Death of a Cleric, Milestone for the Middle East

ABC News' Lara Setrakian reports from Lebanon: The death of a Shiite cleric may not catch your attention. But the case of Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, who died this week, is a landmark for Shiite Islam at a time when its influence continues to rise in the Middle East. Once considered a leading spiritual figure for Hezbollah, he had since become a relative moderate voice in the field of political Islam.
When a Shiite religious leader reaches a certain level he becomes a ‘marja,’ a kind of role model for the faithful. Fadlallah, 75, had long been one of the most influential ‘marjas’ in the Middle East; millions of people, especially across Lebanon and Iraq, looked to him and his teachings as their model for life.    His other dimension was political. Fadlallah was the ‘marja’ or role model to many of those who’d go on to establish Hezbollah. His ties to the group were closest in the 1980s, when Hezbollah militants bombed the US Embassy and American Marine Barracks in Beirut, killing 241 people. He was named a terrorist by the US, surviving various assassination attempts through the tumult of Lebanon’s Civil War. Since then he had emerged as a relatively moderate voice – practically a liberal on women’s rights – but remained fiercely critical of US policy and encouraged violent opposition to Israel. On some issues he parted ways with Hezbollah, and criticised its ally, Iran. Given Hezbollah’s popular and military strength in Lebanon, his was a rare voice powerful enough to oppose them. His death now removes a counterbalance to Iran; Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei now has one less competitor in the elite leadership of Shiite Islam. It will, however, boost Khamenei’s top rivals in Iraq. ‘Fadlallah's death will strengthen [Grand Ayatollah Ali Al] Sistani’s influence in Lebanon and the Persian Gulf, as Fadlallah followers will flock to Sistani,’ tweeted Vali Nasr, a regional expert now with the State Department. Today, at Fadlallah’s funeral in the heart of Hezbollah’s stronghold, thousands wailed in the packed streets, while those close enough reached out to the coffin. Standing in a mostly male crowd I spoke to a cleric from Iraq, Sheikh Hadi al Khazraji. ‘They claim that he was the spiritual leader of Hezbollah. Everyone use to consult him, from the communists to democrats to nationalists,’ he told me.  ‘He may have leaned toward Hezbollah, but he really guided the entire Muslim world.’