(RNS) — Ashura, the 10th day of the first month in the Islamic calendar, falls this year on Saturday (July 5). A sacred day in the Islamic tradition, it is revered by Muslims as the day Allah saved the Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) and the oppressed Israelites from the tyranny of Pharaoh by parting the Red Sea.
It is also the day in 680 that saw the martyrdom of Hussain (may Allah be pleased with him), the beloved grandson of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) at Karbala— murdered in cold blood by a corrupt ruler. It is also the day that the Ark of Noah (peace be upon him) arrived to shore safely according to many traditions.
The stories carry a common theme: liberation.
But what is liberation in the eyes of Islam?
It is not merely the absence of chains. It is freedom from tyranny in all its forms — physical, spiritual, and moral. True liberation is not simply about who rules over you, but about who rules within you. In the examples of Moses and Hussain, liberation came through sacrifice, steadfastness and a principled refusal to be complicit in oppression.
That’s what makes this year’s Ashura so difficult for American Muslims, who continue to watch their tax dollars bomb and cage innocent children.
This year, Ashura coincides with Fourth of July weekend in the United States. Fireworks light up the skies in celebration of “freedom,” while smoke still rises from Gaza where children were slaughtered just this week in Israeli airstrikes, with weapons paid for by the American taxpayer. ICE just received it’s “big, beautiful budget bump,” expanding its capacity to harrass, intimidate, detain, deport, and surveil immigrants —i including pro-Palestinian activists such as Badar Khan Suri, Leqaa Kordia, Ward Sakeik, and Mahmoud Khalil, whose only “crime” was their Palestinian descent or else their political dissent.
I have sat in prison visitation rooms with each of them, listening and praying. Each of their stories is unique, but each of them used the same word in our conversations: disillusioned.
Ward Sakeik, just released after five months behind bars, was arrested on her honeymoon and chained like a criminal. She’s been in this country since she was eight years old. “Everything I thought I knew about America,” she told me, “went out the window.” Mahmoud Khalil said nearly the same thing. So did Badar. So did Leqaa.
For them, American freedom became a cruel bait-and-switch.
For many Muslims, this weekend won’t be marked by barbecue and fireworks, but by prayer, fasting, and reflection. On Ashura, the Prophet Muhammad fasted in gratitude for Allah’s liberation of the oppressed. He taught us to fast too — not just from food and drink, but from ego, complicity, and apathy. It is a day to spiritually align ourselves with the oppressed, to remind ourselves in our hearts that we don’t bow to pharaohs, no matter how gilded their palaces or powerful their armies.
But what happens when the pharaoh doesn’t call himself a king? What happens when oppression wears a suit, waves a flag and speaks in the name of democracy?
We are living through a moment when freedom is being celebrated in theory, while systematically undermined in practice.
For American Muslims, especially this year, these aren’t rhetorical questions. Many of us have spent the last months trying to free friends from ICE detention, trying to speak out against genocide without being criminalized and trying to raise our children in a country that grows more hostile to our faith with every passing week. We have seen civil liberties eroded, speech policed and the pursuit of justice painted as a threat.
And still we persist. Because liberation, in Islam, is not granted by presidents or parliaments. It is a divine promise. It may take time. It may require sacrifice. But it is always coming.
So this Ashura we fast because we still believe in the God who split the sea for the oppressed. We pray for and fight for the children of Gaza, and the detainees in American prisons, as they all remind us that the struggle for real freedom is not over.
Let the fireworks crackle in the distance. Let the slogans ring hollow. We know what true liberation tastes like. And we know who grants it.
Ashura defines for us what it means to walk the prophetic path: refusing to legitimize tyranny, even when that comes with the seal of empire.
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