WRAP Top Shiite cleric Fadlallah dies at 75, Hezbollah sot

(4 Jul 2010) SHOTLIST
Beirut - July 4, 2010
1. Exterior of Al-Hassanayn mosque
2. High angle shot of mourners
3. Wide of mourners filing past images of Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah and paying their condolences
4. Mid of Hezbollah deputy Secretary-General, Sheikh Naim Kassem, greeting mourners
5. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Sheikh Naim Kassem, Hezbollah deputy Secretary General:
"We consider that the Islamist scene has lost a great symbol of those who support the resistance in Palestine, the resistance in Lebanon and in the region. He in fact was always with courage and strength defending our rights and our land."
6. Wide of mourners
7. Close of poster showing Fadlallah
8. Women walking holding poster of Fadlallah
Ainta - July 4, 2010
9. Wide of street in Fadlallah's home village
10. Villager standing black flag in concrete block
11. Villager holding Fadlallah portrait
12. Various of people hanging black flags and banners around the village
13. Villagers distributing Fadlallah portraits to passing vehicles
FILE: Beirut - 1996 (exact date unknown)
14. Wide of Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah seated with clerics
15. Mid shot of Fadlallah with Hezbollah Secretary General, Hassan Nasrallah
16. Close of Fadlallah speaking
FILE: Beirut - 2010 (exact date unknown)
17. Fadlallah preparing to address mosque
18. Mid shot of Fadlallah speaking during interview
Beirut - July 4, 2010
19. Wide exterior of Bahman Hospital, where Fadlallah was being treated
20. Wide of Fadlallah's brother receiving condolences inside hospital
STORYLINE:
Lebanon's Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, one of Shiite Islam's main religious figures who had a strong following the world over, died on Sunday after a long illness. He was 75.
The news was officially announced at a news conference in Beirut by Ayatollah Abdullah al-Ghuraifi, a Shiite cleric from Bahrain.
Fadlallah's spokesman had earlier confirmed his death to journalists gathered outside Bahman hospital on Sunday, where the Ayatollah was being treated.
Outside the hospital and at the Al-Hassanayn mosque in Beirut's suburb of Haret Hreik, where Fadlallah gave religion lessons and Friday sermons, black banners were being hung up in a sign of mourning.
Scores of Fadlallah's supporters wept openly and filed past portraits of him.
Hezbollah deputy Secretary General, Sheikh Naim Kassem, who was present in the Al-Hassanayn mosque said Islam had lost "a great symbol of those who support the resistance in Palestine, the resistance in Lebanon and in the region."
In his home village of Ainta, locals raised black banners and flags in his memory.
Fadlallah, known for his staunch anti-American stance, was instrumental in the rise of Lebanon's Shiites in recent decades and had a strong following among Shiite communities both in Lebanon and his native Iraq.
He was one of the founders of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's governing Dawa Party and was believed to be its religious guide until the last days of his life.
He was described in the 1980s as a spiritual leader of the Lebanese militant Hezbollah - a claim both he and the group denied.
Fadlallah's Al-Bashaer radio station and Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV station broadcast Koranic verses as news of his death broke.
Fadlallah had been in hospital for the past two weeks but his condition deteriorated on Friday when complications from a liver problem led to an internal haemorrhage.
The cleric suffered from diabetes and high blood pressure.
The cleric also called for boycotting American and Israeli products.

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