By Sushil Kutty
All Iranian clerics are “top” and there are a number of them in Iran, not just Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who has been ‘Supreme’ for decades. He succeeded Ayatollah Khomeini, the first who rose to political power, to the position of Supreme Leader.
Now, there’s the Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi, who has issued a fatwa against United States President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, both world leaders with their heads on the line but at the same time with resources to dodge the ‘fatwa’ while quite capable to see to it that ‘Grand Ayatollah Shirazi’ departs with precision!
That’s why Shirazi is lacking in the top department. One would have thought Iran’s Ayatollahs had more grey matter to spare than ordinary clerics on the planet. The Ayatollahs should remain among the living. President Trump, for instance, dissuaded the Israelis from taking a shine for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Yet it’s Trump’s claim that he “saved Khamenei’s life”, which is why Trump’s head is on the line after Shirazi’s fatwa. Makes one wonder who is “good”, who is “bad”, and who’s “ugly”? Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei should “save Trump’s life and while at it, spare Netanyahu’s also.
There will come the day when the ‘fatwa’ will meet its ‘fatwa’. The world has no place for fatwa. And because President Trump is a former New Yorker, impending New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani should petition the Supreme Leader Khamenei to jump in and not make examples of Trump and Netanyahu.
As it is, Grand Ayatollah Shirazi made a mistake. He should have left Netanyahu alone. The Grand Ayatollah has asked Muslims worldwide to sharpen their knives for not just President Trump but also for Prime Minister Netanyahu. There are other ways to bid adieu to the world of the living.
Why challenge the Israeli establishment, why invite Mossad and other Israeli elimination squads to draw a target on your head? The Israelis will not announce it, but Grand Ayatollah Shirazi must have been added to the Israeli list of dispensables. There will come the day and quickly enough at that, the exclamation, “Aw, shucks, that’s one Ayatollah less!” along with “Good riddance!”
Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi has urged “global Muslim action” against President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu without a time limit or deadline: Take your time is the fatwa: Plan, poise and waste Trump and his sidekick Netanyahu.
That said, the Iranian regime may have declared “victory” in the 12-day war, but the reality is different. Every burqa-clad Iranian teenager in Tehran, Fodro, Nantaz and Isfahan knows President Trump’s 30,000-pounders laid waste Iran’s nuclear sites. How much did the retaliatory missile strikes achieve?
Sunday’s Shiite “fatwa” against Trump and Netanyahu doesn’t scare the two. Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi is now in harm’s way, tiptoeing to the graveside! Life comes for everyone with an expiry date, but only Iran’s intense clerics go out of the way with a death-wish.
Every global non-Muslim, who outnumber global Muslims by 3:1, knows that Shirazi made a mistake. The Israelis, when they get down to brass-tacks, do not waste time talking. They erase and waste the enemies of Israel. For them the “Enemy of God” is Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and, now, Grand Ayatollah Shirazi.
Who is God? How many have seen God? Is there only one God? How about goddesses? If there’s a God, why the mystery around ‘God’? Why the reluctance to expose God to the vagaries of “here I am”? Iran’s Ayatollahs should realize they’ve no credibility to stand on, or to rest their cases on.
Grand Ayatollah Shirazi’s fatwa is a religious decree, like the one issued against Booker-winning Salman Rushdie and Rushdie stands firm against the fatwa against him. Rushdie still sticks to his verses and the fatwa against him is sagging at the ropes. Rushdie’s courage is rare but true.
The Ayatollahs of Iran should not be granted the power to order life and death. The sad thing is there’s no condemnation of the obnoxious fatwa. Not a squeak! Our own global leader included. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a “friend” of both Trump and Netanyahu. Who doesn’t remember the barefooted Modi in intense conversation with a barefooted ‘Bibi’ on an Israeli beach and who hasn’t forgotten President Donald Trump and Prime Minister clasped in an all-consuming ‘hug’?
Grand Ayatollah Shirazi should forthwith, for his own life’s sake, and for the sake of Iranians aplenty, withdraw his fatwa. Even an Ayatollah wrapped in a shroud wouldn’t…the dead all look…dead!
The fatwa asking Muslims worldwide to “bring down” Trump and Netanyahu for “threatening Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, states that “any person or administration threatening the unity and leadership of the global Islamic community (the Ummah) is a ‘warlord’ or ‘mohareb’ – as somebody who wages war against God! And Iranian legislation permits execution, crucifixion, amputation of limbs, or banishment for those deemed ‘mohareb’.
“Those who threaten the leadership and integrity of the Islamic Ummah are to be considered warlords,” Grand Ayatollah Makarem declared in his fatwa, concluding with a prayer seeking protection from these “enemies” and requesting the prompt arrival of the Mahdi, a prophesied figure in Shiite Islam. Good luck to the Grand Ayatollah! (IPA Service)
