Top Sunni and Shiite clerics trade accusations
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Two of the Arab world’s most prominent Muslim theologians from the Sunni and Shiite sects unleashed verbal salvos against each other in an increasingly sharp war of words between the religion’s two main branches.
The exchange began when Youssef al-Qaradawi, one of the most well-known Islamic television clerics, called Shiites«heretics» and accused them seeking to infiltrate Sunni societies in a recent interview.
Lebanon’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah _ one of the most influential Arab Shiites _ shot back that Qaradawi was trying to incite «fitna» or civil strife in the Muslim community.
The long tense relations between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in the region have flared into open dispute in recent years, following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and the eruption of sectarian killings there.
Though sectarian violence has eased in Iraq this year, it has flared in other places, particularly Lebanon, which saw heavy clashes in May between Sunni gunmen and the Shiite Hezbollah, leaving dozens dead.
Periodic reconciliation efforts, such as a Sunni-Shiite dialogue conference in June in the holy city of Mecca, have done little to ease deep suspicions among the Mideast’s Sunni majority toward Shiites, seen by some as a tool for spreading the influence of Persian Iran.
The latest verbal clash started with a Sept. 9 interview that al-Qaradawi gave to Egypt’s independent daily Al-Masri Al-Youm.
«Shiites are Muslims but they are heretics and their danger comes from their attempt to invade the Sunni society,» said the Egyptian-born cleric, who lives in Qatar. «They are able to do that because of their billions (of dollars) and trained cadres of Shiites proselytizing in Sunni countries.
«In this period, we should protect the Sunni society from the Shiite invasion,» he said.
Al-Qaradawi, a Sunni Muslim, is widely respected throughout the Middle East and has a popular weekly television show on Islamic law on the Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera. He has also participated in numerous Muslim and interfaith reconciliation dialogues.
Mideast countries are overwhelmingly Sunni, except for Iraq, Iran and Bahrain. Lebanon has a Shiite plurality.
Ibrahim Bayram, a political analyst with Lebanon’s leading An-Nahar newspaper, said Wednesday that al-Qaradawi’s statements were «strange because he is considered a moderate cleric and he used to call for closer relations between Sunnis and Shiites.
«The time when any cleric can decide who is a Muslim and who is not, is gone,» he added.
Days after al-Qaradawi’s interview, Fadlallah responded in Kuwait’s Al-Rai Al-Amm newspaper. «If what has been attributed to Sheik al-Qaradawi is true, then this amounts to fitna,» he said, using the word for internal civil strife that is anathema to Muslim communities.
Al-Qaradawi replied with a statement to al-Rai al-Amm saying, «we Sunnis know that we are the only group that will survive. All other (Muslim) groups have been involved in heresy.
Many Sunnis in the Arab world have shown admiration for Shiite Hezbollah for standing up against Israel. But much of Hezbollah’s popularity among Sunnis in the region was lost after the Shiite group turned its guns against Lebanon’s Sunnis in a political dispute in May.
Sunnis throughout the region have also been suspicious of the close ties between Iran and Iraq’s Shiite-dominated government, accusing the Persian nation of seeking to dominate the Arab world.
The 14-century-old dispute stems from the succession of Prophet Muhammad, splitting the Muslim world into Sunni and Shiite branches. Both branches follow the same basic tenets, but important differences include commemorations of rival historical figures.