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H17573

Headlines : Iraq

Summary:

In what could prove to be the definitive turning point of the Iraq war, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is said to be weighing in on issuing a fatwa declaring a ‘defensive jihad’ against the American occupation of Iraq. By doing so, he would be enshrining anti-occupation attacks as a sacred religious duty for Iraq’s sizable Shia majority; that would almost certainly spell the end of the U.S.-led occupation.

So far, the reclusive cleric – who has not been seen in public since 2004 – has refrained from doing so, instead preferring to issue smaller fatwas, such as those permitting attacks to be carried out on occupation troops as a means of self-defense.

Long wary of America’s motives in Iraq, Sistani is singularly credited with forcing the U.S. to concede to the elections of 2004, which saw a coalition of Shia parties take the lion’s share of the contested seats. Sistani has apparently taken note of the fact that the rising popularity of his rival cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, is largely credited to the latter’s overt hostility to the American occupation.

[Posted By Heatscore]

By Hamza Hendawi and Qassim Abdul-Zahra
Republished from Associated Press

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issues fatwa permitting limited armed resistance to U.S. troops

Iraq’s most influential Shiite cleric has been quietly issuing religious edicts declaring that armed resistance against U.S.-led foreign troops is permissible – a potentially significant shift by a key supporter of the Washington-backed government in Baghdad.

The edicts, or fatwas, by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani suggest he seeks to sharpen his long-held opposition to American troops and counter the populist appeal of his main rivals, firebrand Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army militia.

But – unlike al-Sadr’s anti-American broadsides – the Iranian-born al-Sistani has displayed extreme caution with anything that could imperil the Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

The two met Thursday at the elderly cleric’s base in the city of Najaf south of Baghdad.

[end excerpt]

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