Iraq’s top Shiite cleric on Friday called on the powerful Shiite militias that helped reconquer the Islamic State’s territory to choose between politics and arms, backing a key demand of the prime minister. Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani stopped short, however, of rescinding a religious edict he made in June 2014 urging Iraqi …
Read More »The Shiite Religious Authority of Najaf
By Dr. Haytham Mouzahem — The hawza (seminary) in Najaf, which consists of religious schools where Shiite clerics are trained, was founded by the most prominent Shiite religious scholar, Sheikh Muhammad al-Tusi, in 1028 — even though some tend to believe that the hawza was established in Najaf decades before …
Read More »Gertrude Bell & The Birth of Modern Iraq
THE LEVANT EXCLUSIVE – By Dr. Geoffrey Cook –Your correspondent is revisiting and expanding upon an article originally published a few years back by the Muslim Observer (U.SA.), and was datelined Berkeley (Calif.) at its publication. Since, with the raise of the Islamic (pseudo-)”State” of Iraq and the Levant (a.k.a. ISIL), …
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