Thaindian News

BEIRUT (BNO NEWS) — A leading Lebanese Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, died at a hospital in Beirut on Sunday, two days after he was hospitalized, an aide said. He was 74.

Fadlallah was hospitalized on Friday as a result of acute internal hemorrhage, but doctors on Saturday that his condition was ‘relatively stable’ despite complications as a result of the bleeding. Dozens of officials, including leaders of Hezbollah, came to the hospital on Saturday to check on his health.

An aide to Fadlallah said the prominent cleric passed away at the undisclosed hospital at around 10 a.m. local time on Sunday. He said Fadlallah died as a result of an infection, without providing additional details.

Fadlallah was born in the Iraqi Shiite holy city of Najaf in 1935 and had a vast majority of followers in both Iraq and Lebanon, where he rose to the rank of grand ayatollah. He was considered the ’spiritual guide’ of the militant group Hezbollah when it was founded in 1982, a claim he and Hezbollah both denied, and was branded a ‘terrorist’ by Washington.

The grand ayatollah supported terrorist attacks against Israel - mainly through suicide attacks - and as recently as last year issued a fatwa to forbid the normalization of ties with the Jewish state.

Fadlallah also blamed the United States for terrorist attacks in Iraq, and said “the occupation of Iraq has increased acts of terrorism against the U.S. and everyone going along with it, including the Iraqis themselves.”

He did however support certain rights in favor of women, including their right to wear nail polish during prayers and issued religious edicts to forbid female genital cutting. He was also opposed to honor killings, the murder of women by relatives on suspicion of pre- or extra-marital affairs.