Abdul Majid al-Khoei

Shia cleric who preached tolerance

Abdul Majid al-Khoei, cleric, scholar and philanthropist: born Najaf, Iraq 16 August 1962; married La'ya al-Behishty (three sons, one daughter); died Najaf 10 April 2003.

Early this year the al-Khoei charitable foundation in London started an ambitious project to secure wide support among all Iraqis for an interim government in Iraq based on the 1925 Iraqi constitution frozen by successive military coups since 1958. Leading the call was the exiled cleric Abdul Majid al-Khoei, who was assassinated on Thursday in his native Najaf, outside the holiest of shrines for the world's 120 million-strong Muslim Shia.

The proposals also called for a South African-style truth and reconciliation commission to heal the wounds left by the Baath party in Iraq, as an essential mission for an interim government. A transitional period was envisaged during which the Iraqi people would vote, updating the constitution that gave Iraq a multi-party, Westminster-style system with peace and prosperity lasting 33 years.

In a meeting attended by British and American diplomats earlier this year, Khoei told us that the 70-page proposal, on which he and his aides in the al-Khoei Foundation have been working for a while, had won the approval of the majority of Iraqi groups because it called for conciliation and a federation to be approved by people who would chose their government in a free democratic election.

Khoei's ideas of healing rifts also won the admiration of the British prime minister, Tony Blair. He was invited to Downing Street in October 2001 along with the then Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, the Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, and Hindu and Sikh leaders. Alongside three other Muslim leaders of different sects, Khoei endorsed Blair's Afghanistan campaign, but emphasised that it should not be seen as a confrontation between religions. "He was a religious leader who embodied hope and reconciliation and who was committed to building a better future for the people of Iraq," Blair has said in a statement. The Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, added that he was "sure his vision for Iraq will be realised".

His advocating of the 1925 secular constitution was a sign of his tolerance, since he did not insist on an Islamic state, as demanded by most other Islamic groups in the region.

Although a respected figure, Khoei did not hold a high position in the clerical hierarchy, where scholarly eminence provides political influence. Rather, his support in Iraq came from loyalty to his late father, Grand Ayatollah Seyyid Abulqasim Musawi al-Khoei, who was the highest spiritual authoriy for the Shia majority in Iraq; the al-Khoei Foundation receives 80 per cent of all clerical tithes paid by Shia worldwide.

Following George Bush senior's call at the end of the 1991 Gulf War to overthrow Saddam Hussein, the majority Shia rose up in southern Iraq. Khoei's father, who, ironically, was calming Shia rebels and advising them not to settle scores with Saddam's security men and Baath party commissars by violent means, sent his son to meet the Allied commander, General Norman Schwarzkopf. The Americans mysteriously cancelled the meeting at the last minute, and Iraqi armour was let through American checkpoints, enabling Saddam to extract one of the bloodiest revenges of his tyrannical rule on the Shia in the south.

Khoei was deeply saddened by the death of his father in August 1992. He had fallen sick in 1991 when the Iraqi dictator had put him under house arrest, after forcing him into a meeting to show loyalty following the crushing of the Shia uprising. The meeting with Saddam was aired on Iraqi television as a gesture to humiliate the Shia community worldwide, to whom the Ayatollah was a spiritual leader.

Abdul Majid al-Khoei fled Iraq for Britain in 1994, days after his elder brother, Mohammed Taqey al-Khoei, the first general secretary of the al-Khoei Foundation, was run over by a speeding car near Karbala – an assassination device favoured by the Baath party. As part of the regime's ethnic and religious cleansing policy, many other Shia religious leaders' families had all their male members assassinated or executed on drummed-up charges to extinguish the family or clan names. The fate of Khoei's younger brother, arrested 12 years ago, is still unknown.

Khoei took charge of the foundation after arriving in London, concentrating on charity work through the foundation as an educational and cultural institution, running primary and secondary schools and a mosque, and funding scholarships for Islamic studies. With a network of branches, committees and international links, it aided thousands of Iraqi refugees in Iran and the needy elsewhere, providing health and education. It also gave legal aid and an advisory service to asylum seekers. However, in recent years, Khoei began to indulge in politics with Iraqi opposition groups, annoying some exiles who felt he should stick to charitable work.

Tolerance and charity were what he preached rather than revolution or political activity. Ironically, such tolerance left him open to (unfounded) accusations by radical rivals among Shia leaders that he was not as fiercely opposed to Saddam. But he put the interest of his nation before settling scores, or seeking power.

Khoei was active in inter-faith dialogue and, as the spiritual leader of Shia Muslims in Britain, regularly met the Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks. The latter said his death was a great loss, as the world needed "more people like him for conciliation and peace".

He actively participated in an American-backed Iraqi opposition groups conference in London last December, drawing up plans for a post-Saddam era. When the foundation asked for 15 volunteers to work alongside the coalition, 200 people lined up. Returning to Najaf on 3 April, Khoei worked quietly with other exiles to restore order in what is the holiest city for the world's Shia after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.

Last week he confirmed that local clerics were trying to negotiate a deal in which Iraqi loyalists would vacate the holy mosque they occupied in return for safe passage out of the city. He was urging his followers to co-operate with coalition troops, stressing that the fatwa to resist the Americans issued last September by the respected Shia leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani was issued under duress – the Ayatollah was under Saddam's house arrest at the time.

Perhaps the only comfort to his deeply religious family and followers is that Khoei died within the vicinity of the tomb of Imam Ali bin Abi Talib, a cousin and son-in-law of the prophet Mohammed and the spiritual source of the Shia faith.

Adel Darwish