Syria
Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa (right) and Osama al-Rifai (left). Photo: State-affiliated media
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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Friday issued a decree appointing Osama al-Rifai, a Muslim cleric known for supporting the opposition to former president Bashar al-Assad, as the country’s grand mufti, the chief religious legal authority who issues advisories on the Islamic legal code.
“It was a necessity to restore to Syria what the ousted regime had destroyed in the entire area, the most important of which was the restoration of the position of grand mufti of the Syrian Arab Republic. This position is now held by one of the finest scholars of the Levant, the virtuous Sheikh Osama bin Abdul Karim al-Rifai,” Sharaa said, the state-run SANA news agency reported.
Rifai, born in 1944 in Damascus, publicly expressed support for the Syrian opposition in 2011 and was subsequently beaten by Syrian security forces when they attacked the mosque where he was giving a sermon. He left Syria for Turkey the following year.
He was appointed grand mufti of Syria by the opposition in 2021, the same year the Assad regime abolished the position.
Rifai has been accused of having hardline views on Shiite Islam, which he has criticized for being a “danger to Islam.”
In a 2020 sermon published on his Facebook page, Rifai accused Shiites of “having a great hatred to Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamaah [Sunni Muslims].”
“As you see, they have these self-flagellations, banners, overly expressing their emotions and feelings, which are fitna [strife]” towards Islam, he said.
In Turkey, Rifai was appointed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as the head of the Syrian Islamic Council (SIC) for Assad’s opponents.
Sharaa issued a second decree on Friday, forming the Supreme Fatwa Council that consists of 15 scholars and clerics who will issue religious edicts and advise on Islamic law.
He said that the council “seeks to regulate moderate religious discourse that combines authenticity and modernity, while preserving identity, resolving disputes that may lead to partition, and closing the door in front of evil and discord.”
“It was a necessity to restore to Syria what the ousted regime had destroyed in the entire area, the most important of which was the restoration of the position of grand mufti of the Syrian Arab Republic. This position is now held by one of the finest scholars of the Levant, the virtuous Sheikh Osama bin Abdul Karim al-Rifai,” Sharaa said, the state-run SANA news agency reported.
Rifai, born in 1944 in Damascus, publicly expressed support for the Syrian opposition in 2011 and was subsequently beaten by Syrian security forces when they attacked the mosque where he was giving a sermon. He left Syria for Turkey the following year.
He was appointed grand mufti of Syria by the opposition in 2021, the same year the Assad regime abolished the position.
Rifai has been accused of having hardline views on Shiite Islam, which he has criticized for being a “danger to Islam.”
In a 2020 sermon published on his Facebook page, Rifai accused Shiites of “having a great hatred to Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamaah [Sunni Muslims].”
“As you see, they have these self-flagellations, banners, overly expressing their emotions and feelings, which are fitna [strife]” towards Islam, he said.
In Turkey, Rifai was appointed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as the head of the Syrian Islamic Council (SIC) for Assad’s opponents.
Sharaa issued a second decree on Friday, forming the Supreme Fatwa Council that consists of 15 scholars and clerics who will issue religious edicts and advise on Islamic law.
He said that the council “seeks to regulate moderate religious discourse that combines authenticity and modernity, while preserving identity, resolving disputes that may lead to partition, and closing the door in front of evil and discord.”
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