Top Iraq Shiite Cleric to End Weekly Political Messages
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Iraq's top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani will no longer provide weekly political messages that have had a major impact on politics and security, his representative said Friday.
Sistani, who is revered by millions, has used messages delivered by his representatives at Friday prayers to call Iraqis to arms against the Islamic State group, push for anti-corruption reforms, and urge unity in a deeply-divided country.
Each Friday, "we would read, in the second sermon, a written text representing the perspectives and opinions of the supreme religious authority on Iraqi affairs," Sistani's representative Ahmed al-Safi said in the Shiite shrine city Karbala.
But it has been "decided that this will not happen every week at this time," and rather only as circumstances require, he said.
Safi did not give a reason for the decision, but the move could signal that Sistani aims to take a step back from the more direct role he has played via the Friday messages.
Sistani's most influential pronouncement of recent years was a call for all able-bodied Iraqis to take up arms as part of the security forces to combat IS, which overran large parts of the country in 2014.
In practice, that call led to the formation of the Hashed al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization units, which are ostensibly under state control but are dominated by Iran-backed Shiite militias that operate with a great deal of autonomy.
Sistani also pushed the Iraqi government to implement reforms aimed at fighting the rampant corruption plaguing the country and warned politicians not to undercut them.
But while Sistani's calls gave Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi the political cover needed to pursue reforms, opposition from across the political spectrum remained a major challenge and little in the way of deep, lasting change has been effected.
And Sistani has used his Friday messages to repeatedly urge unity among Iraq's citizens and politicians, both recently and during past years of bloody Sunni-Shiite sectarian violence.
