Higher Islamic Shiite Council Calls for Dialogue as Qabbani Tones Down Criticism of Leaderships

A delegation from the Higher Islamic Shiite Council visited Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani on Tuesday to prevent the tension between Sunnis and Shiites from escalating into violence and internal strife.

“We reject all forms and types of assaults on any person, and mainly clerics,” said Grand Shiite Jaafarite Mufti Sheikh Ahmed Qabalan after meeting with Qabbani at the head of the Council's delegation in Dar al-Fatwa, Lebanon's highest Sunni authority.

He urged the Lebanese to be “wise,” and use “the language of dialogue and communication.”

The visit came against the backdrop of assaults against four Sunni Sheikhs in two parts of Beirut.

Dar al-Fatwa clerics Sheikh Mazen Hariri and Sheikh Ahmed Fakhran were attacked in the Shiite area of Khandaq al-Ghamiq on Sunday while two other clerics, one of them identified as Omar al-Imami were attacked in the southern Beirut suburb of Shiyyah.

“Those who plotted the attack on some Sunni clerics thought that the Sunni-Shiite strife has started and would burn anyone,” Qabbani said.

“What happened is an early warning that strife starts with such action,” he said, cautioning that “Lebanon will not be at a distance from what's happening in Syria and Iraq, which has become an example of civil war.”

“We should beware of the plots - both Sunnis and Shiites, Muslims and Christians,” he said.

“Those who plotted the strife and stood behind it thought that it would expand but they were disappointed,” Qabbani told reporters. “Any side could have paid the perpetrators to attack the Sheikhs but this is up to the investigation to decide.”

The mufti appeared to be toning down his rhetoric a day after he held all leaderships responsible for the attacks.

“The Shiite sect along with its political and military leaderships should lift the cover off” the suspects, he said.

Turning his rage at some Sunni leaders without mentioning them, Qabbani said they were also to be blamed for the attacks for “standing behind the verbal assaults on the Mufti.”

Qabbani revealed that General Prosecutor Judge Hatem Madi informed him that he will give him the details of the investigation into the attack on the clerics.

Madi ordered on Tuesday the arrest of seven people suspected of involvement in the attacks on the four Sunni sheikhs.