Sunday, October 08, 2006
Iraqi religious leaders to sign ban on inter-sectarian fighting
Religion, Security, Politics
Iraqi Sunni and Shiite religious leaders are planning to sign in Saudi Arabia a declaration that forbids inter-Islamic fighting, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference said on Saturday. "Four representatives of Sunni and Shiite parties started yesterday a preparatory meeting in Makkah ... to draft the covenant," the OIC's undersecretary for political affairs Izzat Mufti said. He said that the document will be discussed during a meeting of Iraqi religious leaders, which will take place in Makkah before the end of Ramadan. "This meeting aims to ban the fighting between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in order to avoid a civil war" in Iraq, he said, adding that it is an OIC initiative "to help in ending the killings and bombings". Mufti said Iraq's revered Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani is strongly in favour of holding the meeting, but he did not disclose names of the Iraqi figures who will be attending.
COMMENT: A causiously optimistic move if enough Shia and Sunni religious leaders throw their weight behind it. Playing the religious card has been successful in the past when Sistani (the main Shia religious leader) issued a religious edict banning Shias from retaliating when attacked by Sunnis. This worked for a surprisngly long time, but has since been broken by militias and individuals. If some (all is unlikley) religious leaders, politicians and tribal leaders (sometimes one and the same thing) can cooperate on the issue, there may be a hope of controlling the security situation. If they don't listen to the politicians, most Iraqis will listen to either a tribal leader, a religious leader or both. COMMENT ENDS.
