Thursday, 09 July_A group of Saudi Shia clerics have vehemently condemned the London-based and Riyadh-owned Asharq al-Awsat daily newspaper for insulting Iraq's most prominent Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
“The status … of religious scholars is a matter of consensus among all Islamic doctrines and divine laws, and Islam stresses the need for Muslims to safeguard the standing and sanctity,” the clerics said in a joint statement released on Thursday.
They added, “Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, May God bless him, is a religious authority. He is a revered and respected personality for the Shia community in our country (Saudi Arabia) and elsewhere in the world.
“He is a source of rationality for the entire Iraqi nation, irrespective of their faiths and sects. He has had a leading role in stabilizing Iraq and defending its sovereignty, and his famous [July 2014] fatwa (religious decree) to stand against terrorism and terrorists has greatly contributed to the protection of Iraq against division and bloodshed.”
The clerics also denounced Asharq al-Awsat’s insulting cartoon of the prominent cleric as “irresponsible, unethical, and contrary to the fundamentals of professional journalism.”
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