How a hero to Muslims is a villain to the West

[True_Blue]

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- He has a gentle manner, a long religious pedigree and a reputation for impressive scholarship in the Shiite world that holds sway in Iraq, Iran and Lebanon.

The United States calls Ayatollah Sayyid Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah an inspiration for terrorism, the spiritual leader of the militant Hezbollah organization and a man who has American blood on his hands.

Fadlallah, who wears the black turban of a descendant of the Prophet, embodies as few others do the vast chasm in world view between the United States and the Middle East, a clash in perception that is playing out in deadly ways across this region -- and especially in Iraq, where Fadlallah was born, studied and grew to leadership in the holy city of Najaf.

Nearly 20 years ago, according to various accounts and Fadlallah himself, the United States tried to blow him up in a failed CIA assassination attempt. Now, diplomats and scholars here say, they may have had him all wrong. Now they are discovering that Fadlallah broke with Iran about 15 years ago, taking a different path than Hezbollah, which remains tied to Iran and which the United States calls a terrorist organization.

more....
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-pe.fadlallah30may30,0,1064977.story?coll=bal-oped-headlines