PROMINENT Islamic scholar Dr Yusuf al-Qaradawi
yesterday called upon Kurdish leaders in Iraq to mediate between Sunnis and
Shias, saying that the spiralling sectarian strife in Iraq could spill over to
other countries and undermine the unity of the Islamic world.
Qaradawi said Iraqi President Jalal Talabani
and Masoud Barazani, president of the Kurdistan region, should mediate an end to
the sectarian violence.
"Our Kurd brethren should play a reconciliatory
role between Sunnis and Shias. Kurds are currently more influential in Iraq.
They have the presidency and the foreign ministry. They should intervene between
the two sides. The neutrality of Kurds is unacceptable in this regard," he said.
Qaradawi said Kurds should also fight the side
rejecting their mediation.
"In case their mediation is refused, they are
entitled to fight the side rejecting it," he said, while observing that Sunnis
are not expected to refuse such mediation because they are the ones suffering
the highest death toll.
"Sunnis are deported from Baghdad and Basra.
Their bodies are found headless in streets. Everyone with the name Omar or
Othman is being killed by the death squads," he said.
The scholar, who is the head of the
International Union of Islamic Scholars, also said that the IUMS has sent a
delegate to Iran to hold talks with officials about what Tehran can do to help
end the sectarian bloodshed.
"I have repeatedly called upon Iran to use its
influence in Iraq to help end the escalating sectarian strife. Iran holds the
key to stop the bloodshed in Iraq. I have been accused several times of
instigating people against Iran, while this is untrue. I am only worried about
the unity of Muslims and want to caution them against schemes to cause
fragmentation," he said.
He also criticised the leaders of Muslim
countries who, he said, stand by while Sunnis in Iraq are being eliminated by
death squads.
"I have recently visited Indonesia and called
on the country to play a pivotal role in mediating an end to the sectarian
strife in Iraq. I appealed to the Indonesian president to talk to Iran and urge
it to step in to stop the daily bloodbaths in Iraq," he said.
He warned against an all-out war breaking out
in the whole Islamic world if Muslim countries did not take the required
measures to put an urgent end to sectarian violence in Iraq.
He hailed the recent Doha conference for
Dialogue of Islamic Schools of Thought as an opportunity for transparency
between the main Islamic sects.
"I have stressed in my speech in the conference
that transparency between Sunni and Shia scholars is a must. Shia clerics should
condemn the sectarian violence as we did," he said, while observing that Sunni
scholars have condemned the atrocities reportedly carried out by the forces of
slain militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi against Shias in Iraq.
