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"We welcome this call and support all efforts that serve cementing our national unity as a step toward solving Iraq's problems," Dari said.
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The
Shiite call to cement Iraqi national unity was immediately welcomed by
the main Sunni religious authority in the country.
"We
welcome this call and support all efforts that serve cementing our
national unity as a step toward solving Iraq's problems," Mothana
Harith Al-Dari, spokesman for the Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS),
told IOL.
Dari
highlighted that the Sunni authority had repeatedly called for
coordinating efforts to enhance the Iraqi national unity.
"But
such calls were disregarded by many parties," he said, declining
to name these parties.
Dari
stressed that a code of honor was declared by the Sunni body in the
past year and was confirmed last May to support efforts to avoid a
sectarian division in the country.
AMS
Secretary General Harith Al-Dari had in the past accused (Shiite) Badr
Brigades, the organization which replaced the officially disbanded
militia of the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI),
of abducting and assassinating Sunni scholars.
Sunnis
further accuse Iraqi guardsmen – created under US-led occupation --
of adopting an iron-fist approach and carrying out unjustified raids
in their towns.
The
string of anti-Sunni attacks prompted Sunni leaders to declare on May
20 an unprecedented three-day closure of Baghdad’s mosques in
protest.
In
statements to IslamOnline.net Monday, May 17, AMS spokesman Mothana
Harith Al-Dari accused the dominant-Shiite newly-formed security
forces of pursuing a policy of “state terror” against Sunni Arabs.
Political
Body
A
similar stance was echoed by Hassan Al-Bazaz, Sunni, a professor of
international relations in Baghdad University.
"We,
as Iraqi Sunnis, have been trying to unite the Iraqis into a new
political congress to build new Iraq, by the hands of both Shiites and
Sunnis and preserve the Arab and Islamic identity of Iraq," he
told IOL.
The
new congress will include 60 figures from all Iraqi tribes sects, he
said.
"The
new congress will call for holding a conference in August to discuss
means of achieving national reconciliation and building bridges of
confidence between the Sunnis and Shiites and other Iraqi sects."
A
conference will also be held on July 30, to be attended by 300 figures
from all Iraqi sects, the Iraqi professor said.
"The
conference will discuss means of drawing up a national stance paving
the way for forming a government of technocrats that works to achieve
security and development and prepare for the coming elections by the
end of the year."
Condemnation
The
chairman of the Iraqi media and transmission board, Abdul Halim Al-Woheemi,
Shiite, agreed.
"The
Sunni and Shiite leaders should condemn any terrorist attacks in the
country and highlight that terrorism doesn't differentiate between
Shiites and Sunnis."
He
maintained that religious leaders should address Shiite and Sunni
sects to defuse tension and avoid the sparking of sectarian clashes in
the war-torn country.
"We,
as Shiites, don't accuse the Sunnis of carrying out terrorist attacks
against the Shiites," he said.
He
added that the perpetrators of attacks in Iraq are nothing but
blood-seeking terrorists.
Al-Qaeda-linked
group of Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi had claimed responsibility for many
attacks targeting Shiite religious places in Iraq.
Latest
of such bloody attacks was in July 17 in the southern town of Al-Musayyib,
when a man detonated himself near a tanker of liquefied gas, killing
at least 70 people and wounding 95.
