Muslim scholars back Iraqi Christians

BAGHDAD, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- The Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq condemned leaflets distributed in the northern city of Mosul that threatened the Christian community there.

The AMSI said in a statement on its Web site that the leaflets called on the Christian community to convert to Islam, pay a tax levied against non-Muslims, called jizya, or face death.

The Muslim Scholars said this type of discrimination was forbidden in Islam and violates its teachings regarding harmonious relations with members of other religions.

The leaflets caused the Iraqi people to grow suspicious of their leaders and only stoked sectarian divisions in the country, the statement said.

Such threatening statements do not correspond with the legitimate resistance movements in Iraq that only oppose the occupation, the scholars said, while condemning Iraqi lawmakers for excluding minority rights in the provincial elections law.

The practice of threatening minorities is inconsistent with the move toward national reconciliation and interferes with the solidarity required to "expel the occupation, to liberate Iraq from its clutches and followers."

The statement concluded with a call for the "dear Christian citizens" of Iraq to stand strong against oppression.