Some Sunnis in Iraq have a plan for peace [View All]

With sectarian violence reaching new extremes, some Sunni Muslim clerics are breaking with the most militant factions in their sect and reaching out to Shiite clergy in an effort to pull Iraq back from the abyss. snip.

Sumaidaie said more than 70 clerics across Iraq want to form a new religious council that can unite all Sunni factions and open a channel of communication with Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the country's most revered Shiite cleric.

Without it, he said, "we will never be able to stop the bloodshed in Iraq." Some top Sunni leaders are resisting the idea because they fear being marginalized, Sumaidaie said, accusing them of running the association like a dictatorship. But he predicted that the council would be officially founded within weeks.

In defiance of national leaders, Sunni clerics representing the association in Basra, Nasiriya, Amarah and Samawah issued religious edicts Wednesday banning the killing of all Iraqis, supporting reconstruction of a revered Shiite shrine and disavowing "any terrorist organization targeting the innocent blood of our people."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-sunnis30nov30,0,4114207.story?coll=la-home-headlines