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Lebanon's top Shiite cleric Fadlallah dies at 75


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AP:

BASSEM MROUE
7/4/10

BEIRUT — Lebanon's Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, one of Shiite Islam's main religious figures who had a strong following world over, died Sunday after a long illness. He was 75.
Fadlallah, known for his staunch anti-American stance, helped in the rise of Lebanon's Shiite community in the past decades. He was one of the founders of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's governing Dawa Party and was believed to be its religious guide until the last days of his life.
He was described in the 1980s as a spiritual leader of the Lebanese militant Hezbollah — a claim both he and the group denied.

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During Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war, he was linked to Iranian-backed Shiite militants who kidnapped Americans and other Westerners, and bombed the U.S. Embassy and Marine base in Lebanon, killing more than 260 Americans.
Although he adamantly denied involvement in those events, he contended such acts were justifiable when the door is closed to dialogue. "When one fires a bullet at you, you cannot offer him roses," he had said.
Fadlallah later lost much of his 1980s militancy — his sermons, once fiery diatribes denouncing American imperialism, took on a pragmatic tone.
Because of the his ties to the militants, then-President Bill Clinton in Jan. 1995 froze Fadlallah's assets in America, along with those of 17 other people as part of an anti-terror campaign.

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A grandfatherly figure, Fadlallah was also known for his bold fatwas, or religious edicts — including one that gave women the right to hit back their husbands if they attacked them. He issued an edict banning smoking and another saying the Baghdad government has no right to "legitimize" the presence of foreign troops but should call for an imminent and unconditional withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.
He supported the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979 but distanced himself from the key principle advocated by its leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, which placed the Iranian cleric as a supreme, undisputed spiritual leader for the world's Shiites.
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