Ayatollah criticizes Qaradawi’s inflammatory remarks on Syria

TEHRAN,June 23(MNA) – Ayatollah Mohsen Araki, the secretary general of the World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought, on Friday criticized the recent calls by prominent cleric Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi for a holy war against the Syrian government. Such remarks will only aggravate the situation in Syria, Ayatollah Araki said during a conference in Tunis. According to Reuters, earlier this month, Qaradawi called for jihad in Syria after fighters from Lebanese group Hezbollah intervened to help President Bashar al-Assad. The Iranian deputy minister for Arab and foreign affairs, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, said on Wednesday that calls by Sunni Muslim clerics for a holy war against the Syrian government and its Shia allies were fuelling radicalism in the region.