BAGHDAD, November 21 (IslamOnline.net) – The interim Iraqi government of Iyad Allawi has threatened to charge anti-US occupation imams with high treason, which carries capital punishment, an Iraqi newspaper reported Saturday, November 20.

Interim Interior Minister Fallah Al-Naqib said imams inciting “bloodshed from their pulpits” will be treated as traitors and brought to justice, said Al-Moatamar newspaper, the mouthpiece of Ahmed Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress.

Thaer Al-Naqib, the spokesman for the interim government, said Iraqi authorities arrested last week firebrand imams in the northern city of Mosul, adding they would be held accountable for their “fiery sermons.”

Under the current Iraqi penal code, high treason is only applied with unpatriotic acts such as espionage and tampering with national security and economy.

“Ironically, the interim government wants to punish those imams calling for an end to the US-led occupation with the same,” Mohammad Al-Azami, a professor of law, told IslamOnline.net.

Chief among the targeted are Sheikh Hareth Al-Dari, the chief of the influential Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS), which represents up to 3,000 of Iraq's Sunni mosques, Sheikh Abdel Sattar Abdel Jabbar and Mostafa Al-Zini.

On Friday, November 19, Abu Hanifa mosque in Baghdad was stormed by US-backed Iraqi troops after Friday prayers, killing four worshipers and critically injuring nine others.

Iraqi national guardsmen have also arrested 17 worshipers for chanting anti-occupation slogans as well as the mosque imam Moaed Al-Azami.

Iraqis chant anti-US slogans in Baghdad

Iraqi political experts said the arrests and home raids are aimed at “muzzling” critics to make sure that the public only hears the American version.

“No wonder that the arrests coincide with the approaching general election to silence voices calling for boycotting the ballots under the US occupation,” Ahmad Kamal Al-Azzawi, political analyst, told IOL.

He said the Iraqi government has lost touch with the people due to these provocative practices, which will further alienate Iraqis from the election.

The AMS urged the Iraqi people to boycott the January election in protest at the Fallujah offensive.

So far, 47 Sunni, Shiite, Turkoman and Christian bodies and movements have declared their boycott of the upcoming election.

A cohort of prominent Saudi scholars have defended resistance against the occupation forces in Iraq as a legitimate right, prohibiting cooperation with the occupiers and collaboration against resistance groups.