Sadr urges unified prayers in Baghdad to reject pact

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr on Friday called for performing unified prayers next Friday at Baghdad’s al-Firdos square to reject the Iraqi-U.S. security pact . “Let all worshippers next week join a peaceful demonstration to express their rejection to the pact,” Sadr said in a release that was read after today’s Friday prayers in Sadr city . “I hope that all Muslims in the Muslim and Arab worlds would support the demonstration morally by joining unified prayers at their countries,” he added . “I call on pilgrims in Mecca to pray that the nations in Jerusalem and Iraq would dispel the darkness of occupation,” he noted . “I call on Arab governments to launch enlightenment and reform and to use their authorities to drive the occupation forces out of the Arab homeland’s territories, because we would not be a unified nation as long as we are occupied,” he explained. “I repeat my demand to the U.S. occupation forces to leave our beloved Iraq without keeping bases or signing treaties; otherwise, I support the honest people who resist the occupation,” he proceeded . “We hope that security forces would not damage the honest resistance that has not and will not target any Iraqi,” he asserted . MH (S)/AmR 1