Sistani Followers Call For Resistance

Sistani Followers: Call for Resistance if Islam is Threatened

Anthony Shadid of the Washington Post has written a fine and detailed description of the holy seminary city of Najaf, which is now reemerging as a Shiite center of learning, pilgrimage and politics. He reports that 40 seminaries have been established and that scores of clerics have come to teach in them from Iran.

Maureen Fan reports in the Philadelphia Inquirer that Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani of Najaf is unlikely to call for general resistance to the Americans for another year or so, except if he feels that “Islam is threatened.” The article is in general a good profile of Sistani and of his following in Iraq, and the significance of his call for direct elections.

One correction: `Ilm ar-Rijal is the study of the persons who narrated oral sayings from the Prophet Muhammad (you have to know who they were to judge how valid their reports are, according to Muslim traditions of learning.)