A Sunni cleric who urged his congregation to vote in the upcoming elections has been kidnapped.
BAGHDAD -- Like many of Baghdad's fiery Sunni clerics, Sheik Omar Ibrahim al Duleimi was never afraid to stir up things at Friday prayers.
When he urged his congregation to rise up and fight the American occupation, U.S. troops would routinely haul him in for questioning.
When he urged his congregation to register to vote in elections, the threat came from his compatriots -- insurgents who sent him warning messages that he ignored.
On Wednesday, the sheik paid what may be the ultimate price for his defiance.
The terrorists would seem to want only that the bloodshed continue. I suppose they have talent for nothing else. They claim to resist the American occupation, but ending the occupation is also the aim of Sheik Omar Ibrahim al Duleimi.
"In the last two weeks he had been saying in prayers that all Iraqis should vote. He said if we get a government, president and constitution, the Americans will have no reason to stay," his assistant, Qassim al Janaabi, said.
In spite of this, 22 Sunni clerics have been killed in recent weeks for urging their congregations to join in the elections. This, according to the Association of Muslim Scholars which is a hard-line Sunni organization with ties to the terrorists.
Sheik al Duleimi's 22 year old son Hatem, thinks that his father was right.
"The election is a new weapon we can use against the occupation," he said. "But these extremists refuse any kind of election. They are not mujahedeen, they are just terrorists."
And their position is, "Agree with us or we'll kill you." It's all quite logical.
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