Vote for president postponed
Scholars slam expulsion of Iraq’s ‘Christian brothers’
DOHA, July 23, (Agencies): An influential group of Islamic scholars has denounced the forced expulsion of Christians from northern Iraq by Islamist hardliners, saying it paves the way for fighting between the country’s ethnic and religious groups.
The Christian community of Mosul fled to the Kurdish autonomous region last week, ending a presence stretching back nearly 2,000 years, after Islamic State militants set them a deadline to submit to their rule or leave.
“The International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) condemns the forced expulsion of the Christian brothers of Iraq from their homes, cities and provinces,” the group said in a statement posted on the website of its leader, the influential cleric Sheikh Youssef alQaradawi on Tuesday.
“These are acts that violate Islamic laws, Islamic conscience and leave but a negative image of Islam and Muslims.”
The IUMS, comprising senior Sunni religious scholars from around the world with links to more moderate factions of the Muslim Brotherhood, views the Islamic State, which has taken control of a swathe of northern Iraq, as being too extreme and says its doctrine contradicts the true teachings of Islam.
It has rejected the Islamic State’s declaration of a caliphate in Iraq and Syria as illegal under Muslim law, saying such a development can only be made after enough legitimate representatives of Muslim peoples have pledged their allegiance.
The Islamic State, an al-Qaeda offshoot, relayed its ultimatum from mosque loudspeakers and spray painted Christian properties with the letter “N” for Nasrani, or Christian, residents said.
Fleeing Christians described being stopped by gunmen on the outskirts of Mosul and robbed of the goods they carried, suggesting the militants were implementing an order to Christians to leave behind all possessions.
The IUMS urged the Islamic State to allow Christians to return to their homes, saying the forced expulsion amounts to “spreading discord”, a serious crime in traditional Muslim law.
“They (Christians) are native sons of Iraq and not intruders,” it said. “The aim must be to bury discord, unite the ranks and solve Iraq’s problems, rather than thrusting it into matters that would further complicate the situation,” it added.
Iraq’s parliament, which had been due to elect the country’s president on Wednesday, postponed the vote by a day, delaying the formation of a power-sharing government urgently needed to confront a Sunni Muslim insurgency.
The advance by Sunni Islamist militants who seized swathes of northern Iraq last month has put the OPEC oil producer’s survival in jeopardy. Its politicians have been deadlocked over forming a new government since an election in April.
Islamic State, an al-Qaeda offshoot that is leading the insurgency, claimed responsibility for an overnight suicide bombing in a Shi’ite district of Baghdad which killed 33 people, one of the deadliest recent attacks in the capital.
The bloodshed highlighted the need for Iraq’s politicians to form a united front against the militants, who want to march on the capital. Washington has made clear that it wants to see a more inclusive government established in Baghdad for the United States to provide military support against the insurgency.
Under Iraq’s governing system, in place since the post-Saddam Hussein constitution was adopted in 2005, the prime minister is a member of the Shi’ite majority, the speaker a Sunni and the largely ceremonial president a Kurd.
Speaker Salim al-Jubouri told parliament that the Kurds had asked for a oneday delay on the vote so they could agree on a candidate. Parliament has until the end of the month to choose a president, who will then have 15 days to nominate a prime minister.
A statement from parliament said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who has been on a Middle East tour to seek an end to the fighting in Gaza, was expected to visit Baghdad on Thursday Jubouri.
Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has ruled since the election, in a caretaker capacity, defying demands from the Sunnis and Kurds that he step aside for a lesspolarising figure. Even some Shi’ite politicians want Maliki to go. Islamic State, which shortened its name from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant after last month’s advance, has declared its leader “caliph” — ruler of all Muslims.
It now controls a swathe of territory from Aleppo in Syria close to the Mediterranean to the outskirts of Baghdad.
Washington hopes a more inclusive government in Baghdad could save Iraq by persuading moderate Sunnis to turn against the insurgency, as many did during the “surge” offensive in 2006-2007 when US troops paid them to switch sides.
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