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Iraqis
See “Foreign Hands” in Killing Sunni Scholars
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Dari stressed that the Shiites and the Sunnis were determined to stand united for the welfare of their community
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By
Samir Hadad, IOL Correspondent
BAGHDAD,
September 20 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Iraqi scholars
accused Monday, September 20, “foreign hands” of being behind the
assassination of two senior Sunni scholars in war-ravaged country.
Both
Sunni and Shiite scholars agreed that the killing was a bid to spark a
civil war and sectarian sedition in chaos-mired Iraq.
Sheikh
Hazem Al-Zaidi, a senior member of Iraq’s highest Sunni authority
the Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS), was abducted and killed late
Sunday along with two companions outside Al-Sajad mosque, AMS
spokesman Muthana Harith Al-Dari told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Sheikh
Mohammed Jadu, a second Sunni Scholar from the prominent Association,
was assassinated early Monday.
“Civil
War”
Ammar
Wajih Zeinul Abdine, the media officer at the Islamic Party, told
IslamOnline.net that “foreign hands” were definitely behind the
two heinous crimes.
“They
want to spark a devastating civil war between the Sunnis and the
Shiites in Iraq,” he said.
He
vigorously denied that Zaidi was assassinated by Shiites, praising the
deceased as having “good reputation” among the Shiite community in
Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City.
“He
used to have strong ties with the Shiites in Sadr City in his capacity
as the imam of Al-Sajad mosque. He also was in charge of bridging the
gap between the Sunni and Shiite communities in the country,” Zeinul
Abdine added.
Sheikh
Soleh Al-Obeidi, the media officer at Sadr Office, agreed that neither
the Sunnis nor the Shiites were responsible for the two incidents.
“We
express our heartfelt sympathy to our Sunni brothers in their
distress,” he told IOL.
Al-Dari
has told Al-Jazeera that the incident was deliberate to punish the AMS
for its national and anti-occupation stances.
He
played down the scenario of a civil war in Iraq, stressing that both
the Shiites and the Sunnis were determined to stand united for the
welfare of their community.
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