(English) Iraq Shia Grande Ayatollah Ali Sistani and Pope St. Francis's meeting in Najaf 5 March 2021
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ETtoday News Cloud> Cloud Theory Su Yuping/The Pope’s key to great religious reconciliation in Iraq: "He" did not implode in Iraq! March 16, 2021 01:00 We want you to know…Sistani does not ally with Iran’s Shi’ites to fight against Europe and the United States. He keeps a distance from the GCC countries of the Gulf Council, which is dominated by Sunnis, and does not intervene in the dispute between Sunni and Shi’a.

● Su Yuping The Roman Catholic Pope Saint Francis visited Iraq for the first time on March 5, 2021, at the invitation of Iraqi President Barham Salih. When he landed at Baghdad International Airport that afternoon, he was met by Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa. · A welcome from Mustafa al-Kadhimi, then the Pope went to the Presidential Palace to meet with Iraqi President Barham Salih and other government and religious figures.

The first meeting of Catholicism and Shiite Islam

At the age of 90, the well-respected Iraqi Shiite religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husayni al-Sistani, who has lived in seclusion for most of the time, lived in his seclusion. The pope was received in the cramped home of Najaf, the holy city of Yepai. This meeting is an important step in deepening the friendship between Catholicism and Shia Muslims. Sistani also promised to protect all Christian citizens in Iraq. There is a thousand-year dispute between Sunni and Shi'ites in Islam. Among the Muslim population in the world, Sunnis account for 90% of the Muslim population and claim to be "Orthodox", and Shiite Muslims account for about 10% and are considered to be " Opposition". The world's stereotype of Shia is that they are extremely radical, love terrorism, etc., but is that really the case?

The Thousand-Year Controversy between Shia and Sunni The distinction between the two factions lies in "Do you recognize that the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad and his descendants are the legitimate heirs of the Prophet?" Shiites believe that only Ali and his descendants are the "legitimate heirs (caliphs) of the prophet", but Sunnis admit that other people who are not descendants of the prophet can also serve as caliphs. Such sectarian disputes began after Ali was assassinated in 661, and have a history of 1,360 years. However, the disputes have not alleviated, but have become more and more serious. As the Shiite population is a minority, it has always been persecuted and suppressed by the Sunni, and when they resisted, they were labeled as extremely radical. What's more helpless is that the whole world believed so. If we give an example, Catholicism has a long history and is orthodox, and Protestantism after the religious revolution are all violent and radical extremists and should be eliminated. Can you accept this statement? But Shi'ites, who are a minority of Muslims, have been labeled as such for more than a thousand years. Can they be innocent?

Shia system ``Great Ayatollah'' has the highest rank The Shiites of Islam are mainly distributed in countries such as Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, India, Syria, Lebanon, and Bahrain, while the Sunnis all encompass the rest of the Islamic world. The hierarchy of Shia religious leaders is "Grande Ayatolla, Ayatollah, and Hojat Islam" (Grande Ayatolla→Ayatolla→Hujjat-Al-Islam) from top to bottom. At present, the countries with the largest proportion of Shiite population in the world are Iran and Iraq, and each of these two countries has a "Great Ayatollah." The Great Ayatollah in Iran is called "Ali Khamenei", and the Great Ayatollah in Iraq is called "Ali Khamenei". There is no affiliation between the two, and there is no difference between them.

Iranian Shiites Develop Militia in the Middle East The Great Ayatollah "Hamini" of Iran has half of Iranian and Azerbaijani descent, and his mother is even a heretical Yazd believer. However, he studied Islamic theology since childhood and followed many great teachers, including the establishment in 1979. Grande Ayatolla Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Ayatollah Khamini was persecuted by the Iranian government before the religious revolution. After the success of the religious revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini served as the president of Iran from 1981 to 1989 and assisted in the creation of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The 8-year Iran-Iraq war against the Hussein regime in Iraq. His personal religious stance is conservative, and he does not rule out the use of force against Western European and American countries, and Israel's suppression of Iran such as sanctions, and even the development of Shiite militia wings in various parts of the Middle East to fight against the Sunni majority governments and people. Even today, there are several Shia militia groups backed by Iran in Iraq, which is also in power.

