Shafaq News-Damascus
The SupremeIslamic Alawite Council in Syria and the Diaspora denied Sunday circulatingreports 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 rumorcampaigns designed to sow fear, confusion, and reactive responses."
Localwebsites and social media platforms claimed earlier that Ghazal had died in thecity of Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan.
SheikhGhazal is considered one of the most prominent religious authorities of theAlawite faith, a minority Muslim sect whose adherents are concentratedprimarily in Syria's coastal and central regions.
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