BAGHDAD, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- A top aide to Iraq's most influential Muslim cleric ripped the al-Jazeera news agency Friday and called for its expulsion from his country.
Imam Jalal al-Din al-Saghir said that al-Jazeera was trying to spark a civil war between Sunni and Shia Muslims in Iraq, al-Jazeera reported.
"Al-Jazeera lies, and it creates divisions between people," he said at the Aatafiya mosque in central Baghdad. Al-Saghir is seen as close to Iraq's highest Shiite spiritual leader, Ayatollah Sayyid Ali al-Sistani.
Speaking during a well-attended sermon, al-Saghir urged the Iraqi Governing Council to close permanently the Qatar-based satellite channel's Baghdad bureau.
Specifically, al-Saghir slammed television presenter Faisal al-Qassam for trying to create sectarian divisions and supporting Saddam Hussein.
Al-Qassam's program "Opposing Directions" has caused an uproar after broadcasting photographs showing some members of the Governing Council with Israel's Mossad.
"Qatar is an Israeli collaborator and its emir is a former Baathist," al-Saghir claimed. "The lies of al-Jazeera have tried to lead to al-Sistani's assassination," he alleged.
