Iraqi Christians Nominate Top Shiite Cleric for Noble Peace Prize

News Max staff / Teresa Neumann reporting : Mar 9, 2005
NewsMax

(Iraq)Newsmax reports that a group of exiled Iraqi Christians in the United States are petitioning to nominate Iraq's top Shiite Muslim cleric, Al-Sistani, for the 2005 Nobel Peace Price. So far, they have drawn over 6,000 on-line signatures from around the world.

Since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, Al-Sistani has repeatedly condemned anti-American violence while calling for an end to the conflict.

Shiites have been targets of dozens of mass suicide bombings and attacks blamed on Sunni insurgents that are widely seen as efforts to spark a sectarian civil war, notes Newsmax, adding that Al-Sistani is believed to be a major force preventing an all-out confrontation between the two sects with his repeated calls on Shiites to refrain from retaliating.