Prominent Shiite cleric Ayatollah al-Baghdadi has denounced in his Friday sermon in Baghdad what he describes as the complacency of Ayatollah al-Sistani with the American occupation and his evident reluctance to call Shiites for Jihad against the foreign occupation. Baghdadi relates that Sistani, when asked about the matter, said to his followers that it was not permissible to fight the American occupiers, lest “Wahabis and Baathists return to rule Iraq”. Baghdadi goes on, often using strong and even pejorative language, condemning Sistani and refuting his stance on national-political as well as theological basis. Baghdadi more than indicates that Sistani is complacent and not merely compliant; he openly insinuates about Sistani`s true national allegiance (being an Iranian, not an Iraqi) and mocks his characteristic quasi-mystical theology for being both deviant from true Islam and politically illegitimate in a time when Baghdad is reeling under foreign occupation.
