Comradeship // Freechat

I'm not an expert, so anyone is free to correct me, but if I could make any comparison to western religions, Islam is similar to Orthodox Christianity, where religious leadership is much less centralized and there is a "Patriarch" for each country. Since there isn't really a cross cultural religious head for most Muslims. Various regions have their own "Grand Mufti" in the case of Sunni Islam, such as the grand Mufti of Cairo, or the now viciously persecuted Grand Mufti of Syria. In the case of Twelver Shia Islam, which is the religion of Iran, the clerical system is made up of several regional Grand Ayatollahs which serve various regions across Iran, as well as some in Iraq I believe, with the Supreme Leader Khamenei at the top of the clerical hierarchy. Note, that this is for a religious sect that is only really prominent within Iran itself and parts of Iraq.

Now does that equate him to the pope? Sort of, but if Catholicism was limited to only Italy, and the pope was also the president of Italy. This is why I am not really fond of this western framing to try and draw a parallel, because it misunderstands and generalizes Islam far too much.

I would compare targeting him to be akin to targeting say the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, it would still be outrageous and pretty much solidify the entire country's hatred for whoever did it. But I would not expect international outpourings of religious Orthodox nations scrambling to offer support.