Iraq: Sunni body slams Zarqawi call for war on Shiites

middleeastonline: Iraq's main Sunni Arab religious authority, the Committee of Muslim Scholars, has condemned a call by Al-Qaeda's frontman in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, for "total war" against the majority Shiites.

"What Zarqawi said is very dangerous and plays into the hands of the occupier who wants to split up the country and spark a sectarian war," the committee said in a statement received by AFP on Friday.

The Sunni body, while renewing its calls for dialogue with the rebels, urged the Jordanian-born Zarqawi to retract his statement.

"From a religious point of view, you must renounce your threat because it abuses the image of Jihad (holy war)," the statement said. Read more