Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani - The African Mirror

Mar

2023

‘Every victim of Saddam Hussein was waiting for this moment’

CHARLOTTE BRUNEAU SADDAM Hussein's trial in 2005, two years after he was ousted by a U.S.-led invasion, was a chance for Ali Hassan al-Haidari to avenge the execution of his brothers and others from his village who were killed by the Iraqi dictator's security forces. "Every victim of Saddam Hussein was waiting for this moment," said Haidari, one of the few people who was ready to show his face when giving testimony to the court that sent the former Iraqi strongman to the gallows. "The one oppressed during Saddam's time was now standing there and asking for the rights of the oppressed,"…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

Pope defends Iraqi trip despite COVID-19 risk, says God will provide

RELIGION

PHILLIP PULLELLA POPE Francis said that he decided to visit Iraq despite a rise in COVID-19 cases after much prayer and contemplation and suggested God would protect those who came to see him from the virus. Speaking to reporters on the plane returning from his trip, Francis also said he realised that some conservative Catholics would see his meeting with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, as "one step from heresy" but that sometimes it was necessary to take a risk in inter-religious relations. The 84-year-old Francis, speaking while standing for about 50 minutes, said the trip, his first foreign visit in…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

Pope Francis holds historic meeting with Iraq’s top Shi’ite cleric

RELIGION

POPE Francis held a historic meeting with Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani yesterday, in a powerful appeal for coexistence in a country torn by sectarianism and violence. Their meeting in the holy city of Najaf, during a whirlwind and risky tour of Iraq by Francis, was the first time a pope has met with such a senior Shi'ite cleric. After the meeting, Sistani, one of the most important figures in Shi'ite Islam, called on world religious leaders to hold great powers to account and for wisdom and sense to prevail over war. The pope also called for…