Sunni Mufti of Iraq Rafie Al-Rifai Justifies Anti-Government Rebellion

In an Al-Arabiya interview aired on June 16, 2014, Sunni Mufti of Iraq Rafie Al-Rifai defied Ali Al-Sistani, the supreme Shiite religious authority in Iraq, saying that he remains silent in the face of widespread rape and killings of Sunnis in the prisons. "If we rebel, they call us ISIS terrorists, and if we don't, they expect us to succumb to barrel bombs and missiles," he said.

Following are excerpts:

Interviewer: Ali Al-Sistani, the supreme Shiite religious authority in Iraq, called upon young Iraqis to volunteer to bear arms and fight alongside Al-Maliki. What is your response?

Rafie Al-Rifai: I'd like to ask Al-Sistani and other religious authorities that have issued similar fatwas, and all the religious leaders who replaced their clerical robes with military fatigues, in response to this call... I would like to ask Al-Sistani: Where were your fatwas when the Americans occupied Iraq?

Let me quote from his fatwa. When he was asked about the religious ruling on defending the country, he said that there can be no Jihad in the period of [the Mahdi's] occulation. That is what he said: No Jihad during occulation. That is why the Shiites did not fight the Americans when they entered Iraq.

[...]

The Iraqi government is entirely sectarian. The Iranian-trained militias kill along sectarian lines day and night. What goes on in the prisons is a mark of shame for all humanity. My brothers, men and women alike are being raped there. Innocent people are being executed. People are being killed in prison, and their bodies are thrown into roadside ditches. Al-Sistani and the others never say a word about all this.

[...]

Many Shiite scholars and leaders called me to say that this fatwa had been issued due to Iranian pressure.

[...]

I have been talking [to the politicians] from the beginning of the crisis, and I have asked each one of them to carry out their duty. But they cannot do anything because Al-Maliki has marginalized everybody. They all say that there is nothing they can do, so what is the point of talking to them today, when the tribal rebels have taken the lead?

If we rebel, they call us ISIS terrorists, and if we don't, they expect us to succumb to barrel bombs and missiles. If we dare to say a word, they accuse us of sectarianism.

[...]

Now, we are hearing that the U.S. administration is willing to negotiate with Iran about the situation in Iraq. If there were a real Iraqi government, they would not have to negotiate with Iran. If it's not true that the U.S. had offered Iraq upon a silver platter to Iran, why does it need to negotiate with it about Iraq? They know that the senior Iraqi officials are nothing but pawns in the hands of low-ranking Iranian officials.

[...]