Baghdad Urges KRG Action Against Clerics Inciting Violence

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iraq’s central government has asked authorities in the autonomous Kurdistan Region to take action against Sunni clerics allegedly calling on followers to wage war against the Iraqi army.

Kamil Ameen, spokesman of Iraq’s Ministry of Human Rights, confirmed that his ministry had written to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) asking for action against clerics based in Kurdistan who have been issuing such fatwas, or Islamic edicts.

“After the statement, we will certainly take legal actions through KRG’s official channels,” Ameen told Rudaw.

The written statement reportedly warns that such fatwas threaten to revive the sectarian war that reached its peak in Iraq about six years ago.

Violence in Baghdad is reaching record highs, with more than 1,000 people reported killed in January.

The statement from Baghdad also says that Sheikh Rafi al-Rifai, who is based in Sulaimani and calls himself “Iraq’s mufti,” has called on Sunnis and other residents of Anbar province to fight the Iraqi army.

The army has been locked in fighting against Islamic insurgents and Sunni tribesmen in the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah in Anbar, since an operation in December to hunt al-Qaeda jihadists and dismantle an anti-government protest site.

The statement from Baghdad asks the KRG to take strong legal measures against erring clerics out of a sense of humanitarian responsibility.  

Ameen urged the Kurdistan Region not to become a shelter for instigators of violence.

“The KRG should not be a shield for people like Rifai,” said the spokesman, adding that he believes Islamic insurgents also have reached the Kurdistan Region.

The KRG’s interior ministry, contacted by Rudaw, refused any comment over the issue.

Malla Abdulla Waisi, head of the Islamic Scholars Union in the Kurdistan Region, said that no Sunni or Shiite cleric could claim to be Iraq’s mufti because no such position exists.

He added that anyone who settles in Kurdistan must take care against making statements that have a negative impact on relations between the KRG and Baghdad.

Since the Anbar crisis began in December, the Kurdistan Region has become a shelter for thousands of families fleeing the fighting between Sunni militants and the Iraqi army.

The fighting in Anbar is part of seething differences between Iraq’s Shiite-led central government and a large Sunni minority that accuses Baghdad of discriminating against them.