In Iraq, the Pope reaches out to the senior Shiite cleric

Vatican City (AFP)

Pope Francis, on a historic trip to Iraq, will hold an extremely symbolic meeting with Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani on Saturday, seeking to deepen his cautious dialogue with Muslim leaders.

The 84-year-old Pope will visit the highest Shiite cleric at his home in Najaf, the sanctuary city where Imam Ali, the fourth Islamic caliph and relative of the Prophet Muhammad, is buried.

Sistani, 90, is never seen in public and rarely accepts visitors, but the Argentine pontiff, always the happiest among the faithful, favors direct encounters.

Francis has long praised the power of interreligious dialogue, symbols of peace and tolerance, without dwelling on the theological subtleties put forward by his predecessor.

Benedict XVI, who resigned his post as pope eight years ago, sparked years of cold relations with the Muslim world when, in 2006, he cited criticism of the Prophet Muhammad by a 14th-century Byzantine Christian emperor.

Two years ago in Abu Dhabi, Francis and Sunni religious leader Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar, signed a document on “human brotherhood for world peace”.

They made a joint call for freedom of belief, although what emerged from this trip – the first of a pope to the Arabian Peninsula – was the image of the leader of the world’s 1.3 million Catholics kissing an imam Sunni.

Sunnis make up almost 90% of the world’s Muslims, Shiites 10% – the majority in Iran and Iraq. In Iraq, the population is 60% Shiites and 37% Sunnis.

With the visit to Najaf and the meeting with the Shiite cleric Sistani, the Pope reaches out to the other main branch of Islam.

– Unprecedented event –

“This is certainly an unprecedented event and a big deal,” said Marsin Alshamary, a researcher at the Brookings Institution.

She said the Najaf school of thought on Islam became involved in interfaith dialogue following the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the bloody civil war between Shiites and Sunnis. .

Sistani has repeatedly stated that Muslims are prohibited from killing other people. In 2014, however, as the Islamic State group approached Baghdad, it called on the Iraqis to take up arms to drive out the jihadists.

“This visit of the Pope sends a strong political message to a personality very associated with the defense of the Iraqis”, added Myriam Benraad, French political scientist specializing in the Arab world.

Sistani embodies one of the two currents of modern Shiism, that of Najaf, who makes a distinction between politics and religion.

In contrast, the school based around the Iranian holy city of Qom believes that the greatest religious leader should also run the state, like Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“The Shiites in Iraq want the Vatican and the Western world to support them against the grip of Iran, which wants to swallow Najaf,” said Iraqi Dominican brother Amir Jaje, a leading figure in interfaith dialogue.

Since the Pope’s visit was announced, Shia clergy have worked hard to ensure that she includes a trip to Najaf.

Historian Pierre-Jean Luizard, specialist in Iraq, noted that Sistani is also aware of a “moment of despair and disaffection with all that is sacred”, especially among young people – and cannot ignore the stature world of the Pope.

The Pope keeps distributing the Abu Dhabi document and has also published an encyclical, “Fratelli tutti” (All the brothers), which contains many references.

However, no text of this type should be signed in Najaf.

– Atheism and conversion-

The Abu Dhabi document called for freedom of belief and expression, advocating full citizenship for “minorities”.

But he does not go so far as to recognize the right to have no belief, or to convert, even drawing a parallel between “atheistic, agnostic or religious extremism” and “fanatic extremism”.

“The text, written in Arabic by two Egyptians, is symbolically very powerful but its content pushes against open doors,” said Jean Druel, from the Dominican Institute for Oriental Studies in Cairo.

“It deals with common issues. When Al-Azhar supports religious freedom, he means that Christians can go to mass.

“But atheism remains incomprehensible in the Arab-Muslim world.”

The Pope and his emissaries avoid critical point problems. In Abu Dhabi, François declared that religious freedom “is not limited only to the freedom of worship”.

“Perfect religious freedom is also the freedom to convert and to change religion, because many Catholics have converted to Islam or Buddhism,” said Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, who heads the Congregation for Oriental Churches in the Vatican, while suggesting that the subject is taboo.

Nevertheless, he believes in the small steps of dialogue towards an “open Islam”, he said.

“It takes time, but it is possible.”

© 2021 AFP