Well, just because at the moment it doesn't, there's not reason why it
should stay that way.  What sort of horror stories do the Marsh Arabs tell,
of their home?  What ancient myths are there from that region?  In Karbala
the Shi'ites perform a version of the mourning for Tammuz/Dumuzi, the
shepherd god, who reappears in Greek transliteration as Adonis (the Western
Semitic languages such as Hebrew, Punic, Mo'abitic have the word 'adon
meaning "lord" - it's easy to see where that story came from.), but the
Shi'ites have adapted it to mourn for a very real historical figure from
the early stages in the history of Islam.  The ritual of slashing
themselves with sharp objects though, comes from ancient Mesopotamian
traditions - in the west of the Fertile Crescent, they were never that
volatile, and the rite appears in the Book of the Judges as the young women
mourning in the hills for Jephtha's sacrificed virgin daughter.
Bowdlerized.

Don't let it stop you.

Wesley Parish