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Iraqi Kurdistan may ban Islamic Friday
sermons
14.1.2011
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January
14, 2011
ERBIL-Hewlęr,
Kurdistan region 'Iraq', — Secularists in the Iraqi
Kurdistan region have pushed through a government
ban on the Friday religious sermons, driving an
ideological rift with the committed Muslims.
The move by some alleged intellectuals and feminists
came after Mullah Farman Kharabaiy, the Imam of
Majidawa Mosque in the capital of Erbil,
accused a number of leading Kurdish
feminists of blasphemy in his Friday sermon,
reported Press TV's correspondent in the city, Matt
Frazer.
The pamphlet, entitled "A Lost Truth," was
distributed by Mullah Farman Kharabaiy of Majidawa
Mosque, a mosque in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi
Kurdistan.
The pamphlet focuses on women's rights issues in
Kurdish society, but more specifically targets Iraqi
Kurdish women’s rights activists and their push for
gender equality in the region,
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Central [Great] Mosque in
Erbil, Kurdistan region of Iraq. |
an issue which has been
under the spotlight in recent weeks as a hot topic
of discussion in the Kurdish parliament.
In his pamphlet, Kharabaiy claims that the issue has
been widely used by women’s rights activists "as a
business to get rich."
Those referred to by Kharabaiy have also complained
to the police, alleging that the words by the
religious authority constituted a direct threat to
their lives.
“The main concern here in Kurdistan is that
religious leaders think that they must be the
leaders of the whole society…,” Mariwan Naqshabani,
a political expert told our correspondent.
The parliament is currently discussing a law which
would only allow the government to authorize and
broadcast three Friday sermons, one from each of the
Kurdistan region's major cities of Erbil,
Sulaimaniyah,www.ekurd.netand
Duhok.
“Ninety percent of the people here are Muslim. Those
who are gathering signatures and petitioning the
government to make this law should consider its
acceptance by the majority of the people in the
region,” said Salim Koyi from the Islamic Movement
of Kurdistan.
“Religious leaders talk about the failures of the
political leadership and the absence of government.
That's why even the ruling parties are silent, when
religious leaders are attacked by intellectuals,” he
added.
Our correspondent said, “Many religious groups are
ready to stage demonstrations if the law passes and
experts agree that the vast majority of the
population would oppose such a ban.”
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
presstv.ir | ekurd.net
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