Two days after a provocative move to shut down the headquarters of a major Iraqi Sunni organization, an ongoing dispute among major players in the Iraqi Sunni community escalated Friday as the head of the Sunni Religious Endowments in Iraq accused the Association of Muslim Scholars (AMSI) of being an "obstacle" in the way of the entry of Iraqi Sunnis into the Iraqi Army and police forces.
Shaykh Ahmad Abd al-Ghafour al-Samara'i, head of the Sunni Religious Endowments (Waqf) in Iraq issued a statement on Friday lashing back at the AMSI and defending his orders to shut down the Umm al-Quraa mosque in Western Baghdad where the Association had made its headquarters.
The Sunni Waqf is a quasi-governmental organization responsible for Sunni mosques and religious places.
"The Association has been an obstacle in the way of entry of our sons (i.e. Iraqi Sunnis) into the ranks of the Army and the police," the statement said, according to Aswat al-Iraq's report in Arabic, continuing to point out that "in April 2005 more then 60 Iraqi clerics gathered and we published a fatwa (in favor of) joining the ranks of the Army and the police."
"The Association's leaders announced on the television screens that the Association disavows this fatwa, and they took into account members of the Association who issued the fatwa with us. Because of this, tens of thousands of our people have been reluctant to volunteer in the ranks of the Army and the police," al-Samara'i said, adding that this "upset the balance" and led to a "catastrophe" in the Sunni community.
Al-Samara'i added that his decision to close the headquarters of the AMSI came without any pressure from any other party, saying that he "came to the decision of (his own) reasoning alone, and in response to the cries of the widows and mothers of martyrs because they all say that the Association of Muslim Scholars are one of the reasons for the killing and forced migration that has befallen Iraqis," Aswat al-Iraq reports.
Samara'i said that the held the AMSI responsible for what he called the crimes of al-Qa'ida, saying "The Association of Muslim Scholars is still committed to the side of silence on the crimes of al-Qa'ida, while it kills tribal leaders and religious scholars . . . and sows sectarian divisions among the Iraqis," the Iraqi news agency writes.
"The Iraqi people hold them responsible for these crimes," he said.
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"If the AMSI had agreed with the Iraqis in their opposition to al-Qa'ida, and had had not been a party to splitting the unity of the Iraqi ranks, then we would not have closed it."
"Al-Qa'ida announced that it kills the Sunni people who participate in the political process, and (kills) the Shi'a on the basis of their identity (alone)," he said.
"We want the world to understand that we refuse al-Qa'ida's death sentence on the Iraqi people."
The head of the Sunni Waqf demanded that the AMSI present its positions clearly to the Iraqi people, and that it announce its disavowal of the al-Qa'ida Organization in clear terms, Aswat al-Iraq writes.
On Wednesday, Iraqi troops surrounded and seized the Umm al-Quraa mosque in Western Baghdad where the AMSI was headquartered, prompting fierce responses from the Association and from other Sunni groups.
The AMSI was founded on April 22, 2003, just weeks after the fall of the Ba'thist regime.
