Top cleric who opposed Israeli occupation and jihad dies

GRAND AYATOLLAH Sayyed Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah, one of the Shia world’s most respected and revered clerics, died yesterday in hospital in Beirut.

A dedicated opponent of Israel's occupation of Arab land, a fierce critic of US policies in the Middle East and a supporter of the 1979 Iranian revolution, Sayyed Fadlallah was a social moderate and sought to reconcile Shia and Sunni Muslims. As a descendant of the family of the prophet Muhammad, he assumed the title sayyedand wore the black turban that distinguished such clerics.

A marja(source of emulation), he issued fatwas, or religious rulings, that prohibited violence against women and children, declared that women were entitled to stand for and serve in elected office, banned smoking, and barred self-flagellation during ceremonies marking the Shia holy day of Ashoura. In contrast to other senior Shia clerics, he also ruled that Shias should celebrate Muslim feasts on the same days as Sunnis, who form the majority of Muslims. His pronouncements were observed by followers in Lebanon, Iraq, Bahrain, Pakistan, India, the Americas and Europe.

Born in 1935 into a clerical Lebanese family dwelling in the Shia holy city of Najaf in Iraq, Sayyed Fadlallah began religious studies at the age of nine. He distinguished himself as a seminarian and scholar of theology, jurisprudence, logic, philosophy and Arabic. In 1966, he moved to Beirut, where he rose rapidly through the Shia clerical hierarchy. While carrying on with his studies, he held classes for his congregation. He used tithes and contributions collected to build scores of religious schools, foundations, orphanages, clinics and libraries.

During the Lebanese civil war (1975-90), he was a moderating influence on his community. He fell out with Iran's clerical rulers, when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini assumed ultimate authority in Tehran under the doctrine of vilayet-i-faqih(rule of the jurisprudent).

Sayyed Fadlallah argued that “no Shia religious leader, not even Khomeini . . . has a monopoly of the truth.” The sayyed aligned himself with Iraq’s Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, who also opposes clerical rule.

When Israel invaded and occupied Lebanon in 1982, Ayatollah Fadlallah – whose family hailed from the village of Aynata near the Israeli border – encouraged the formation of a Shia resistance movement which eventually became Hizbullah. Until his disagreement with Tehran sharpened, he was seen as Hizbullahs spiritual mentor and dubbed a “terrorist” by the US and Israel.

In the early 1980s, he opposed the seizing of western hostages by Shia militant factions and, reportedly, mediated the freeing of some of those held. In 1985, a massive bomb was detonated near his home in the southern suburbs of Beirut, killing 80 people and wounding more than 250.

The blast, blamed on US-trained Lebanese agents, was timed to go off at the end of Friday prayers and to kill worshippers as they left the mosque. He escaped other less deadly assassination attempts.

The sayyed was a vehement opponent of US foreign policy and accused Washington of seeking to establish its hegemony over the region.

He issued a fatwa prohibiting Muslims from co-operating with the US occupation of Iraq and promoted a boycott of US and Israeli goods. But he stood against the call for “jihad,” or holy war, by Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda, and the Afghan Taliban, which he believed to be an un-Islamic movement.

In early 2009, Sayyed Fadlallah welcomed the election of Barack Obama as US president in the expectation that he would engage in dialogue with the Muslim world. The sayyed stated: “We don’t have a problem with any American president, but our problem is with his policy that might affect our strategic interest.”

But later in the year, he expressed his disappointment over Obama’s performance and accused him of submitting to “pressure” from Israel’s supporters and of failing to put forward a peace plan.