NAJAF, Dec 26: A prominent Iraqi Shia leader said on Friday that the Sunnis should not fear for their political future in Iraq.

Sayyed Mohammad Bahr al Uloum, a member of Iraq’s US-installed Governing Council, said the Sunnis may lose the status they once enjoyed, but he stressed they would be treated fairly.

“Sunni fears are unfounded. The Shias did not hijack the gains of others. We hope every citizen will receive his rights without robbing others of theirs,” Bahr al Uloum said in an interview in his home in Najaf.

“We have to reject sectarianism and look at things in total, including demography, without succumbing to fear. Shias are 60 percent of Iraq, yet Sunnis dominated the army, police, government.”

Shias are seeking a leading role in government under the planned US handover of power to Iraqis by the end of June.

Iraq’s U.S. occupiers are hoping for a smooth political transition in a land where Saddam Hussein kept sectarian tensions from erupting.

Bahr al Uloum, who returned to Iraq after escaping persecution in 1969, said the Sunnis could lose power in a democracy influenced by Islam, which he expects to form the basis of a post-Saddam constitution.

The former Iraqi opposition, including secular parties, agreed in London shortly before the U.S. invasion in March that Islam would be the basis of an Iraqi constitution.

“The book of God (holy Quran) carries all the meaning of dignity and humanity. There is no contradiction between Islam and democracy,” said Bahr al Uloum, the father of Iraq’s U.S.-appointed oil minister.

“We do not want to dig up the past and raise sectarian issues that are obvious,” he said.

Guerilla attacks on US troops have been concentrated in the Sunni areas north and west of Baghdad.

American political plans for Iraq are set against the backdrop of guerilla attacks and bombings of Western targets.

Iraqis say stability will not be possible unless Sunnis, Shias and Kurds are all satisfied with the new political climate.

The Americans blame Saddam loyalists and foreign militants belonging to groups such as Al Qaeda for the attacks.

But Bahr al Uloum played down the importance of Al Qaeda.

“Al Qaeda are intruders wanting to spread their backward ideas in our country of civilization. They have no foothold in Iraq,” he said. “We know our interest. If they aim to attack the Americans they better go to liberate Palestine, which the Americans and the Israelis cooperated to rape.”—Reuters