The chairman of the hardline faction of the Hurriyat (G), asserting leader of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini a role model for Muslim world, said that the cancer of sectarian extremism would not be allowed to take root here at any cost.

Syed Ali Shah Geelani said that the negligence of the government was a factor in the damage to life and property in the Kongamdara-Hagarpora villages during group clashes earlier this month between the two sects, and blamed pro-India parties for exploiting such incidents to expand their vote banks.

Speaking at a Shi’a-Sunni amity gathering in the area, Geelani asked people to be cautious against “political chameleons” and not allow them to create divides in the name of religion.

“Such people don’t have the remotest link with religion,” Geelani said.

Turning visibly emotional, Geelani said that it was the height of estrangement from religion that one Muslim should attack the life, honour and property of another Muslim on the grounds of sect.
“People involved in this great sin should turn to the Almighty in repentance, and put the bitterness behind them to live in amity again,” he said.

Describing Ayatollah Khomeini (P) and Allama Iqbal as role models for the Muslim world, Geelani said that fanning sectarian hatred in their name was the worst form of ignorance and savagery

Speaking on the sidelines op the 6th Damascus Islamic Unity Conference, Ayatollah Mohammad-Ali Taskhiri added in an interview with IRNA, “The enemy’s criminal acts should also increase the Islamic Ummah’s will for resistance against that enemy.”

The two-day scientific gathering was sponsored by the Syrian Endowments Organization, cosponsored by the IRI Cultural attaché in Damascus, attended by the Secretary General of the WFPIST Ayatollah Taskhiri and a number of Islamic countries’ elites and Islamic personalities, and held at the Syrian National Library, called Maktabat ul-Assad.

Taskhiri added, “The enemy’s criminal acts should provide an incentive for our greater solidarity aimed at encountering the oppressors’ plots against the culture identity and entire entity of this Ummah. The Ummah should act solidly aimed at materializing unity and solid stand taking.”
He added, “All these events show that the Islamic Ummah would move towards solidarity and unity in spite of the current unfavorable conditions, because the Ummah would reach a shared fate in the course of the history.”

Due to a row over the disappearance of prominent Shia cleric Ayatullah Musa al-Sadr in Libya in 1978, President of Lebanon Michel Suleiman will not attend an Arab League summit in Tripoli.

A senior government official was quoted by AFP as speaking on condition of anonymity: “President Michel Suleiman will not take part in the summit in Libya based on a request by speaker of parliament Nabih Berri.”

Imam Musa al-Sadr, the founder of the Amal movement, went missing with two of his companions, Mohammed Yaqoub and Abbas Badreddin, while on an official visit to Libya in August 1978.

Sadr, who was scheduled to meet with officials from the government of the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, is widely believed in Lebanon to have been kidnapped and killed on the orders of senior officials in Tripoli.

In 2008, Lebanon issued an arrest warrant for Gaddafi over the disappearance of the revered spiritual leader. But Gaddafi has so far managed to ignore Lebanese calls for more information on the case, never officially visiting Lebanon since 1978.

Several Lebanese politicians including Berri — who leads Sadr’s Amal party — had called for Lebanon in February to boycott the Libya summit scheduled for March 27-28.

During an interview, Suleiman said Beirut wishes to strengthen its ties with Tripoli but is also “determined to learn the fate” of Sadr and his companions.

The Higher Shia Council also called Lebanon’s probable participation in the 22 member strong summit a “catastrophe,” saying Beirut’s only condition for participating in the summit was that Sadr’s case be discussed publicly in the opening session and before the media.

Libya denies any involvement in Sadr’s disappearance, saying the trio left the country for Italy.

Italy has always denied the cleric ever arrived there; however, in 2004 Italian authorities returned a passport found in Italy belonging to the imam.