Nouri al-Maliki... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party....
called on Sunday for joint Sunni-Shiite prayers after a spate of attacks on places of worship, saying the attackers wanted to ignite sectarian strife in Iraq.
"I call for holding joint prayers... in one of the large Storied Baghdad
...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate...
mosques" each Friday, Maliki said in a statement.
"Those who target mosques are enemies of Sunnis and Shiites alike, and are planning to ignite (sectarian) strife," he said.
Bombs near the Saria Sunni mosque in Baquba, north of Storied Baghdad, killed 41 people on Friday, a day after a jacket wallah detonated an explosives-rigged belt at the entrance of al-Zahraa husseiniyah, a Shiite place of worship in the northern city of Kirkuk,
... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time...
killing 12 people.
Tensions are festering between the government of Maliki, a Shiite, and Iraqi Sunnis who accuse authorities of marginalizing and targeting their community, including through wrongful detentions and accusations of involvement in terrorism.
Protests broke out in Sunni areas of Iraq almost five months ago.
The government has made some concessions, such as freeing prisoners and raising the salaries of Sunni anti-al-Qaeda gunnies, but underlying issues have not been addressed.