Modestly cut dresses with white cleric-like collars have been seen in cities around the world (a sartorial prayer for cooler temps, perhaps?).
But followers of Moktada al-Sadr, a militant young cleric who would like to model Iraq on the clerical rule next door in Iran, said he would not be deterred and was a viable alternative.
The yul-lha are, on the other hand, well-known and associated with the valley where they reside, as a senior cleric explained, "like each shop has a keeper, each yul-lha belongs to a place….he is responsible for the lives near to him".
Don't be a bad cleric; no one likes a bad cleric.
As Iran's political reformers push to open that system, they are wrapping their efforts at change in the rationale and religious edicts provided by clerics like Ayatollah Saanei, perhaps Iran's most revered liberal cleric.
First, there is the communion with pastor Ray (not a pastor, more like a crypto-currency gangster, though he does talk like a cleric), in which Elliot is challenged to confess his sins and start afresh.
Such a visit would be unprecedented for a Saudi cleric since the kingdom, like most Muslim countries, observes a strict boycott of Israel.
Egyptians poured anger and sarcasm on other Muslim Brotherhood figures like Sheikh Youssef Al Qaradawi, a cleric on Qatar's Aljazeera satellite TV channel.
Mohanned al-Gharrawi, a senior Sadrist cleric in Baghdad, said, "We feel like a bridge that they used to reach their aims and goals, and then they left us behind".
