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Another radical Iraqi Ayatollah
Edited for the info on Ayatollah as-Sarkhi (nice name)Many posters were up of the previously unknown Ayatollah Seyid Mahmud al-Hasani as-Sarkhi, as well as papers posted with his verdicts on subjects like the French ban on headscarves. Sheikh Haidar al-Abedi, as-Sarkhiâs representative in Karbala, had immense prayer blisters on his forehead from his turba, a stone placed on the ground and on which the forehead rests when the devout bow in prayer. "We reject the occupation and in the future we will resist like the Palestinians," he said. He explained that the Ayatollah as-Sarkhi was a former student of Muhammad Sadiq Sadr and he now had 25,000 to 30,000 followers in Iraq. As-Sarkhi had declared himself an ayatollah, the highest level of Shiâite religious leadership, like a Jedi knight, in 2001, and had also announced that he was the wali of the faithful, a position first held in Iran by Khomeini, who applied the "Walayat al-Faqih", or rule by jurisprudence, for the first time. As-Sarkhi believed he was the wali for the entire world, above Iranâs current Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Al-Abedi explained that his leader had boycotted Friday sermons and remained at home since the American occupation. He showed the door and walls at the entrance to the office. They were riddled with bullets from an American and Polish attack that he claimed killed six of his students and guards. Posted by: Paul Moloney 2004-03-04 |
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