cricket Page 16 Page 9 THE FIRST ENGLISH LANGUAGE DAILY IN FREE KUWAIT Established in 1977 / www.arabtimesonline.com markets SUNDAY, MARCH 7, 2021 / RAJAB 24, 1442 AH emergency number 112 NO. 17630 16 PAGES 150 FILS ‘HOSTILITY, EXTREMISM, VIOLENCE BETRAYALS OF RELIGION’ ‘Hate profanes ... greatest blasphemy’ 40-minute bridge crosses centuries PLAINS OF UR, Iraq, March 6, (AP): Pope Francis and Iraq’s top Shiite cleric delivered violent times in Iraq’s recent history. a powerful message of peaceful coexistence Saturday, urging Muslims in the war-weary Al-Sistani, 90, is one of the most senior clerics in Shiite Islam and his rare but powerful political interventions have helped shape present-day Iraq. He is a deeply revered figure in Shiite-majority Iraq and his opinions on religious and other matters Arab nation to embrace Iraq’s long-beleaguered Christian minority during a historic are sought by Shiites worldwide. meeting in the holy city of Najaf. The historic meeting in Al-Sistani’s humble home was months in the making, with every detail painstakingly discussed and Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani said religious authorities have a role in protecting Iraq’s Christians, and that negotiated between the ayatollah’s office and the Vatican. Christians should live in peace and enjoy the same rights as other Iraqis. The Vatican said Francis thanked al- Early Saturday, the 84-year-old pontiff, travelling in a bullet-proof Mercedes-Benz, pulled up along Najaf’s narrow and Sistani for having “raised his voice in defense of the weakest and most persecuted” during some of the most column-lined Rasool Street, which culminates at the golden-domed Imam Ali Shrine, one of the most revered sites in Shiite Islam. He then walked the few meters (yards) to Al-Sistani’s modest home, which the cleric has rented for decades. Opinion A group of Iraqis wearing tra- ditional clothes welcomed him outside. As a masked Francis entered the doorway, a few white doves were released in a sign of Biden, don’t commit peace. He emerged just under an hour later, still limping from an apparent flare-up of sciatica nerve pain that makes walking obscenity of Obama difficult. The “very positive” meeting lasted a total of 40 minutes, said By Ahmed Al-Jarallah a religious official in Najaf, who Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief media. THE German Chancellor Angela Merkel supposedly once The official said Al-Sistani, said, “In India and China, there are more than 150 gods and who normally remains seated for 800 different beliefs. Yet they live in peace with each other. visitors, stood to greet Francis However, Muslims have one God, one prophet, and one at the door of his room – a rare book, but their streets are colored with blood, and both the honor. Al-Sistani and Francis killers and their victims say the same thing – Allah is great.” sat close to one another, without This fact prompts us to refer to the reasons that led the masks. Al-Sistani, who rarely Arab world to drown in a sea of blood. This happened since appears in public – even on tele- the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the success of the Sykes- vision – wore black robes and a Picot Agreement, which paved the way for planting sectar- black turban, in simple contrast ian, creedal and ethnic mines among the components of a to Francis’ all-white cassock. single state. It also led to the installment of Israel in Pales- The official said there was tine. All these factors have changed the paths of new devel- some concern about the fact that opmental countries politically, economically and socially. the pope had met with so many What is happening in the Arab world today is a replica people the day before. Francis of what happened in medieval Europe, starting from the has received the coronavirus vac- civil wars between the Christian sects, and the disintegra- cine but al-Sistani has not. The tion of states, until the rise of the industrial revolution. This aging ayatollah, who underwent changed the mood of the people, and forced the ruling elites surgery for a fractured thigh bone to pay attention to the fact that their continuation in con- last year, looked tired. flicts plunges their people into backwardness, poverty and Sandals famine. The pope removed his shoes At that time, the need arose to transfer the conflict to the before entering Al-Sistani’s outside by fueling the call to liberate the tomb of Christ, as room and was served tea and a was commonly known in the tenth century and continued plastic bottle of water. Al-Sistani until the end of the Ottoman Empire. spoke for most of the meeting. In addition to that, Europe had established its colonial Francis paused before leaving project based on the