In front of the Pope, Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani affirms that the Christians of Iraq must “live in peace”

It is one of the most important religious meetings in history. In front of Pope Francis, with whom he spoke for nearly an hour, on the morning of Saturday, March 6, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, a reference for the majority of Shiite Muslims in Iraq and the world, spoke affirmed to pay attention to what the Christians of his country live ” in peace “ and benefit from ” all the rights “.

By going to the Shiite holy city of Najaf, the Argentinian sovereign pontiff intended both to reach out to Shiite Islam and to carry the cause of the Christians of Iraq – 1% of the country’s population -, who are regularly victims of discrimination.

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But from this unprecedented meeting only two things filtered out. A photo of the two men: the Grand Ayatollah, black turban of the descendants of the Prophet Muhammad and matching outfit, and to his left the Pope, all dressed in white, flanked by cardinals in red and black cuffs. Then, above all, a press release from the office of the Grand Ayatollah.

The 90-year-old man, with a long beard and frail figure, has never appeared in public. He answers in writing the questions addressed to him and he has his sermons read every Friday by representatives. This time, he had a press release published, personally thanking the Pope for his visit to Najaf, after a fifty-minute closed session. He reiterates “The attention he pays to the fact that Christian citizens live like all Iraqis in peace and security, with all their constitutional rights”.

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No guest, not even the press, was allowed to attend this summit dialogue, but the addition of this step to the papal program is a source of pride for many Shiites in a country that has been going for forty years of conflicts in crises, passing by a deadly civil war between Shiite Muslims and Sunnis. Two years ago, the Pope signed with the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, an institution of Sunni Islam in Egypt, a “Document on human fraternity”.

Political comments

Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani is the highest authority for the majority of the world’s 200 million Shiites, a minority among the 1.8 billion Muslims. His only religious rival is the Iranian Supreme Leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Of Iranian nationality, the Grand Ayatollah Al-Sistani has stood for decades as guarantor of the independence of Iraq and runs a theological school which advocates the withdrawal of religious from politics – they must only advise -, unlike the school in Qom in Iran.

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The Grand Ayatollah has also used all of his weight to bring down the government, which for months in 2019, young protesters, tired of seeing their country sink into corruption and mismanagement.

Both the Pope and the Grand Ayatollah regularly make political comments. But both skilfully weigh their words. On Friday, the sovereign pontiff also sprinkled his speech to the Iraqi authorities with allusions to the situation of the country, caught between its two great American and Iranian allies. “Let the partisan interests cease, these external interests which are disinterested in the local population”, thus launched François.

The Pope’s visit – under very high security – also takes place against a background of total containment, with more than 5,000 infections by SARS-CoV-2 every day. While François was vaccinated before his trip, the Grand Ayatollah’s office did not report any such measures. After Najaf, the sovereign pontiff must continue his journey south, to Ur, an ancient city where, according to tradition, the patriarch Abraham was born. There he will pray with Shiite, Sunni, Yazidi and Sabaean dignitaries.

The World with AFP

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