Iraqi Shia ``have nothing to do with the dictator Sistani, a senior Shi'ite clergyman living in Iraq, received religious education from an early age, but he was smart since he was a child and was quickly promoted to a high-level clergyman. More than 60% of Iraqi nationals are Shia Muslims, but Hushan has a minority Sunni Arab Baath Party as the core and rules the majority of Iraqi Shia nationals. In 1992, the former Iraqi Grand Ayatollah Rajoy passed away, and everyone elected Sistani, the most senior at the time, to serve as the Grand Ayatollah of Iraq. Fortunately, he did not have a relationship with the Sunni President Hussein who was in power at the time. , There have been too many disputes or disagreements, and because of the political environment at the time, Sistani never expressed any political opinions, so he had nothing to do with the dictator. Sistani began to express his opinions and gain the right to speak on political and religious affairs, only gradually after the fall of Hussein in 2003. Sistani's gentle ruling to interact with the world amicably Sistani is the highest religious leader of Shiites (a sect with an extremely conservative religious impression) in Iraq, but his views on the world are neutral and moderate, and he is opposed to the Great Ayatollah of Iran and the religions of the world. , And then the world view of armed confrontation is different. He is very wise to cooperate with the "democracy, free voting, and constitutional election" tactics commonly used in the United States and Western societies to deal with the American occupation forces. First of all, in the chaotic situation of Hussein’s fall, he called on the Shi’ite priests in Iraq to join in politics. Some priests even organized their own Shi’ite armed militias, but Sistani opposed the use of force to expel the Western British and American occupation forces. .

Cooperate with the U.S. Occupy Forces to lead Iraq to democracy In addition, Sistani fully supported and cooperated with the US occupation forces in Iraq, held a constitutional convention, held a national democratic vote, and called on the people of the whole country to vote actively, in order to encourage women including the most conservative religions who do not want to go out must come out. To vote, he even issued a fatwa, stating that it is a religious obligation for women to go out to vote, and even if their husbands prevent them, they must vote. Because he knows that Shiites account for 65% of Iraq’s population, and as long as the turnout rate is high, he will win anyway. There is no need to use violence to gain power. Soon, Iraq established a new democratically elected government with Shiites at its core. The Shiites can be regarded as the third Middle Eastern power after Iran and Syria. They have won the rule of Iraq. However, because this process is a peaceful democratic voting, the new Iraqi government has a high degree of cooperation with the United States and the international community in all aspects. The society is actually not aware that the Shiites have taken control of another major country in the Middle East, which is Iraq.

Fortunately, the two Shiites are independent Fortunately, the Shiites in Iraq and the Shiites in Iran are independent of each other. Up to now, under the leadership of Sistani, the Shiites in Iraq have always adopted a moderate stance internally and externally, not confronting Europe and the United States, and do not persecute a small number of Sunnis and nationals of other religions in the country, such as Christians. , Yazidis, Zoroastrianism, etc. For any attack on Shiite mosques that deliberately provoke sectarian conflicts, condemn but not allow retaliation, and guide the perpetrators to be foreign Wahhabi jihadists rather than local Sunni neighbors. He has also repeatedly mediated contradictions and conflicts between sects, and prevented conflicts between the U.S. occupation forces and sectarian or tribal forces. The only more exciting move was in 2014 when Sistani issued a religious order calling on Iraqis to unite and support the government in combating the threat of the Sunni extremist armed group "Islamic State" and defending their country.

