Fadlallah long has been considered a leader of the most radical faction of Shiite Muslims in Lebanon. He endorsed Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s Islamic Revolution in Iran and was accused of ordering, or at least encouraging, the 1983 bombings of the US Marines barracks in Lebanon. He issued fatwas, calling on the faithful to resist the United States and urged Muslims to boycott American products.

But the 72-year-old cleric has toned down his rhetoric in recent years. Instead, he espouses a more modest vision for the faithful than the ambitious agenda set forth by Iran, which considers itself the patron of Shiites worldwide and has been trying to increase its influence throughout the Muslim world. “I don’t see there is a unity in the situation of Shiites in the world,” Fadlallah said. “I think the current Iranian president lacks diplomatic skills, and I think he creates problems for Iran,” he said of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Fadlallah, whose black turban identifies him as a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, focuses on issues of concern to his followers, such as parenting. “One of the general principles in raising children is that parents should not consider their child as part of their possessions,” he wrote in a ruling translated and placed on the English section of his Web site, english.bayynat.org.lb.

On gender issues, he takes positions that raise eyebrows among his conservative counterparts, such as questioning the conventional Islamic prohibition on female judges and challenging the traditional view that a woman’s place is in the house and the man’s in the workplace.

“The belief that it is disgraceful for the man to manage household tasks is derived from the social culture and not from Islam,” according to a statement on his Web site. “Personally, I think that no woman would be obliged to bring her social life to a standstill just because she is being occupied with her children.” Also from his Web site: “Knowledge is a merit for man and woman equally and the importance of acquiring it is identical to both of them.”

He also has addressed issues such as cloning and plastic surgery. “Mostly his fatwas are on the side of modernity and progress,” said Fawwaz Traboulsi, a Lebanese historian and journalist. “He’s very influential and he’s got a lot of money.”

Fadlallah’s most liberal rulings and attempts to distance Lebanese Shiites from Iran’s policies have angered some Shiite clerics close to the Islamic militant group Hezbollah and its leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah. Fadlallah was once Hezbollah’s spiritual leader, but now the two camps compete for donations from wealthy Shiites, who traditionally have given more money to him.

Fadlallah appears to have eased his anti-American stances. He is strongly critical of the Bush administration, but takes pains to underscore that he’s not anti-American. He recently answered a question about astronomy and Ramadan posed to him by a US Marine, a decision criticised by other clerics.