Who is Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and why is he so revered

Al-Sistani, 90, is credited with a valuable role in efforts to pacify Iraq after the 2003 US invasion and is known for his support for the separation of religion and state, an issue still hotly debated among Muslims today.

The Ayatollah, proposed as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize, had not appeared in public for a long time.

However, this does not prevent him from receiving visits, maintaining a fluid online connection with a vast network of followers across the world and, most importantly, being a key reference in attempts to support Iraq’s young democracy in the face. to its many challenges.

<< Sa Sainteté >> lives in a modest house in the holy Shiite city of Najaf, south of Baghdad, near the mosque where the remains of Imam Ali, cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad and first Imam of Shiism, died in the 20th century are found VII.

90% of the world’s estimated 1.9 billion Muslims belong to the Sunni branch, while the remaining 10% are Shiites, most of whom live in Iraq and Iran, where they are predominant.

With this visit, Pope Francis is reaching out to this other great family of Muslims, after having received Imam Ahmed al Tayeb from the Al Azhar Mosque in Cairo, the highest authority in Sunni Islam, at the Vatican in 2016.

Al-Sistani is not Arab but Persian. He was born in the holy city of Mashhad, in northeastern Iran, in 1930. His family descended from Muhammad, as indicated by the black turban he wears.

He came to Najaf at the age of 21 to study at the seminary of Grand Ayatollah Abul Qasem al Khoei, then the highest authority in Shiism.

On the death of Al Khoei in 1992, Al-Sistani succeeded him in this post which, like that of the Catholic popes, is above nationality.

Under the government of Saddam Hussein (1979 to 2003), dominated by the Sunni minority in Iraq, its public representation remained at an uncomfortable impasse.

During periodic home arrests, he has generally stayed out of politics and, perhaps thanks to his low profile, escaped the brutal crackdown by Hussein’s Baath Party, which ended the lives of many Shiite clerics. .

Since the American overthrow of Hussein and the Baath, Grand Ayatollah has played a leading role in Iraqi religious and political affairs.

His call for Shiites to participate in the political process and his support for politicians, not clerics, to take charge of the Iraqi government, marked a distinct difference from the Shiite theocracy of neighboring Iran, where an Ayatollah, Ali Khamenei, boasts of the position of supreme leader and has the final say on all matters.

However, Al-Sistani defended that Islam be recognized as an official religion and that the laws do not contradict its principles, which was enshrined in the Iraqi constitution of 2005.

Time and again he urged the Shiites not to respond to bombings and attacks by Sunni extremists who, since 2003, have launched an insurgency against American and Shiite troops.

His position earned him two Nobel Peace Prize nominations, in 2005 and 2014.

However, in a twist, in 2014, he called on the Iraqis to take up arms to defend the homeland against the Islamic State (IS), when the Sunni jihadist group threatened Baghdad after taking control of northern Mosul, the largest city in Iraq.

A year later, during popular protests, Al-Sistani urged the Iraqi government to fight corruption, reform the justice system and support the security forces.

His voice was heard again on the occasion of a new wave of protests still ongoing, which began in late 2019, against the government, to demand an end to corruption, jobs and better public services.

The Ayatollah accused the Iraqi government and police of being responsible for the deaths of protesters and demanded that those responsible be brought to justice.

“No person or group, no camp with a particular vision, no regional or international actor can grasp the will of the people and impose it”, he declared in November 2019 after the death of three demonstrators during a demonstration .