraq, Iran and India gathered to observe the traditional ritual of drawing blood by self-flagellation to express deep sorrow over the death of Imam Hussein.<br/> <br />The Shi'ites stripped off their shirts, beat their chests and prayed before flagellating themselves with a chain that had short, sharp knives hanging at its end.<br/> <br />They released pigeons in the air and sang and cried over a horse with painted red hooves and a rich harness that symbolized the horse Imam Hussein had been riding the day he died.<br/> <br />The day of Ashura is the eighth day of the Shi'ite mourning month of Muharram which commemorates the Battle of Kerbala in Iraq around 1,300 years ago.
