Iraqis should fight occupiers, not each other: Cleric

DOHA, Jan 22 (Reuters) - A prominent Sunni Muslim cleric today called on warring Sunnis and Shi'ites in Iraq to stop sectarian violence and fight US-led ''foreign occupiers''.

''It is a taboo for Muslims to kill each other,'' said Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian cleric living in Qatar.

The call to unite against ''foreign occupiers'' came after a three-day religious forum in Qatar grouping more than 200 Sunni and Shi'ite scholars from more than 40 countries.

''We have an obligation to fight foreign occupation of Muslim countries and we should be united against foreign aggression,'' Qaradawi added.

In a 10-point communique issued after the forum, senior Muslim clerics said killing of Muslims by Muslims was forbidden, and also called on Muslims to ''unite against all aggression against the Islamic world''.

Sectarian violence has threatened to distract Iraqis from the ''real enemy'', said the communique, written by senior clerics from various Muslim sects.

Muslim leaders from all sects should foster unity, understanding and respect between different sects and not try to convert followers from each others' sects, it added.

Muslim leaders should also reform their education curriculum to foster support and unity of the different Islamic sects and groups.

Clerics of the austere Wahhabi school of Sunni Islam in Saudi Arabia have long dismissed Shi'ites as virtual heretics.

Al Qaeda, a Sunni Muslim group, has used suicide bombings to wreak carnage among Shi'ites in Iraq, US and Iraqi government officials say. Shi'ites say attacks on Sunnis are revenge for the suicide bombs.

''There should be respect for each others' beliefs and we must avoid confrontation,'' said Dr Ahmed Mohamed al-Tayeb, president of Egypt's al-Azhar University, one of the oldest and most revered seats of Islamic learning.

Prominent figures, including Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Taskhiri, who heads an Iranian body seeking to unify followers of Islam's various branches, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the head of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, Ali Gomaa, the Grand Mufti of Egypt and Egypt's Religious Endowments Minister Mahmoud Hamdi Zakzouk have attended the forum.

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