The Religious Authority, Sayyed Muhammad Hussein Fadlullah issued the following communiqué:
The bloody events that involve our people in Iraq and the brutal massacres initiated by the hatred of those who accuse others of unbelief, and that target civilians, the innocent the workers and the poor, and that declare war on the Shiite Muslims while the occupation keeps a distance and leaves Iraq as a playground for callers for strife, murders and criminals…
These events represent a major catastrophe, not only because of the innocent they claim daily, but also because of their devastating results on the entire nation. They instigate a sectarian strife that gives the American occupation more leeway to execute its plans that extend much further then Iraq.
These events with their murderous pace and the communiqués of sectarian hatred that accompany them and that seek to create a civil strife in the Arab and Islamic world that is sought by hateful internal and external parties represented by a major international axis led by the American Administration…
The way these events are unfolding indicates that the Arab and Muslim cause has begun to be entrapped in the major political and security maze the Americans and the Israelis have planed, with some misguided parties serving these plans either freely or in a brutal and carefully studied manner.
This blind hatred has reached the religious scholar Sheik Mahdi Al-Attar in Latifiah, Iraq, where he was kidnapped and then killed in cold blood, along with his brother and two companions, in a demonstration of this murderous apostate brutality that forges all religious and human values, and that did not take into consideration the great militant (Jihadi) history of this Islamic personality who has always called for unity against occupation and internal oppression.
The assassination of Sheik Al-Atar, a symbol of the struggle for Islam and unity, represents another murderous ring in the chain of the major ongoing crime that intends to drown Iraq in the blood of its citizens, so as it will then extend to the Arab and Islamic neighbors.
The goals and consequences of this crime make the entire nation, especially its vanguard, responsible for moving quickly to thwart this blind strife, It also lies the burden of responsibility on the conscience religious scholars, especially our Sunni brothers who are concerned with protecting the unity of Muslims. Condemnation communiqués are not enough, to curb these bloody murderous scenes.
A comprehensive Islamic action should be taken to besiege the apostating parties, whether by the decisive juristic stand, or by continuously haunting them on the ground.
We call on our wounded people in Iraq, especially our Shiite Muslim children, to be tolerant, exercise self-restraint and not to carried away by the strife projects, which if successful would be devastating and lead to the fall of temple on the heads of all.... More tolerance and restrain is vital for failing the strife plot before it grows. They will enable us-Muslims- to reestablish the balance in the nation’s fight against occupation and the inciters of strife.
As we express our sorrow for the death of Sheik Attar who was always in the vanguard of the religious scholar struggling for the cause of Islam, we offer our people in Iraq our warmest condolences, for this major crime. We also extend our condolences to his honorable family ,and pray that God, the most exalted, will bestow His Mercy on Sheik Attar, and bestow tranquility and patience on all, Surely Allah is Seeing, Hearing.