IRAQ: Sunni Muslims and minority Shias in Saudi Arabia came together yesterday in a rare show of unity to condemn the bomb attacks against Shia worshippers in neighbouring Iraq.
A statement issued by more than 100 religious figures, academics and reformers called for a unified Muslim response to the bombings, which killed 181 people in Baghdad and the Shia holy city of Kerbala.
"These abominable crimes, and all previous violent acts of terrorism . . . aim to sow sedition among Muslims and divide them, and establish pretexts for the continued presence of occupation forces in Iraq," the statement said. Shia businessman Mr Jafar al-Shayeb, one of the signatories, said names were collected from across the kingdom and more than half were Sunnis.
Although Sunni and Shia communities in Saudi Arabia have both condemned earlier attacks on Iraqi Shia figures "this is the first time they have come together to make a single consolidated statement," he said.
Tuesday's co-ordinated wave of bomb attacks wreaked havoc on Iraq's majority Shias as they marked their holiest day of the year, Ashura, for the first time since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, who suppressed Shia ceremonies for decades.
In Saudi Arabia, where they form about 10 per cent of the population, Shias also say they have been able to commemorate Ashura more openly than before.
Shias have long complained about second class treatment in Saudi Arabia, which adheres to the austere Wahhabi school of Sunni Islam and is home to Islam's two holiest sites. Hardline Sunni clerics dismiss Shias as heretics.
They say authorities have begun to relax some restrictions in recent years, including partly easing tight control over construction of new Shia mosques.
- (Reuters)