Salaam alaykum wa rahmatullah,
As is the norm for me, I was present at a few Muharram lectures. Due to health reasons, I was only able to attend three nights but Alhamdulilah, it was enough to put a few things in perspective.
I was listening to this ayatollah from Afghanistan (was refreshing to run into one of those) and night after night, he would touch upon different topics. I noticed that I was not the only Sunni there; in fact, a friend of mine told me that one of the Friday khutbahs (a day or two before Ashura) at a Sunni mosque was in regards to what happened in Karbala. I welcome this initiative by Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jama'ah because our silence is misconstrued as our weakness or ignorance.
Nonetheless, the ayatollah one night, noticing the presence of Sunnis at the gathering, acknowledged that Imam Hussain (ra) belongs not just to the Shias and that leading Friday prayers in Kabul, he would often hear the Sunni mosque across the street praise Ahlul Bayt (ra) right after mentioning the Prophet (saw). He even went on to say that a lot that has been narrated about, and from, Imam Hassan (ra) and Imam Hussain (ra) are found in Sunni books. In other words, the Shias rely on them to see what they had narrated.
What got to me was that on the "Night of Abbas", he mentioned that Abbas (ra) - the brother of Imam Hussain (ra) - was ready to pounce on the enemy but was awaiting the go-ahead from Imam Hussain (ra). He continued by saying that Abbas (ra) was just like his father, Imam Ali (ra), and that he would have crushed hundreds of the enemy forces all by himself. However, Imam Hussain (ra), as he continued the story, did not permit Abbas (ra) to launch an attack on the enemy because Imam Hussain (ra) did not want bloodshed. I was sitting there wondering then why did Imam Hussain (ra) leave for Kufa? To give dawah to Yazeed? To talk to his army? To preach?
Seeing stories contradict from one mosque to another or one gathering to another, it is hard to sit and listen patiently.