BEIRUT — A Lebanese Shiite cleric who has angered politicians and spiritual leaders in Lebanon and Iraq mentioned Friday that teams together with Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah try to silence voices of dissent inside the sect — together with his personal.
Shiekh Yasser Auda has developed a fame on social media in recent times 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 nations. 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 high Shiite non secular authority, issued a press release naming 15 clerics whom it mentioned aren’t certified to offer non secular steering. Auda was on the high of the record and was virtually stripped of his non secular standing.
However the council later issued a press release saying that the place of the Basic Directorate for Non secular Advocacy didn’t symbolize its viewpoint.
“I don’t acknowledge The Supreme Islamic Shiite Council of Lebanon,” Auda mentioned within the sitting room of his modest condominium in Beirut’s predominantly Shiite southern suburb of Mreijeh. Auda mentioned he rejects “corruption by politicians who’re protected by non secular authorities,” in an obvious reference to the council.
He blamed the divisions inside the council relating to the assertion about his being unqualified to offer non secular steering to competitors amongst clerics who hope to go the council sooner or later.
One in every 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 mentioned.
“This speech was unfold in Iraq and angered politicians and profiteers, particularly Shiites,” Auda mentioned, questioning how the oil-wealthy nation might have a crumbling infrastructure and lots of of its residents residing in poverty.
He additionally blasted among the non secular leaders within the Hawza, the non secular seminary of the Iraqi Shiite holy metropolis of Najaf, angering some influential figures within the metropolis that’s house to one among Shiite Islam’s holiest shrines.
An Iraqi official in Baghdad instructed the AP that among the non secular leaders in Najaf requested that Auda be prevented from making public statements. One other official mentioned 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 mentioned there may be large strain 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 mentioned “strictly prohibit any criticism.”
Auda backed the anti-corruption protests that broke out in Iraq and Lebanon in 2019 that have been each principally 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 mentioned, 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 Basic Directorate for Non secular Advocacy assertion, as “ethical killing, a killing that lacks a bullet.”
Requested if he fears for his life, Auda mentioned he isn’t scared to die.
“I’m able to pay the worth however don’t damage my household. I don’t need greater than that,” he mentioned.
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Abdul-Zahra reported from Baghdad.