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SW: Cut an excusitory phrase. Tightened up my last edit.
"While his detractors see his newfound activism as cause for alarm -- the onset of clerical influence and the ascent of the Shiite majority in a divided country -- his followers describe his moves as defensive. Sistani fears the loss of what he describes as Iraq's Islamic identity, and he trusts that Iraqis, a Muslim, Arab people, will not disavow it if given a voice through elections. He thinks historically, they say, acknowledging mistakes by the clergy in the 1920 revolt, and chafing at the secular nature of modern Turkey.
"Sistani has explicitly refrained from pronouncements on what shape Iraq's constitution and law should take. He is described as a 'flexible thinker ' who believes that religion should adapt to time and place. Yet his edicts reveal a profoundly traditionalist view of society. In declarations on the most minute elements of personal behavior, he He has said that men and women should not mix socially, that music for entertainment is prohibited, that women should veil their hair. In 2005 Sistani's homepage issued a fatwa against male and female homosexuals separately, and has condoned calling for the torture and killing of gay, lesbian, and transgender people.<ref>http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid28049.asp</ref>
"Through no choice of his own, his interlocutors say, Sistani has now been forced to define his legacy. 'Any grand ayatollah would have done exactly the same,' said [[Mowaffak Rubaie]], a member of the [[Iraqi Governing Council]] who visits Sistani often. 'He keeps on saying that in 50 years from now, if I don't act, people will remember me by saying why didn't he do this, why didn't he say anything? They will say the country lost its identity, and you did nothing to stop it.'"
