Perspective: Shi'ites celebrate Ashura holiday in tense climate

As part of the observance, Shia men around the world cut or flagellate themselves until bleeding

RIYADH, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Shi'ite Muslims across the Middle East this week mark the Ashura religious festival, which has been politicised more than usual by sectarian violence in Iraq and Lebanon.

The rites will reflect growing Shi'ite power in the region and fears of clashes are high amid charges by some Sunni clerics that Iran has been promoting missionary activity.

"In the past year the situation in the region and globally has been tense," said Khalil Almarzooq, deputy leader of the Wefaq parliamentary bloc, the largest Shi'ite group in Bahrain.

"And there are attempts from outside and inside to stoke sectarian tension, such as saying Shi'ites are followers of Iran, and this doesn't do anybody any good," he added.

In recent decades, Ashura - with displays of men whipping and cutting themselves to emulate the suffering of the Prophet's grandson Hussein - has been a gauge of the rise in the political power of Lebanon's traditionally poor and marginalised Shi'ites.

During Ashura - the 10th day of the Islamic month of Muharram which falls on Monday or Tuesday - Shi'ites commemorate the slaying of Hussein and his followers at Kerbala, located in modern Iraq, in 680 AD by the army of an Islamic empire based in Damascus.

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