BEIRUT (AP) — The killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in U.S.-Israeli strikes over the weekend did not just shake Iran. It has reverberated across the Shiite Muslim world, raising the specter of a broader backlash in the Middle East and beyond.
For the Muslim world’s Shiite minority, 86-year-old Khamenei was more than just Iran’s theocratic ruler since 1989. He was also one of their most prominent religious and political figures. His death at the hands of a joint U.S.-Israeli operation has stoked fury across the Shiite world.
“There is reason to be concerned about how Shia minorities across the Middle East, and in particular … the Shia majority in Iraq might respond to this,” said Burcu Ozcelik, senior research fellow for Middle East security at the Royal United Services Institute, or RUSI, a UK-based defense and security think tank.
Shiite Muslims make up around 10% to 15% of the world’s Muslim population, concentrated mainly in Iran, Iraq, Bahrain and Azerbaijan, while there are also significant communities in Pakistan, Lebanon and Yemen.
For Mamoona Shirazi, a Shiite activist in Pakistan’s Punjab province, Khamenei “was not only our leader but a leader for all. He raised his voice against oppression. He never bowed to anyone; he spoke the truth and was like a father to us.”
Protests erupt
Within hours of Khamenei’s death, thousands of infuriated protesters took to the streets in Pakistan. They tried to storm the U.S. Consulate in the southern city of …