Iraq’s clerics urge big vote turnout

From the pulpits of mosques across Iraq at Friday prayers, clerics urged worshippers to cast their votes in next week’s election, setti...

From the pulpits of mosques across Iraq at Friday prayers, clerics urged worshippers to cast their votes in next week’s election, setting up a mass turnout in a ballot that has polarised the nation on sectarian lines.

In Falluja, renowned “City of Mosques” and former seat of revolt against US occupation, Sunni Muslim spiritual leaders made clear there would be no repeat of the boycott of January’s election which left their minority marginalised. In the Shi’ite holy city of Najaf, preachers reminded the faithful that only voting would ensure the long-oppressed majority community retained the upper hand.

Across the sectarian divide there was hope the parliament, the first fully empowered body since US forces overthrew Saddam Hussein nearly three years ago, may finally mean the departure of those American troops.

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Some clerics infused their sermons with messages of support for specific parties and lists. But most simply urged Iraqis to vote, some as a religious duty:

“Consider my words as a fatwa,” Sheikh Abdul Sattar Athaab told over 1,000 worshippers at the Raqeeb mosque in Falluja, where US troops crushed a Sunni uprising in November 2004. “First, you must participate in the elections. Second, you have to vote for a list which really represents the people,” he said. —Reuters

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