Would a Baptist Follow a Papal Edict? If Not, Then Why Would a Sunni Follow a Shia One?

Would a Quaker follow what Pat Robertson says to do? They’re both Christians (well theoretically on the last one, I don’t recall jesus talking about the benefits of assassination)

So when a group of Shia Imams held a press conference last week in Montreal, Quebec where

the Canadian representative of a powerful Iraqi cleric (Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most senior Shia cleric in Iraq) has issued a fatwa on his behalf asking all Muslims to act in the best interests of their adopted countries. Imam Sayed Nabil Abbas delivered the message. Abbas gave the message of tolerance, which he says the cleric wanted heard after the recent arrest of 17 presumed terrorists in Toronto. “All Muslims must act in the best interests of the countries in which they reside,” Abbas told the news conference. “We condemn all forms of violence,” he said, adding the Canadian government must investigate “any harmful acts against our common security.” All Muslims are called on to “heed the words” of the fatwa, Abbas said.

A Fatwa is “a legal pronouncement in Islam, done by a law specialist on a issue.”

Several Toronto newspapers (among others) carried the story and implied that all Muslims should follow it.

What they all failed to mention is the fact that a fatwa or religious ruling from a Shi’a cleric wouldn’t be on all Muslims since there are a lot of Sunni Muslims in Canada and they wouldn’t consider following the religious ruling of a Shi’a Cleric any more than a Southern Baptist would automatically follow the latest Papal ruling.

This doesn’t mean the ruling and the press conference was not a good idea, it was a great idea by the Shiite Imams. This doesn’t mean that most Sunni Muslims in Canada would necessarily disagree with what the Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani said either.

I certainly would claim no expertise on the subject of Islam, but it’s pretty basic to know that there are 2 main versions of Islam (as well as other smaller versions).

If members of the media don’t even know those basics, what else don’t they know? How will that ignorance effect their reporting? They should start learning. Wonder how many non Muslim Canadians know? No matter what you think is the best way(s) to deal with homegrown terrorism, it’s very important that the media isn’t giving you accurate information and context.

The CTV news version of the press conference left out the “Shi’a Muslim” part and decided to say “Representatives of Canada’s Islamic community issued a call to action”

The Globe and Mail’s version by Ingrid Peritz used “Muslim leaders in Montreal”, and also left out the “Shi’a Muslim” part.

The Toronto Star’s Sean Gordon said “a group of Canadian Muslim leaders”

CBC’s website was at least a bit more specific, mentioning “Montreal news conference of prominent Shia Muslims on behalf of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.”

The National Post also mentioned that it was “A group of Montreal Shi’a Muslim imams”

However they said this

Mr. Abbas, who is the imam of an Islamic Lebanese centre, said that 10 years ago, Ali Sestani, the Ayatollah for all Shi’a Muslims in the world.

One they misspelled his name “Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani” someone who has been in the news quite regularly but more importantly they just claimed that he is the Ayatollah for all the Shi’a Muslims in the world. This is not true. He is well respected by many Shi’a Muslims but he is not “the leader” of them all. Their are Shi’as in other countries besides Iraq, for example Iran, Lebanon, Syria etc. and while some may be followers of Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, some may follow the legal interpretations of other religious scholars.

I talked to Jihad Turk, the director of religious Affairs at The Islamic Center of Southern California about this on June 16th. He confirmed my belief that Sunni’s wouldn’t be bound to a Fatwa of a Shi’a religious scholar anymore than one branch of Christianity would follow the dicates of another.

He said that Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has one of the biggest following in the Iraqi Arab Shi’a world, but other Shia’s may go to other religious scholars for a correct interpretation of islamic legal guidance. He also mentioned that there’s been many Sunni Scholars who have done the similar Fatwas.

I was going to write a lot more on this, topic. I blogged before about the need to understand the global view of violent, racist Islamic supremacists in Islamic countries. after the British bombings but being the info omnivore I am I’ve collected far too much info on the alleged Canadian terrorists for a blog post so I might just leave it at this.

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