CAIRO,
June 22, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – A leading Iraqi Sunni scholar has
appealed to Muslim religious authorities and prominent scholars for
televised fatwas (religious edicts) banning bombing attacks against
Iraqi civilians.
"We
want scholars in Muslim countries to appear in television and address
the Iraqi people with their fatwas against killing fellow
Iraqis," Adnan Dulaimi, chairman of the Sunni Waqfs authority,
said during a meeting with Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Mohamed
Sayyed Tantawi on Tuesday, June 21.
He
stressed that Iraq has been hit by a vicious circle of violence and
bloodshed due to booby-trapped car attacks, claiming the lives of
hundreds of innocent Iraqis and destabilizing the country, an official
source in Al-Azhar told IslamOnline.net.
Deadly
car bombs and blasts have been plaguing Iraq ever since the US-led
forces occupied the country on April 9, 2003.
On
May 11, a bomber wearing an explosives belt blew himself up
among people queuing outside a police and army recruitment center in
the northern Iraqi town of Hawija, killing at least 30 people and
wounding 35 others.
And
in the northern city of Tikrit, a bomber blew up his vehicle among a
crowd of workers, killing at least 28 people and injuring 60 others.
Iraqi
Unity
Dulaimi
noted that fatwas issued by Al-Azhar, the highest seat of learning in
the Sunni world, for Iraqis to close ranks and consolidate unity help
bring an end to the ongoing bloodshed in the country, the source said.
The
scholar urged Al-Azhar to allocate more scholarships and fellowships
to Iraqis.
Sheikh
Tantawi, for his part, exhorted the Iraqi people to nip in the bud
seeds of sectarian division sowed by Iraq's enemies.
He
stressed that Iraqi Muslims, Sunnis or Shiites, must unite and stand
against schemes to fuel sectarian strife.
"The
killing of Iraqis and attacks against oil pipelines are a chaos that
must stop and must not be carried out by Iraqis."
Sheikh
Tantawi said Al-Azhar has issued fatwas banning Muslims from blowing
up themselves at women, children or civilians.
He
earlier said that attacks targeting Iraqi civilians were running
counter to the tenets of Islam.