British principle of “divide and rule”, Al-Sistani’s room to have a last which it considered as the best solution to control the people look, the official said. of the Middle East. After the emergence of Israel, this as- The pope arrived later in the sumption was reinforced by dividing the Arabs further and ancient city of Ur for an interfaith pushing for military coups. A photo released by the Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani Office shows the meeting between Pope Francis (right), and Shiite Muslim meeting in the traditional birth- This came into effect after the demons of intelligence in leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani in Najaf, Iraq, Saturday, March 6. Pope Francis arrived in Iraq on Friday to urge the country’s place of Abraham, the biblical France and Britain became aware of the fact that the democ- dwindling number of Christians to stay put and help rebuild the country after years of war and persecution, brushing aside the patriarch revered by Christians, racies that began in modern countries will lead to the dis- coronavirus pandemic and security concerns to make his first-ever papal visit. (AP) Muslims and Jews. mantling of these mines, and the emergence of an indepen- “From this place, where faith dent and homogeneous Arab force culturally, religiously, was born, from the land of our economically and politically. ‘Couldn’t say no’ father Abraham, let us affirm Beatles trial set that God is merciful and that the In this context, the truth imposes a return to the late 1970s Day by Day greatest blasphemy is to profane when the West decided to pull the rug from under the Iranian his name by hating our brothers peacock Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi as punishment for for January ’22 Rule-of-law in US jails and sisters,” Francis said. “Hos- his decision to leave the “Western house of obedience”. The ALL the countries that fall ALEXANDRIA, Virginia, March tility, extremism and violence are alternative was prepared by then, namely Ayatollah Kho- within the axis of the Iranian not born of a religious heart: they meini and the extremist political line he represented which 6, (AP): A federal judge in Virginia resistance were afflicted with pistol aid to Peshmerga are betrayals of religion.” was an extension of the Safavid line in the 16th century that has tentatively scheduled a January the hex of the rule of the mul- Religious leaders stood to greet ruled Iran with iron and fire and allied with the European 2022 trial for two Britain militants lahs, so the exchange rate of OKLAHOMA CITY, March 6, (AP): An Oklahoma man was him. While Francis wore a mask, Crusaders against the Ottoman Empire. charged with being part of an Is- the US dollar vis-à-vis Iran lira sentenced to more than three years in prison for illegally smug- few of the leaders on the tented lamic State group that tortured and is 41,000, in Syria it is four After the failure of the Iranian project, another one was thousand pounds, in Lebanon gling firearms to the Middle East to help fight the Islamic State stage did. The meeting was held adopted – Creative Chaos and the New Middle East. This beheaded American and European there, according to federal prosecutors. in the shadow of Ur’s magnifi- hostages in Syria. it is 10,000 Lebanese pounds, was promoted by the then US Secretary of State Condoleez- while in Yemen one US dollar Randy Lew Williams, 57, pleaded guilty last year to violat- cent ziggurat, the 6,000-year-old za Rice and her successor Hillary Clinton. It also emerged A jury trial for El Shafee Elsheikh fetches 250 riyals. ing the Arms Export Control Act, making a false statement to a archaeological complex near the as a part of Barack Obama’s seditious scheme to provoke and Alexanda Amon Kotey is set to We remind US President firearms dealer and possession of an unregistered firearm. His modern city of Nasiriyah. unrest in the Arabian Peninsula and topple its regimes in start on Jan. 18, 2022. U.S. District Joe Biden what is stated in the sentence handed down Wednesday also includes two years of The Vatican said Iraqi Jews preparation for Iran’s control and spread of Shiism. Judge T. S. Ellis III scheduled that Arab proverb: ‘See the goats supervised release on each count after his prison time ends, ac- were invited to the event but did The second part of the plan was to give control of the Arab “target” date during a hearing on and milk them’ – meaning: see cording to a press release from the US Department of Justice. not attend, without providing fur- North Africa to the Muslim Brotherhood Group, which was Friday, saying it “seems more than Khamenei, Rouhani, and the Court records show that United Arab Emirates authorities ther details.