Sistani tells Shiites to protect Sunni brothers (Fatwa from Sistani!)

KUNA ^ | 11/28/2007 | NA

[neverdem]

BAGHDAD, Nov 27 (KUNA) -- Leading Shiite cleric in Iraq Ali Sistani Tuesday banned the killing of Iraqis, particularly the Sunnis, and urged the Shiites to protect their brother Sunnis.

Sistani bans the Iraqi blood in general the blood of Sunnis in particular. His announcement came during a meeting with a delegation from Sunni clerics from southern and northern Iraq.

The clerics are visiting Najaf to participate in the first national conference for Ulemaa of Shiites and Sunnis.

Sistani called on the Shiites to protect their Sunni brothers, according to Sheikh Khaled Al-Mulla, head of the authority of Ulemaa of Southern Iraq, noting that the Fatwa of Sistani would have positive impacts nationwide.

"I am a servant of all Iraqis, there is no difference between a Sunni, a Shitte or a Kurd or a Christian," Al-Mulla quoted Sistani as saying during the meeting. Sistani warned the Sunni clerics from the plans of the enemies to plant seeds of discord among the Iraqis. The visiting delegation voiced relief for the meeting and said they backed Sistani's stance. (end) mhg.bs KUNA 280016 Nov 07NNNN

[tet68]

Now is the time for this, any earlier would have meant his death.

[VanShuyten]

I bet Mookie or his Iranian buddies will try to do exactly that for this challenge to their power.

[Southack]

Wow!

[SaxxonWoods]

Mookie is Sistani’s protege. Which is why Mookie still lives. I predict Mookie continues to lay low. I think a deal was made with Sistani for Mookie’s life long ago.

[nuconvert]

“Mookie is Sistani’s protege.”

Sorry. Way off base.

[Max in Utah]

Muqtada al-Sadr is the dust on Sistani’s doormat.

[omega4179]

Hey Sistani No Fatwa against American blood? Thanks a lot, heathen.

[AmericaUnited]

This Sistani guy is one righteous dude. I remember early in the war someone gave him a copy of the US Constitution and he was really wowed by it.

[unspun]

"I am a servant of all Iraqis, there is no difference between a Sunni, a Shitte or a Kurd or a Christian," Al-Mulla quoted Sistani as saying during the meeting.

Chances are, when a Muslilm leaves "Jew" off the list, it's telling -- and he might as well leave "Christian" off, too, if he were honest.

[icwhatudo]

Sounds like more good news, hopefully a start for reconciliation.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Bush’s fault.

[marktwain]

“Chances are, when a Muslilm leaves “Jew” off the list, it’s telling — and he might as well leave “Christian” off, too, if he were honest.”

I don’t think there are any Jews left in Iraq. I believe they were all driven out under Saddam.

Someone please correct me if I am wrong.

[InterceptPoint]

My view on on all of this is that the Iraqis, both the secular and the hardcore Shiite and Sunni Islamics can see a Pelosi-Clinton-Reid future and they don't like what they see. So the time to figure things out and make the deals is now, while Bush is around to make sure both sides play fair. Come January 2009 the opportunity to do so may be gone, perhaps forever.

And, of course, perhaps not - there being no sure thing in politics. But it looks like this is not a chance that the powers in Iraq want to take. Smart thinking on their part.

[NutCrackerBoy]

The resurfacing of al Sistani as a public figure is a milestone of Iraq’s recovery. He had been beseeching the Shiites to stop killing when all hell broke loose.

[neverdem]

I don’t think there are any Jews left in Iraq. I believe they were all driven out under Saddam.

Someone please correct me if I am wrong.

Baghdad's last rabbi to leave Iraq

There appears to be some, but it also appears they are so small in number that they are not worth mentioning.

[infidel29]

Dems to DU list:

• cry about WMD crap
• can't find Saddam crap
• US casualties crap
• can't organize elections crap
• no military progress crap
• no infrastructure in Iraqi cities crap
• Americans "war weary" crap
• surge not working crap
• civil war crap
• Iraqis want us out crap
• no political reconciliation?

