BEIRUT — A Lebanese Shiite cleric who has angered politicians and spiritual leaders in Lebanon and Iraq stated Friday that teams together with Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah try to silence voices of dissent throughout the sect — together with his personal.
Shiekh Yasser Auda has developed a fame on social media lately for his criticism of corruption in Iraq and Lebanon. He has additionally spoken out in opposition to the usage of violence in opposition to opponents of Iran-backed teams within the two crisis-hit international locations. He vowed in an interview with The Related Press on Friday to not bow down even when it prices him is life.
His feedback got here two days after a division inside The Supreme Islamic Shiite Council of Lebanon, the nation’s prime Shiite spiritual authority, issued a press release naming 15 clerics whom it stated will not be certified to supply spiritual steerage. Auda was on the prime of the checklist and was nearly stripped of his spiritual standing.
However the council later issued a press release saying that the place of the Common Directorate for Spiritual Advocacy didn’t signify its perspective.
“I don’t acknowledge The Supreme Islamic Shiite Council of Lebanon,” Auda stated within the sitting room of his modest condominium in Beirut’s predominantly Shiite southern suburb of Mreijeh. Auda stated he rejects “corruption by politicians who’re protected by spiritual authorities,” in an obvious reference to the council.
He blamed the divisions throughout the council concerning the assertion about his being unqualified to supply spiritual steerage to competitors amongst clerics who hope to move the council at some point.
Certainly one of Auda’s harshest feedback to go viral on social media, which angered Lebanese in addition to Iraqi politicians, got here in a speech late final month. “Whoever defends, even with one phrase, any legislator, Cupboard minister or a pacesetter in Lebanon or Iraq is a liar, corrupt and a associate with them,” he stated.
“This speech was unfold in Iraq and angered politicians and profiteers, particularly Shiites,” Auda stated, questioning how the oil-wealthy nation might have a crumbling infrastructure and lots of of its residents residing in poverty.
He additionally blasted a few of the spiritual leaders within the Hawza, the spiritual seminary of the Iraqi Shiite holy metropolis of Najaf, angering some influential figures within the metropolis that’s house to certainly one of Shiite Islam’s holiest shrines.
An Iraqi official in Baghdad instructed the AP that a few of the spiritual leaders in Najaf requested that Auda be prevented from making public statements. One other official stated some senior members of Iran-backed teams and a few politicians despatched complaints to Beirut by way of Hezbollah’s consultant in Iraq, Sheikh Mohammed Kawtharani, demanding that Auda be sidelined.
Each Iraqi officers spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t licensed to discuss religious-related issues. Hezbollah denies any interference in Auda’s case, saying The Supreme Islamic Shiite Council of Lebanon is in cost.
Auda stated there’s large stress on him in Lebanon from Hezbollah and the Shiite Amal group of highly effective Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. He referred to the 2 teams because the “Shiite Duo” whom he stated “strictly prohibit any criticism.”
Auda backed the anti-corruption protests that broke out in Iraq and Lebanon in 2019 that have been each largely put down by Iran-backed Shiite teams in Iraq and Amal and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“The Shiite Duo don’t like me as a result of I accuse them of mismanagement, failure and for participating in corruption within the nation by signing on all legal guidelines that wasted public cash,” he stated, referring to many years of corruption and mismanagement that threw Lebanon in its worst financial disaster in its fashionable historical past.
Auda described the most recent assaults in opposition to him, together with the Common Directorate for Spiritual Advocacy assertion, as “ethical killing, a killing that lacks a bullet.”
Requested if he fears for his life, Auda stated he is not scared to die.
“I’m able to pay the worth however don’t damage my household. I don’t need greater than that,” he stated.
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Abdul-Zahra reported from Baghdad.