Iraqi Shia clerics have called for a boycott of French products in protest at France's move to ban Islamic headscarves from schools.
| Why not call for a boycott in response to France's support for Sammy? Why piss away a perfectly good boycott on a notschitt issue? |
Influential cleric Moqtada Sadr called for the boycot during his Friday sermon in Kufa near Najaf. "I suggest that a fatwa (religious edict) be issued by (Shia religious scholars in the Iraqi holy city of) Najaf, (the Iranian Shia religious centre of) Qom and al-Azhar (the Sunni Muslims' highest religious authority) ordering a boycott of French products," he said. "If we cannot reach such a decision, we should at least threaten to do it."
| That's a cultural thing, where you threaten to do something you can't manage to bring off. |
Silence would encourage other countries, such as Germany, to follow in France's footsteps, al-Sadr warned.
| When did Germany say they were going to do that? When did European nations start paying attention to the opinions of 22-year-old Iraqi clerics? |
A similar call was made by a Shia cleric in Baghdad on Friday. "We condemn the French government's decision prohibiting the Islamic veil and we demand the liberty that France says it embodies," Sayyid Amr al-Husseini told 10,000 worshippers in the Shia-populated Sadr City district. |