In an interview with the Associated Press “Top Shiite Cleric raps Mubarak for Remarks”

 

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) -- One of Shiite Islam's top clerics accused Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Wednesday of fueling sectarian tensions in the Middle East by saying Arab Shiites in Iraq and elsewhere are more loyal to Iran than to their home countries.

Lebanon's Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, in an interview with The Associated Press, said "some in the Muslim world" fear Shiite empowerment in any country.

Fadlallah was one of the highest-level Shiite figures in the region to speak out so far against Mubarak. The president's comments over the weekend angered Shiites and raised fears of a Sunni-Shiite rift across the Middle East at a time of increased sectarian violence in Iraq.

Fadlallah is the highest-ranking Shiite cleric in Lebanon He has followers in Iraq, the Gulf region and among Shiite communities in Pakistan and India. He is closely linked to Iraq's top Shiite politicians and top clerics..

Mubarak's made his remarks in an interview aired Saturday on the Al-Arabiya news channel.

"Definitely Iran has influence for Shiites," Mubarak told the Dubai-based station. "Shiites are 65 percent of the Iraqis. ... Most of the Shiites are loyal to Iran, and not to the countries they are living in." He also said Iraq was on the brink of civil war.

Fadlallah said such talk only fuels prejudice against Shiites.

"We believe that obscuring the stance of Shiites ... can create a rift between Shiites and Sunnis," Fadlallah, 70, told the AP at his office in the southern Beirut Haret Horeik neighborhood.

"The loyalty of Shiites to their countries is not less than that of others. Such talk has no basis in reality. What is meant by it is to create a climate of agitation that amounts to telling the Sunnis 'Beware of the Shiite threat!'

"I think there are some in the Muslim world who are uncomfortable with the empowerment of the Shiites in any nation, and that's because of sectarian extremism or political anxieties," said Fadlallah, whose moderate views have, over the years, earned him the animosity of militant clerics in Iran as well as Iraq.

Apr 12, 11:59 PM EDT