The festival of Ashura is coming this weekend, during which devout Shiites beat and cut themselves with chains and knives in public rituals that leave the streets running with blood, and the Religion of Peace™ has kicked off the festivities with a mass murder at a mosque in Pakistan.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - A suicide bomber fired gunshots then blew himself up at a Shiite mosque in Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least seven people and injuring 20 others, authorities and witnesses said.

The blast came as minority Shiite Muslims prepared to mark the Ashoura festival, which is often marred by sectarian violence involving rival Sunnis.

Arshad Ali, whose brother died in the blast, said the attacker was a man aged about 18 who walked into the crowded Imambargah Qasim Baig mosque, opened fire with a pistol and then blew himself up.

“People present there tried to stop him. He took out a pistol, shot three times and then blew himself up,” Ali said, wailing and beating his chest in grief.

For some reason the wire services have filed all their gruesome, disturbing photos under the name “Moharram” (instead of “Ashura”) this year.

Kashmiri Shia Muslim boys beat themselves with chains during a Moharram procession in Srinagar January 17, 2008. Muslims all over the world mourn the slaying of Imam Hussein, grandson of Prophet Mohammed, during the first ten days of the Islamic month of Moharram. Imam Hussein was killed by his political rivals along with 72 companions in Iraq some 1,300 years ago. REUTERS/Fayaz Kabli (INDIAN-ADMINISTERED KASHMIR)

More photos of the barbaric self-mutilation rituals at Snapped Shot: The Religion of Peace (and child abuse).