Saudi clerics call for help for Sunnis in Iraq

RIYADH, Dec 11 (Reuters) A group of prominent Saudi clerics have called on Sunni Muslims around the world to mobilise against Shi'ites in Iraq, although a statement they issued fell short of calling for a jihad, or holy war.

The statement appearing on Saudi Islamist Web sites today said Sunni Muslims were being murdered and marginalised by Shi'ites, backed by Iran, and the US-led forces.

Saudi Arabia, a bastion of Sunni Islam, backs the Shi'ite-dominated government of Nuri al-Maliki largely because it fears that sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shi'ites could lead to the break-up of its northern neighbour and spill over its borders.

''We direct this message to all concerned about Shi'ites in the world: the murder, torture and displacement of Sunnis ... is an outrage. We don't think you would accept to be treated like this,'' said the statement, dated December 7.

''Muslims must stand directly with our Sunni brothers in Iraq and support them by all appropriate, well-studied means ...

Muslims generally should be made aware of the danger of the Shi'ites,'' it said.

''Clerics and intellectuals should not stand hands folded over what's happening to their Sunni brothers in Iraq; all occasions should be used to expose the Shi'ites' practices ...

What has been taken by force can only be got back by force.'' The statement was signed by 38 clerics and Islamic preachers, including Abdel-Rahman al-Barrak, Safar al-Hawali and Nasser al-Omar, leading figures of Saudi Arabia's hardline school of Sunni Islam known as Wahhabism.

Many Saudi clerics of the austere Wahhabi school of Sunni Islam dismiss Shi'ites as virtual heretics and the kingdom's Shi'ites have long complained about second class treatment.

Populist preachers who regularly appear on Saudi state television did not sign the document, which repeated fears expressed by Jordan's King Abdullah of a ''Shi'ite crescent'' stretching across the West Asia, as Iran allies with Shi'ites in the Arab world after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter and home to Islam's holiest sites, wants to check the influence of Iran, which is growing stronger through its alliance with Lebanon's Shi'ite Hezbollah guerrilla group and Syria.

But the Saudi government has been wary of supporting Sunnis because the insurgency against the Shi'ite-dominated authorities in Iraq has been led by al Qaeda militants who also launched a campaign in 2003 to end the US-allied Saudi monarchy.

Saudi clerics are usually careful to avoid using the term ''jihad'' in relation to Iraq. Many showing sympathy for al Qaeda have been arrested in the past.

REUTERS BDP HS1737