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Baghdad, 11 Oct. (AKI) - Shiite Ayatollah
Muhammad Mahdi al-Khalisi has urged his followers to
boycott the referendum on the Iraqi constitution,
due to be held on Saturday. In a statement released
to the media, the Iraqi Shiite movement leader
defined the constitution drafted by the parliament
in Baghdad "contrary to the interests of the country
and in the service of the Americans."
According to the Ayatollah, who has always been in
open opposition to the main groups which support the
Shiite-Kurd dominated-government, the constitution
is an instrument used to divide the country and
distance it from its Arab-Islamic core.
Al-Khalisi's position appears very similar to that
of the radical Shiite imam Moqtada al-Sadr and the
Sunni groups. Similar statements regarding the
referendum have already been made by the al-Qaeda in
Iraq terror group, led by Jordanian militant Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi, who has issued a list of Shiites
who should not be attacked, or at least should not
be considered priority targets.
The anti-American Shiite leader al-Khalisi, is part
of the group led by Jawad al-Khalisi, secretary
general of the Iraqi National Foundation Congress,
an alliance of secular and religious organisations
covering all religious and ethnic groups in Iraq. He
wrote in the British Guardian newspaper in April
this year that "The US-British occupation of Iraq is
poisoning all political processes in my country and
across the Middle East."
Al-Zarqawi recently declared war on all Shiites in
Iraq, and despite al-Khalisi's group adopting the
same political position as al-Qaeda over the
referendum, in a recent fatwa (religious edict), al-Zarqawi
explained that while he had promised not to attack
the anti-US groups of al-Sadr, al-Khalisi and Ahmed
al-Hassani al-Baghdadi, they should still be
considered apostates, whose "elimination" was merely
on hold while they targeted other Shiites.
www.adnki.com
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