IRAQ: Powerful Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr attends Friday prayers alongside Sunnis in Baghdad and calls for an end to divisions

Record ID: 862713

  • Title: IRAQ: Powerful Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr attends Friday prayers alongside Sunnis in Baghdad and calls for an end to divisions
  • Date: 4th January 2013
  • Summary: BAGHDAD, IRAQ (JANUARY 4, 2013) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF SUNNI MOSQUE, ABDULQADER AL-QALLANEE SHI'ITE CLERIC MOQTADA AL-SADR SEATED DURING PRAYER MORE OF SADR SADR BOWING HIS HEAD FOR PRAYER VARIOUS OF SADR DURING PRAYER SADR SITTING DOWN WORSHIPPERS AT END OF PRAYER (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SHI'ITE CLERIC MOQTADA AL-SADR, SAYING: "We would like to prove that Iraq is united by its Shi'ite, Sunni Arabs and Kurds. Iraq is united and every one of you is able to hold responsibility. I am sympathetic to people and to their demands but keep Iraq's unity, and do not call for divisions, as the Sheikh just said. Everybody calls for Iraq's unity. Allah blesses you all." WORSHIPPERS WATCHING SADR SPEAK SADR LEAVING AND WORSHIPPERS CHANTING PRO-IRAQ SLOGANS
  • Embargoed: 19th January 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • City:
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Conflict,Domestic Politics,Religion,Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVAARIV3ONI6PH04E3B02PNIC4O0
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  • Story Text: Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, head of a powerful Shi'ite movement in Iraq, on Friday (January 4) attended a Sunni mosque in Baghdad and appealed for unity between the nation's sects.

    "We would like to prove that Iraq is united by its Shi'ite, Sunni Arabs and Kurds. Iraq is united and every one of you is able to hold responsibility. I am sympathetic to people and to their demands but keep Iraq's unity, and do not call for divisions, as the Sheikh just said. Everybody calls for Iraq's unity. Allah blesses you all," he said to worshippers in the packed Abdulqader al-Qallanee Mosque.
    After he spoke worshippers chanted pro-Iraq slogans.
    Thousands of Sunnis have been taking to the streets of Iraq for more than a week in protest against Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki whom they accuse of discriminating against their sect and being under the sway of their non-Arab Shi'ite neighbour Iran.
    The protesters are demanding an end to what they see as the marginalization of the Sunni minority, who dominated Iraq until the U.S.-led invasion of 2003 toppled Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein.
    Sadr, a rival of Maliki's, has voiced support for the protesters' demands and said Iraq was not immune to the changes transforming the region.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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