BAGHDAD, July 31, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – A cohort of Iraq's top Sunni leaders condemned Sunday, July 31, the government's sacking of a top Sunni official and pressed for a rethink.

"We have nothing against Sheikh Ahmad Abdel Ghaffur Al-Samarrai, but we demand the government and prime minister to reconsider their decision to fire the head of the Sunni Waqf, Adnan Dulaimi," said representatives of several Sunni associations and tribal leaders after a meeting in the Abu Hanifa mosque in Adhamiya, north of Baghdad, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Dulaimi had received a letter from Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari on sacking him from the post which he took up in October 2003.

He accused the government of firing him for repeatedly protesting a deliberate crackdown on Sunnis in the occupied country.

"I have been chased out of my job because I defend the Sunnis," he told AFP Saturday.

"I am asking for unconditional release of all imprisoned Sunnis and I demand that tortures, murders and kidnappings targeting members of this community be halted. I quite simply want an end to the violence," he said.

Dulaimi, 74, is also the official spokesman of an alliance of religious, political and social groups formed by Iraq’s Sunnis to streamline their political participation and unify the ranks of all Sunnis, whether Arabs, Turkomans or Kurds.

He had issued multiple statements against Sunni arrests and assassinations, and had recently called on Sunni Arabs to participate in the constitution drafting.

During a recent visit to Egypt, Dulaimi appealed to Muslim religious authorities and prominent scholars for televised fatwas (religious edicts) banning bombing attacks against Iraqi civilians.

The Sunni leaders accused the government of acting unilaterally without even consulting with them.

"We all denounce this decision, which was brutally imposed by the government with consultation or pause," said the statement.

"Dulaimi is a very effective leader who took care of the money that was given to him and knew how to grow investments," said Sheikh Abdel Salam Kubaissi, spokesman for the Association of Muslim Scholars, the main Sunni religious authority in Iraq.

The same position was echoed by Dhafer Al-Dulaimi, Sunni Waqf spokesman.

"This was not the right decision because Adnan Dulaimi had become a political official and a religious leader for all Sunnis," he said.

Since the fall of Saddam's regime there have been three Waqfs -- one representing Sunni, one Shiite and one for other religions.

Their leaders hold the rank of vice-minister in the Iraqi government.

Against a backdrop of towering unemployment rates and appalling living conditions under the US-led occupation, the Sunni Waqfs and Al-Afaf (modesty) charity are championing a matrimonial service to help youth tie the knot.