http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LG07Ak02.html
Jul 7, 2010
Sex scandal rocks Iraqi's Shi'ites
By IWPR-trained reporters
BAGHDAD - A top-level Shi'ite cleric has been defrocked over sexually explicit
videos posted on the Internet that have outraged devout communities across Iraq
and tarnished the image of the sect's highest religious body.
Munaf Hamdan Naji al-Mosawi, a close aide to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani for
11 years, has gone into hiding after intimate footage apparently recorded on
his mobile phone ended up in the hands of neighbors, who marched to his home in
Amara to demand the return of their religious donations, according to Institute
for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) sources - religious figures in Amara and
Najaf, where Sistani's office is based.
The controversy, which has yet be reported by the national media - presumably
because of its sensitivity - has been widely
discussed and reported on the Internet. It has ignited debate about the
personal conduct of religious representatives and drawn charges of hypocrisy
from Shi'ite followers around the country.
Some commentators see the alleged incident as a blow to the reputation of the
Marjaya, Iraq's highest Shi'ite religious body, and say it even questions the
judgement of the deeply revered and popular Sistani, one of the world's
highest-ranking Shi'ite clerics.
As the first public sex scandal to hit a senior religious leader in Iraq, the
alleged videos have become a burning controversy - despite claims from local
reporters that clerics and officials in the ultra-conservative city of Amara
ordered them to ignore it.
I watched the videos. The scenes show [Mosawi] has no understanding of
morality or ethics. A cleric is a symbol of his religion. When they do
something wrong like this, the whole religion can seem wrong to the followers,
said Mohammad Hussein, 45, a Shi'ite government worker in Amara.
IWPR sources say the footage, which became public when Mosawi lost his phone's
memory card, allegedly shows the cleric naked and involved in sexual acts with
his wife and, in a separate video, another woman with whom he had a muta'a, or
temporary marriage. Locals who have seen the complete contents of the card
claim there are images of as many as 18 other women.
IWPR sources say the videos were quickly spread by locals through cell phones
and some were later uploaded on the Internet.
By June 29, one of the many non-pornographic versions of the alleged videos
posted on the YouTube website had nearly 80,000 views. Some of the videos had
been doctored anonymously into anti-Shi'ite propaganda.
According to sources familiar with the Shi'ite faith, that Mosawi was allegedly
engaged in sex with the two women is not the problem. The fact he allegedly
filmed the said encounters, however, is considered beyond the pale, especially
for a leading cleric.
When the scandal became known to his colleagues, Mosawi was quickly denounced
and stripped of his position as Sistani's representative in Amara and
surrounding Maysan province, IWPR sources say.
Ayatollah Sistani found out about this incident from ordinary people who came
to our office and told us that [Mosawi's] videos had defamed the Marjaya's
reputation and the reputation of all Shi'ites, said a cleric in Sistani's
office in Najaf, who declined to be named as he was not allowed to speak about
the incident.
After we checked with our people in Maysan province, Ayatollah Sistani issued
a statement to us clarifying that Mosawi was no longer representing the
Marjaya.
According IWPR sources, Mosawi's location is still unknown. Authorities in
Maysan province have issued arrest warrants for anyone caught watching or
distributing the alleged videos, but no charges have been filed against Mosawi.
IWPR sought to contact Mosawi for comment but was unable to track him down.
[Mosawi's] action is completely unethical and the situation in Maysan is
unstable. We have worked hard to maintain security here, and it hurts to see
such footage being watched by young men and women, Saad Hussein al-Mosawi,
spokesman of the Maysan provincial council, said.
In Amara, Mosawi's neighbors and followers have watched the events unfold with
disbelief.
We were really shocked when we saw the cleric in those videos. We considered
him a sacred person. He is a devout example to us and we used to pay him zakat
[religious donations]. As his neighbor, we never had any doubts about him. I am
shocked just like everybody. and now I am worried about the women in my
family, Jawad Kadhim, 40, a schoolteacher and neighbor, said.
The families of the women in the videos have so far reserved their anger for
Mosawi rather than their relatives, but there are concerns of revenge from
tradition-bound tribesmen.
A tribal leader, Shiekh Abdul Hussein Jabber al-Maliki, related to the second
woman in the videos, said she would not be punished because it was not
