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Shi'ite, Sunni clerics urge Iraqi unity

Posted on: Friday, 3 March 2006, 09:25 CST

By Omar al-Ibadi

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Clerics from across Iraq's Shi'ite-Sunni divide called for calm and national unity in Friday prayers after a wave of sectarian violence that has killed hundreds and edged the country toward civil war.

Fearing clashes on the Muslim day of the week when mosques are filled with worshippers, the Iraqi government imposed a new daytime traffic curfew on Baghdad on Friday.

Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, criticized for failing to combat violence that has killed at least 500 people since a Shi'ite shrine was bombed on February 22, warned preachers against "inflammatory" language.

"We have to say 'yes' to political justice, independence and unity and say 'no' to dictatorship, foreign interference and sectarianism," Sadr-al-Deen al-Qubanchi, a member of one of the largest Shi'ite parties, told worshippers at the Fatima Mosque in the holy city of Najaf.

In Baghdad's Sunni Saadiya mosque, the preacher praised Shi'ites for helping protect the mosque from gunmen who attacked numerous other mosques in the religiously-mixed capital. Two police cars guarded the mosque as locals gathered inside.

"The worshippers have informed me that the Sunnis and Shi'ites in the area came together to protect this mosque. This is evidence of Iraq's unity and brotherhood," he told a congregation of around 150 people.

The bloodless but symbolic bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra triggered an unprecedented backlash from Shi'ites against minority Sunni Arabs, who make up the backbone of an insurgency battling the Shi'ite and Kurdish-led government.

Most speeches took a cautious line to avoid worsening tensions but in the southern Shi'ite city of Basra, Iraq's second largest, Sabah al-Saadi of the Shi'ite Fadhila party criticized Sunnis for appeasing insurgents.

"We call on (Sunnis) to be responsible and not pour fuel on the flames. They must reject the new Saddamists," said Saadi.

Saddam, who faces charges of crimes against humanity, is a Sunni Arab.

Some went to pray in mosques belonging to the other sect in a show of solidarity.

Abu Alaa, a 46-year-old Shi'ite said he has been praying at a Sunni mosque for a while to help bridge the divide.

"I always come here to pray and I have no problem with praying with Sunnis. This is a time when we need to stand united."

(Additional reporting by Khaled Farhan in Najaf and Abdel- Razzak Hameed in Basra)

Source: REUTERS

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