In its heyday, the Islamic State once occupied most of Syria and Iraq, and it was a powerful threat to Syria, Iraq, and Iran, which are also Shiites. Including the Iraqi government army, many Shiite militias, such as the People’s Mobilization Army, the Sa’ada Army, etc., and even the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Lebanese Hezbollah, and Syrian government forces. All forces responded to the call to join the military operation to eliminate the Islamic State. . The Islamic State has been wiped out in 2019, and only evil remains. In terms of foreign affairs, Sistani does not ally with Iran’s Shi’ites to fight against Europe and the United States. He keeps a distance from the GCC countries of the Gulf Council, which is dominated by Sunni, and does not intervene in the dispute between Sunni and Shi’s, hoping that Iraq will be full. You can recuperate after the war. In short, he handles external affairs with a passive and quiet world view, keeping a distance from the messy world outside. As a conservative religious theologian, in the face of external changes, openness, and rapid progress in the world, he also ruled on many religious issues faced by devout Muslims in a globalized world. For example, he agreed in principle for Muslims to go to non-Islamic countries. Travel, the premise is that travelers can protect themselves and their children from losing their Islamic faith. He agreed to interact with other countries, provided that Iraq would not lose faith in Islam.

Iraqi Shia a stable force in the Persian Gulf Compared with the Iranian Shiite theocratic government, the "Sunni camp" and the "European and American Christian civilization camp", the fierce ideological and military confrontations have brought turbulence and unrest in the Persian Gulf region so far. Come up, the Iraqi Shi'ites led by Sistani are experiencing the most tolerant era of freedom of thought in its history. They have even reversed the stereotype of "Sunni moderate and Shia extreme" in Iraq. This is really thanks to Sistani's gentle leadership brought about by his personality traits, so that the originally turbulent area will not add fuel to the fire. Otherwise, judging from the fact that dozens of armed militia groups in Iraq have their own trumpets and their own tunes, and even the situation of Iranian Shiite intervention, it is really lucky that Iraq has not imploded. Therefore, in 2005 and 2014, Grand Ayatollah Sistani was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and is considered to be one of the most influential intellectuals and leaders in the Islamic world and the whole world. Sistani’s words and deeds since he became the Grand Ayatollah have shown that he is a gentle, sensible, and sensible religious leader, whether it is for Sunni Muslims who have been hostile to Shia for more than a thousand years. He is still a Catholic, Protestant Christian, heresy Iasidis, Druze, Zoroastrianism, etc. He has never shown a hostile attitude, always tolerant, especially in the face of the former ruling in Iraq. The Nis, who are now a minority in the country, feel injustice. He also tried his best to comfort him, calling on the Shiites to treat their Sunni neighbors well and not to be enemies of each other. Sistani's actions also show that Shia can also be a good sect full of tolerance, tolerance, and peace, rather than a big evil person who threatens to destroy the world all day long. Sistani's actions are indeed a wise sage.

Christianity is also divided into a thousand-year dispute Compared to Sistani, the 84-year-old Saint Francis, the current Catholic Pope, is also a religious leader full of charisma, advanced thinking and not pedantic. He accepts homosexual believers, is tolerant of religions, and tolerates divorce, crime, and abortion. He is an enlightened leader that the Catholic Church has never had before. During his tenure, he has also tried many times to resolve the historical disputes between the world’s religions and Christian denominations. For example, in 2014, he met with the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Constantinople, Bartolomeo I, to discuss the two-year split. The issue of the unification of the big church (in 1054, the Holy See and the Constantinople Orthodox Church expelled each other’s pope from each other, evolving into a thousand-year schism in Christianity). In 2016, the meeting with Kirill I, the Patriarch of the Orthodox Russian Orthodox Church, and the visit to the Romanian Orthodox Patriarch Daniil in May 2019 were all based on the hope that the various Christian denominations were entangled in the history of division and hostility for thousands of years.

Religious Reconciliation and Coexistence Peaceful Coexistence In any case, the historic meeting between the Pope Saint Francis and the Great Ayatollah Sistani is a memorable event in the history of Western religions, which means that the conflicts between religions and civilizations between the West and the Middle East are not without Resolving the deadlock is not a matter of life or death. Reconciliation and symbiosis depends entirely on whether the leaders of the various religious sects have reconciliation and a forgiveness to face other religions, as well as the heretics within their own religions. The world is huge, and peaceful coexistence is completely achievable.

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