BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) – A group of exiled Iraqi Christians in the United States said Sunday it has launched a petition nominating Iraq’s top Shiite Muslim cleric for the Nobel Peace Prize, drawing more than 7,000 signatures from around the world.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, 75, is Iraq’s most-revered Shiite cleric and a symbol of Shiite political power. The group said he has repeatedly opposed anti-American violence, including a bloody summer uprising by Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Al-Sistani “gave Muslims all around the globe a good example how to follow peaceful ways to resolve complex social (and) political challenges that face them, condemning terror and emphasizing … rule of law,” the petition said.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee makes its choice based on nominations submitted by Feb. 1 every year.

Petitions submitted later are considered for the following year.

The petition, posted on the Internet on Feb. 27, was initiated by members of the Iraqi Chaldean community in El Cajon City, Calif., near San Diego, who belong to one of Iraq’s tiny Christian minorities.

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. 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.

Shiites, who make up 60 percent of Iraq’s 26 million people, are poised to take power for the first time after decades of Sunni domination. Christians are believed to make up just 3 percent of the population.

The frail, white-bearded cleric has millions of followers, who decorate their homes, stores and offices with his picture in a black robe and turban. He is seen as a spiritual figure who guides Shiites from his home in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, south of Baghdad.

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On the Net:

http://www.petitiononline.com/ocsi2005/petition.html

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