Alawite council denies spiritual leader's death in Iraq

Shafaq News- Damascus

The Supreme Islamic Alawite Council in Syria and the Diaspora denied Sunday circulating reports about the death of the Alawite community's supreme spiritual authority, Sheikh Ghazal Ghazal, or his whereabouts.

In a statement, the Council urged members of the Alawite community “not to be drawn into rumor campaigns designed to sow fear, confusion, and reactive responses."

Local websites and social media platforms claimed earlier that Ghazal had died in the city of Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Sheikh Ghazal is considered one of the most prominent religious authorities of the Alawite faith, a minority Muslim sect whose adherents are concentrated primarily in Syria's coastal and central regions.

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