Sadrists accused of politicizing disputes

BAGHDAD, May 27 (UPI) -- A lawmaker with the Shiite Unified Iraqi Coalition bloc said Tuesday Sadrist criticisms against Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki were political maneuvering.

Sadrists, the Iraqi political party of Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, said Maliki violated the Iraqi Constitution by refusing to allow Shiites to participate in religious rituals during Friday prayers.

Iraqi security forces swept into a neighborhood in the southern port city of Basra, dispersing congregants with warning shots Friday.

Sadrist lawmaker Uqeil Abdul Hussein said his party would take the issue to the Iraqi Parliament if security forces continued interfering with religious services.

"We will work on questioning the prime minister in Parliament for his violation of the constitution and refusal to let the Sadrist bloc members to practice their religious rituals. Security forces bulldozed a fence of a court dedicated for the Friday prayers in Basra during the early hours of Sunday," he told Voices of Iraq.

Jalal al-Dain al-Saghir with the United Iraqi Alliance, a rival Shiite coalition led by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, said the Sadrist bloc was politicizing the issue and called for further evidence of the constitutional allegations.

"These accusations should be sent via justice not the media. Talking about these accusations in the media involves political and election purposes," he said.

Saghir said to expect "a lot of rumors, lies and accusations" to circulate during the run-up to the October provincial elections, saying, "No man with reason would accept hurling accusations without any evidence to sustain them."