BAGHDAD, Feb 25: The movement of firebrand Shia leader Moqtada al Sadr publicly made peace with political and religious Sunni leaders on Saturday.
Four sheikhs from the Sadr movement made a ‘pact of honour’ with the Sunni Muslim Scholars Association, calling for an end to attacks on places of worship, the shedding of blood and condemning any act leading to sedition.
The agreement was made in the particularly symbolic setting of Baghdad’s Abu Hanifa Mosque, where the Shia sheikhs prayed under the guidance of prominent Sunni imam Abdel Salam al Qubaissi.
The meeting was broadcast on television and the religious leaders all ‘condemned the blowing up of the mausoleum of Samarra as much as the acts of sabotage against the houses of God as well as the assassinations and terrorisation of Muslims’.
The statement made reference to the key concerns of both communities with the violent aftermath to the attack on the Samarra mausoleum that saw more than 119 people die.
The sheikhs also condemned ‘those who excommunicate Muslims’ — a reference to the ‘takfireen’, or extremists like Abu Musab al Zarqawi who justify killing fellow Muslims by declaring them non-Muslims.
“It is not permitted to spill the Iraqi blood and to touch the houses of God,” said the statement, adding that any mosques taken over by another community should be returned.
The meeting also announced the formation of a commission to ‘determine the reasons for the crisis with a view to solving it’, while also calling for a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops.
On the political front, Salam al Maliki, a minister allied to Moqtada Sadr, and Iyad al Sammaraie of the Sunni Islamic Party proclaimed their own reconciliation at a joint press conference, aired on Iraqi state television.
The Islamic Party belongs to the Sunni National Concord Front, which won 44 seats in parliament and has broken off talks on forming the next Iraqi govenrment since Wednesday’s eruption of violence.
While overwhelmingly Shia and representing thousands of poor and disaffected across the country, Moqtada Sadr’s movement has often made overtures to the Sunnis over their mutual dislike of the US presence in the country.
BLACK UNIFORM: Moqtada Sadr’s office in Najaf issued a statement on Saturday calling on his followers to eschew their trademark black uniforms.
“The order has been given to members of the Mehdi Army to no longer wear their black uniform, so that it not exploited by those who commit crimes,” said the statement.
The statement added that those attacking mosques were ‘criminal bands with no links to the Sadr movement’. —AFP
