The Grand Imam of Egypt's Al-Azhar Mosque, the world's highest Sunni Muslim authority, urged fighters in Iraq to stop their attacks for a month so that occupation forces withdraw from the war-torn country.
“We tell you with all honesty and sincerity that if this killing and sabotaging going on in Iraq stopped for one month, all foreigners will start withdrawing from your country and all the world will stand by your side,” Sheikh Mohamed Sayyed Tantawi said on Friday.
Tantawi, who met with former Iraqi premier Iyad Allawi earlier this week, said that resisting occupying forces was always encouraged and permissible, but noted that the ongoing violence in Iraq is missing the point.
“Killing your Iraqi brothers or blowing up an Iraqi oil pipeline is not resisting the enemy, but killing yourself, the men, the women and the children, sabotaging homes, minds and dignity,” he said.
He also called on Iraq Shiites and Sunnis to stay away from "blind sectarianism and stupid racism.”
Tantawi also said that unity of Iraq's sects would help revive the country's role as an active member of the human race and protect its heritage.
The Grand Imam also said that he wouldn’t hesitate to visit Iraq if the Iraqis invite him. “We are ready to come to you if you ask, if we know that our visit will help relieve ours and your agony,” he said.
Earlier Tantawi had condemned the beheadings in Iraq, saying that there against the Islamic religion.
Meanwhile, foreign ministers from the Organization of the Islamic Conference meeting in the Yemeni capital, Sanna, condemned "all aspects of terrorism" in Iraq but insisted on "differentiating between terrorism and legitimate resistance against occupation."
In other developments, a fire broke out on Friday at a power station that supplies a Baghdad waterworks, shutting it down and leaving millions of residents without drinking water.
Officials said the fire began at about 7 a.m. local time, adding that it completely halted water distribution at the Karkh water station in Tarmiyah, which serves northern and western Baghdad.
The water project's director, Jassim Mohammed, said that it would take up to three days to repair the damage.
A municipal official said the blaze was still under investigation. "It's not clear if it was an explosion (caused by insurgents) or a technical problem," he said.
Also in Baghdad, unknown gunmen shot dead a senior aide to Iraq's Shiite spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the Iraqi defense ministry and Sistani's office said.
Sheikh Kamaleddin al-Ghuraifi was killed while he was on his way to Friday prayers, officials said.
Another car bomb exploded near an office of Iraq's Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari's Islamic Dawa Party in western Baghdad, killing one person and injuring more than four others, a defense ministry official said.
Other attacks in Baghdad and the restive city of Samarra killed more than 14 people and injured at least seven, police and army sources said.