Shias mourn their revered cleric, who was accused by the US and Israel of inspiring terrorists

Shia Muslims around the world were in mourning today after the death in Lebanon of Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, a cleric revered for bridging religious divides but whose opposition to US and Israeli policy, and support for Hezbollah, made him a terrorist in Washington's eyes.

"He was like a second father to me," said Abed Berro, a 28-year-old bank worker, sitting with hundreds of other male mourners inside the mosque that Fadlallah, 74, had built in the mainly Shia southern suburbs of Beirut and from where his message of democracy and moderation challenged Shia power in Iraq and Iran.

"He was open to Christians and Sunnis and wanted unity in the Arab world. He opposed America's support for Israel against the Palestinians because he was against injustice, but he was never against the American people," added Berro.

Fadlallah, who died today , had initially praised Barack Obama's election but last month expressed doubts over the president's ability to bring peace to the Middle East.

Verses from the Qur'an played over loudspeakers in the hushed mosque as procession of mourners greeted each other with hands on their chest as they passed beneath photographs of the smiling, grey-bearded Fadlallah.

Lebanon's two Shia-run news channels halted programming to mourn the death while preparations were under way for a large funeral on Tuesday.

"Sayyed Fadlallah was a merciful father, a wise adviser and a powerful support," said Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, using the religious title that reflects Fadlallah's claim of direct descent from the prophet Muhammad's daughter Fatima and her husband Ali, revered by Shias.

"He was this for us and for the whole religious and resistance generation since we were youngsters praying behind him. He taught us to be the people of dialogue and to resist the occupation."

Saad Hariri, the Lebanese prime minister, mourned the loss of "a voice of moderation and an advocate of unity among the Lebanese and Muslims in general".

Celebrating a religious authority he said many Sunni clerics relied on in their efforts to bridge Lebanon's often violent religious divides, Maher Hamoud, a leading Sunni sheikh, told the Guardian the west struggled to understand Fadlallah's message: "He always sought to differentiate between resistance movements, such as Hamas and Hezbollah, and terrorism."

But for the US and Israel Fadlallah, who supported armed resistance against occupation, was the spiritual authority behind the suicide attacks against their troops in Lebanon during the 1980s.

In 1985 Fadlallah survived a car bomb assassination in Beirut, which the American journalist Bob Woodward later found had been planned and funded by the CIA and Saudi Arabia in revenge for what America saw as Fadlallah's leading role in the suicide attack that killed 241 American servicemen in Beirut two years earlier.

Within his own community, Fadlallah will also be remembered for the schools, hospitals and orphanages he built, for his guidance on everything from sex to smoking and for his advocacy of women's rights. "He told me once that men are dominating women in the Arab world and so he will stand by our side," said Mariam Shoukair, 50, sitting in the shade of Fadlallah's mosque. "He taught me forgiveness and caring and that women have a right to work."

"He is our idol," said Zeinab al-Jawhari, 22. "Nobody can take his place."