Word: clericalism
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...blow came with the arrest last fall of the group's leader, Mullah Krekar, while he was passing through the Netherlands en route to Norway, where he is applying for asylum. Krekar, a Marxist turned cleric whose real name is Najmuddin Faraj and who fought the Soviets in Afghanistan, flatly denies that his group has ties to al-Qaeda or Saddam. "I never had links with Saddam's family, government, party--not in the past, not now, not inside Iraq or outside," he told the BBC last week in Oslo. Ultimately, Kurdish officials are less impressed with the group...
RELEASED. AYATULLAH HOSSEIN ALI MONTAZERI, 80, Iran's most prominent dissident cleric; from five years of house arrest imposed after he challenged the institution of supreme clerical rule; by the Supreme Council of National Security; in Qum. Montazeri was once in line to lead the country but was stripped of that status by Ayatullah Khomeini in 1989 after he accused the judiciary of "murdering" political opponents, among other criticisms of the government. He has vowed to "continue to talk about issues...
ACQUITTED. JAFAR UMAR THALIB, 40, Muslim cleric and leader of the Indonesian militia Laskar Jihad, of charges of inciting his followers to commit violence against Christians; in Jakarta. The prosecution said Jafar had made incendiary remarks in a speech last April in Ambon, capital of the Maluku Islands, just two days before a gang of Muslims attacked a Christian village and killed 12 people. The court ruled that the speech was insufficient evidence, leading some observers to question the country's commitment to combating Islamic militancy. In recent years, Laskar Jihad has been blamed for the deaths of hundreds...
IRAN Free at Last Ayatullah Hussein Ali Montazeri, Iran's most prominent dissident cleric, a man once considered the natural successor to Ayatullah Khomeini, was released from house arrest in the city of Qom. Montazeri, who is in his 80s, was confined in November 1997 after he criticized the authority of Iran's conservative Supreme Leader, Ayatullah Ali Khamenei. Montazeri is a rallying point for those disaffected with the slow pace of reform. On his release, he told his supporters he would "continue to talk about issues and to act." See Also: Islamic Republic in Transition...
...reluctance by Indonesian officials to acknowledge a link? Because the Bali bombings remain controversial. J.I.'s suspected spiritual leader, the influential cleric Abubakar Ba'asyir, has been detained since October. But speculation in Jakarta continues that he is being protected by hard-line Islamic sympathizers at the top levels of President Megawati Sukarnoputri's government. General I Made Mangku Pastika, the officer in charge of the Bali investigation, says he is convinced that Ba'asyir was a "teacher and inspiration" to the bombers. Pastika says Ba'asyir, who has not been connected to the Bali bombings, will go on trial...