An Iraqi Imam has accused Aljazeera of trying to spark a civil war between the country's Sunni and Shia Muslims.
| Just like Zarqawi wants to see... |
Imam Jalal al-Din al-Saghir, during the Friday sermon, urged the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council to permanently close down the Qatar-based satellite channel's Baghdad bureau. "Aljazeera lies and it creates divisions between people," he said in a fiery speech at the Aatafiya mosque in central Baghdad. Al-Saghir is seen as close to Iraq's highest Shia spiritual leader Sayyid Ali al-Sistani. Al-Saghir slammed television presenter Faisal al-Qasim for trying to create sectarian divisions and supporting Saddam Hussein. Al-Qasim's programme "An Opposing Direction" has caused an uproar after broadcasting photographs showing some members of the Governing Council with Israel's Mossad.
Aljazeera's interim Baghdad bureau chief Majid Khadir denied the accusations. "He is completely wrong. What we are doing is conveying exactly what each party says about Iraqi problems, especially elections," said Khadir. "Qatar is an Israeli collaborator and its emir is a former Baathist. The lies of Aljazeera have tried to lead to al-Sistani's assassination." He was referring to the news organisations reports last week that the Shia cleric had escaped an assassination attempt. Khadir pointed out that the channel quoted wire agencies and al-Ghadir television, which broadcasts from the Shia-stronghold city of Najaf. |