Lebanon's Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah dies at 74

The Guardian
July 6 and July 4, 2010
www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/04/ayatollah-mohammed-hussein-fadlallah-dies
www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/06/grand-ayatollah-mohammed-hussein-fadlallah-lebanon

By Hugh Macleod
Beirut

In a funeral free of the usual pageantry and party politics of the nation he long sought to unite, Lebanon laid its Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah to rest yesterday in the mosque from where his sermons of resistance and religion inspired millions of Muslims worldwide.

Delegations from across the Middle East’s centres of religious learning, from the Shia holy cities of Qom in Iran and Najaf in Iraq, to Sunni Islam’s Azhar Mosque in Cairo, travelled to Beirut’s southern suburbs to pay their respects to a religious authority instrumental in the establishment of Hezbollah and the growth of Shia political power.

“To heaven, Ayatollah, you were our teacher and school,” read one of hundreds of banners flying from buildings across the Hezbollah stronghold, where security was tight for tens of thousands of mourners following Fadlallah’s coffin before its burial in the al-Imamain al-Hassanein mosque his foundation built, along with dozens of schools and clinics.

Banks and public offices closed as Lebanon observed an official day of mourning for the Ayatollah, whose family received condolence from Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an overnight visit kept secret for fear of assassination by the Israelis.

Recordings of the cleric’s sermons played out over loudspeakers, including his denunciations of Israeli and American policy in the region, as the somber procession passed by the place where in 1985 Fadlallah survived a car bomb assassination later tied to the CIA and Saudi intelligence.

As a spiritual leader in the early years of Hezbollah’s Islamic militant movement, Fadlallah was the religious authority behind the rise of suicide attacks against Israeli troops occupying south Lebanon and was considered a terrorist by Washington which accused him of planning the suicide bombing that killed 241 American servicemen in their barracks in Beirut in 1983.

Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei mourned the loss of “a devoted and close friend of the Islamic Republic of Iran” but others who knew Fadlallah said the cleric often criticised Iran’s lack of democracy and rule by religious authority, a position that in his later years put him at odds with Hezbollah, which is armed and funded by Iran.

“Fadlallah was the spiritual authority for Hezbollah, but in reality Hezbollah report to Iran and Fadlallah, though he agreed with the principles of the Iranian revolution, became an opponent of the Iranian political system,” said Ahmad Moussalli, professor of Islamic Studies at the American University of Beirut. “That was a big obstacle between him and Hezbollah.”

Among thousands of mourners observed over two hours, just two young boys carried Hezbollah’s distinctive yellow flag. But photos of the Ayatollah carried by mourners were also surprisingly few in number. When asked why, a member of Fadlallah’s foundation replied: “He never printed that many of himself.”

Shiite Muslims around the world were in mourning after the death of a cleric revered across the region for bridging religious divides but whose unwavering opposition to US and Israeli policy and support for Hezbollah left him branded a terrorist by Washington.

“He was like a second father to me,” said Abed Berro, a 28-year-old bank worker, sitting with hundreds of other male mourners inside the mosque that Fadlallah built in the largely Shiite southern suburbs of Beirut and from where his message of democracy and moderation challenged Shiite power in both Iraq and Iran.

“He was open to Christians and Sunnis and wanted unity in the Arab world. He opposed America’s support for Israel against the Palestinians because he was against injustice, but he was never against the American people.”

Fadlallah, who died Sunday aged 74, had initially embraced US Barack Obama but last month expressed doubts over the president’s ability to bring peace to the Middle East.

Verses from the Quran played over loudspeakers in the hushed mosque as a steady procession of mourners greeted each other with hands on their chest in Shiite religious ritual as they passed beneath photographs of the smiling, grey-bearded Fadlallah.

Lebanon’s two Shiite-run news channels halted programming to mourn the loss while preparations were underway for a large funeral tomorrow.

“Sayyed Fadlallah was a merciful father, a wise adviser and a powerful support,” said Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, using the religious title that reflects Fadlallah’s claim of direct descent from the Prophet Mohammad's daughter Fatima and her husband Imam Ali, revered by Shiites as a saint.

“He was this for us and for the whole religious and resistance generation since we were youngsters praying behind him. He taught us to be the people of dialogue and to resist the occupation.”

In a statement, Prime Minister Saad Hariri mourned the loss of “a voice of moderation and an advocate of unity among the Lebanese and Muslims in general.”

Celebrating a religious authority he said many Sunni clerics relied on in their efforts to bridge Lebanon’s often violent religious divides, Maher Hamoud, a leading Sunni sheikh, told the Guardian the West struggled to understand Fadlallah’s message: “He always sought to differentiate between resistance movements, such as Hamas and Hezbollah, and terrorism.”

But for the US and Israel Fadlallah, who consistently supported armed resistance against occupation, was the spiritual authority behind the rise of jihadist suicide attacks against their troops in Lebanon during the civil war of the 1980s.

Within his own community, Fadlallah will also be remembered for the network of schools, hospitals and orphanages he built which support thousands of poor, for his down to earth guidance on everything from sex to smoking and for his advocacy of women’s rights in Islam.

“He told me once that men are dominating women in the Arab world and so he will stand by our side,” said Mariam Shoukair, 50, sitting in the shade of Fadlallah’s mosque. “He taught me forgiveness and caring and that women have a right to work.”

“He is our idol,” said 22-year-old Zeinab al Jawhari. “Nobody can take his place.”