[Marine_Uncle]

Sadr is but a minor cleric. He raised up against Sistani only because he ended up carefully maneuvering himself into being a key leader in the Mahdi army and strong recognition by a few Shiite political parties.
Sistani warned him many times to lay low and cause no trouble. Think of it this way. The Pope does not mingle with and give audience to a parish priest on a regular basis.
If I may. From: Wikipedia:
"Muqtada al-Sadr is the fourth son of a famous Iraqi Shi‘a cleric, the late Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr. He is also the son-in-law of Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir As-Sadr. While he does not hold any official title in the Iraqi government, he is one of the most influential religious and political figures in the country."
The main reason, Sadr became so popular among many Shiite in his district is because he preached nationalism. Arabs first and for all foreign troops to leave Iraqi soil.
His audience is mostly poor illiterate Shia.

[LtKerst]

It’s time to kill the fat one

[STARWISE]

PING ~!

[jveritas]

That is really a very powerful and good fatwa from Sistani. It will have a lot of positive effects.

[ZULU]

Muslims aren’t heathens.

[Fred Nerks]

"I am a servant of all Iraqis, there is no difference between a Sunni, a Shitte or a Kurd or a Christian," Al-Mulla quoted Sistani as saying during the meeting. Sistani warned the Sunni clerics from the plans of the enemies to plant seeds of discord among the Iraqis...

nothing succeeds like success...it just gets better and better...of course this little gem will be all over the News tonight? sarc.

[Tennessean4Bush]

Mookie is Sistani’s protege.

Baloney. Stop writing things that are so demonstrably incorrect.

[Tennessean4Bush]

Chances are, when a Muslilm leaves "Jew" off the list, it's telling -- and he might as well leave "Christian" off, too, if he were honest.

So, the pictures and articles Yon shared just a couple of weeks ago with Muslims attending mass and pleading with their Christian neighbors to come home was just a mirage.

[Tennessean4Bush]

I think we can look forward to more good reconciliation news in the coming weeks and months.

[neverdem]

...of course this little gem will be all over the News tonight? sarc.

I had to dig it out of the Tank at NRO.

http://tank.nationalreview.com/

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Making progress ping!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

GW Bush may overshadow Truman some years down the road!

[enough_idiocy]

I wish the civil wars in Africa were like this “civil war”

[Marine_Uncle]

Deals have gone down. No other way of looking at it. Sistani knows exactly what can be acceptable to the Iraqi people at large regardless of what ethnic/religious persuasion they may be.
We have not heard anything from Sistani for a long time. This should be viewed as a important announcement IMHO. And I do mean humble opinion. So often some of us can come off like we are close to what is really gone on, and then be taken back by some near term future development.
If the Grand Ayatollah Sistani makes such a pronouncement (fatwa), you can bet your next cold beer, it is a sign of real gains in private negotiations etc., government wise as well as sectarian wise, the blood shed shall stop, between Iraqi that are not intimately involved in the insurgency.
If it takes the US and Coalition forces to stay in their land for a few years, then later on, in agreement with their leadership to establish remote basis, and in the meantime a majority start seeing improvements in their daily lives, monetarily as well as security wise, why would they want to actively join up with useless criminal groups and radical Islamic groups that have no future on earth, to somehow evict those that have handed them bread, butter, clean water, electricity for longer times each day, better medical facilities, etc..
I'll bet you a dime, many a senior and not so senior officer as well as many of the duly inducted Iraqi military as well as many others where glad Saddam got kicked out, regardless of their religious affiliations.
The US lead Coalition forces have proven time in again they are not in Iraq to make the population miserable but to free them from all sorts of miseries.
The Iraqi people know what has gone down. Stupid fat dopes like Sadr will be neutralized as the Shiite see how their positions have improved due to this invasion.
These people are not total dopes.
I would venture in the reality of things, they are far smarter then some of the democrats I have to deal with on a daily basis. People who have not a clue as to what has happened in Iraq over the past few years other then the standard horse *hit they get from their boob tubes and liberal bias newspapers.
That being said. Have a great upcoming day. I have to hit the rack. Work comes early.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

I agree. GW Bush’s legacy may well shine brightly in the historical record.

