Why Pope’s meeting with Grand Ayatollah Sistani in Najaf is important
Top Shiite cleric rarely seen in public is set to meet Pope Francis today
Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the highest religious authority for Iraq’s Shiites, has wielded subtle but unprecedented power for a cleric, guiding his followers through decades of dictatorship, occupation and conflict.
The highly reclusive 90-year-old is set to meet Pope Francis in the holy shrine city of Najaf today.
It will be a rare in-person meeting for Sistani, whose sermons are typically delivered through a representative.
That has not dulled their effect: his words have sent thousands of Iraqis to polling stations, protest squares or battlefields since the US-led invasion in 2003.
Unmoved reverence
“Despite a broad shift away from religion around the world, the reverence for Sistani is unmoved,” said Marsin Al Shamary, a Brookings Institute research fellow.
Sistani was born in the Iranian city of Mashhad in 1930 to a family of revered clerics and started his religious studies at the age of five, later moving to Iraq and ascending through the ranks of Shiite clergy to grand ayatollah in the 1990s. Under Saddam Hussain’s regime, he languished under house arrest for years.
Voice for moderation
But after 2003, Sistani emerged from isolation to play an unprecedented public role while Iraq suffered a “vacuum for real leadership”, said Al Shamary. The cleric firmly opposed the US-led occupation, insisted Iraq be swiftly granted full sovereignty and threw his weight behind elections, moulding a pan-Shiite coalition in the 2005 parliament.
Sistani was a voice for moderation, repeatedly calling for calm during Iraq’s brutal sectarian conflict from 2006 to 2008 and even brokering ceasefires between warring parties.
In June 2014, he issued a historic edict calling on Iraqis to take up arms against Daesh.
Despite his humble appearance and his non-Iraqi roots, he is seen as an essential figure in Iraq’s recent history.
“No one else will ever occupy a position like that,” said Al Shamary. “He shepherded Iraq through all these difficult times.”