Sheikh `Ali Al-Kurani: what have you been up to? I was reading about the demonstrations yesterday by a Shi`ite crowd in Basra. They attacked the Iranian consulate there. It started according to news report when Lebanese Shi`ite cleric, `Ali Al-Kurani, attacked and mocked Iraqi Shi`ite cleric, Mahmud Al-Hasani. He said, among other things, that Al-Hasani claims to communicate and drink tea with the 12th Imam of Shi`ism. I have not heard of Kurani in recent years. This Lebanese cleric was very active in Iraqi Shi`ite Da`wa Party, before fleeing Iraq back to Lebanon under Saddam's rule. In 1982, he was a key element of the Da`wah contingent that founded Hizbullah, and to my knowledge, wrote the first book ever on the party. He then left Lebanon under unknown circumstances, and has not played a role in Hizbullah for years.