[unspun]

Chances are, when a Muslilm leaves "Jew" off the list, it's telling -- and he might as well leave "Christian" off, too, if he were honest.

So, the pictures and articles Yon shared just a couple of weeks ago with Muslims attending mass and pleading with their Christian neighbors to come home was just a mirage.

The good news of welcoming back Christians in some parts of Iraq is not mutually exclusive of the above comment. Jesus is King of the Jews.

[SolidWood]

Sistani urged his Shia followers from the very beginning NOT to fight Americans, but to cooperate with them. He has done good work in Iraq.

[Rockitz]

Agreed. I have not always been a big al Sistani fan, but this is a huge step in my regaining my faith in his leadership. Here’s praying there continues to be leaders like him who care more about Iraqis than advancing the agenda of a particular sect of islam.

[Valin]

Site your source.

[Wiz]

It took me thirty seconds to guess what the real meaning of this fatwa could be.

[neverdem]

It took me thirty seconds to guess what the real meaning of this fatwa could be.

What's your conclusion, if I may ask?

[Allegra]

I love your checklist! ;-)

[SunkenCiv]

A little late to the party, eh Sistani? Death to the mullahs, the mullahs must be killed. [old Iranian student expression]

Thanks Fred and Ernest for the pings.

[joseph20]

"Muslims aren’t heathens."

What is a heathen, and who are they?

[Wiz]

Conclusion: While this may seem as a call for protection of secular Sunni Iraqis from Al Qaida, the hidden meaning of the fatwa may be protection of Sunni Iraqis from Mahdi Army and Iranian elements. In other words, this may be an indirect criticism against Muqtada Al Sadr and Iran.

[ZULU]

Heathens are pagans - people who worship idols. Like the ancient Egyptians, Norse, Romans, etc.

Muslims claim they worship the same God we do, and are an “Abrahamic Faith” like CHristianity and Judaism.

OBVIOUSLY, their perception of God and ours is radically different.

[romanesq]

You are wrong about Sistani. He has dealt with the problem of Mookie but he is not in league with Mookie. Sistani is a revered figure and Mookie is like Hillary: someone who rode the way to power through family ties, in this case his father.

Sistani has undercut Mookie at almost every single turn since 2003. Sistani is allied to Mookie about as much as John Edwards is to Hillary.

[Moose4]

I still think the single biggest mistake we made early on in Iraq was not busting a cap in Mookie’s fat head. For now he’s decided that it’s smarter to play nice than to piss us off again, alienate the rest of his domestic support, and meet Mr. JDAM up close and personal. But he’s still lying in the weeds, waiting. I guess the more “responsible” Shia powers like Sistani, the Sunnis, and the US, are all hoping that the longer Mookie has to lie dormant, the more that his powerbase in the Mahdi Army can be slowly bled away by various means, making him into less of a factor.

Sistani’s a pretty sharp guy. He’s no crazy zealot, he seems more like a Mafia don. He knows who’s winning, and what he needs to do to protect his own interests.

}:-)4

[romanesq]

The question about Mookie is never easy. As he has led his black clad ragtag army of thugs, is it easier to handle them via Mookie or not. Most recently, the answer is no as they now act as criminal gangs.

Sistani is a complex character but any comparison to a mafia don would not be appropriate. Despite the numerous attacks on Shia civilians and the numerous bombings against civilians, he has urged restraint.

And now he is urging support for those people who’s leadership was behind that. Give the guy a fair shake. He’s also not supported attacks on the coalition.

[RinaseaofDs]

This is as big an event as the war starting in the first place. I believe this is unprecedented, actually. Has anyone in his position ever uttered such a directive?

It will get ZERO coverage in the MSM.

[FARS]

Sistani has always been against the Khomeini type "Velayat Faghih" (roughly rule by theocracy) - but as you say this is a strong "national patriotism" action by him. PLUS trying to weaken his young, Iranian backed rebellious, (low rank) insubordinate, Moghtada Al-Sadr.

A Must Read on the general subject at the link below:

ISLAMIC TENETS ON SLAVERY AND RAPE

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[billmor]

#49...wow...Good post...Thanks for the ping

A lot of good posts here...Thanks FReepers