{"id":"2","article_title":"Imams in Iraq denounce Quran shooting","category_id":"1","article_date":"2012-10-23","article_summary":"Imams delivering their Friday sermons in Iraq are denouncing the shooting of a Quran, the holy book of Islam, by a U.S. soldier.\"If we were<br>","article_content":"<img title=\"Image: http:\/\/www.myvivvo.com\/thumbnail.php?file=art.quran.kiss.cnn_842448355.jpg&amp;size=article_medium\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myvivvo.com\/thumbnail.php?file=art.quran.kiss.cnn_842448355.jpg&amp;size=article_medium\" alt=\"Imams in Iraq denounce Quran shooting\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n                                \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span>Imams delivering their Friday sermons in Iraq are denouncing the shooting of a Quran, the holy book of Islam, by a U.S. soldier.<br><br>\"If\r\n we were strongly united from the beginning, that silly-minded American \r\nsoldier wouldn't have used the Quran as a target,\" said Sheikh Ahmed \r\nAbdul-Ghafour al-Samarie, delivering a sermon at Um al-Qura Sunni Mosque\r\n in Baghdad.<br><br>The U.S. military and President Bush have \r\napologized, but it did not stem the violent protests in Afghanistan and \r\ncalls from both Sunni and Shiite Iraqis for the soldier to be severely \r\npunished.<br><br>Muslims around the world were angered when it came to \r\nlight last week that an American staff sergeant -- a sniper section \r\nleader -- had used a Quran for target practice in Iraq.<br><br>Imams at mosques in the largely Sunni cities of Falluja and Mosul, and in Baghdad, condemned the act.<br><br>The Baghdad mosque prayer was broadcast live on state TV.<br><br>\"This\r\n soldier put the head of his state in embarrassment that he had to \r\napologize to the prime minister. We call upon this soldier to be \r\npunished. This act, we reject and we stand against it,\" al-Samarie said.<br><br>He said if a similar incident happened again, \"the world will turn upside down and things will not go back to how they were.\"<br><br>Sayyed\r\n Muhanned al-Mossawi, a Shiite imam at al-Hakma mosque, said: \"We \r\ncondemn and denounce the criminal act by the American soldier in \r\nRadhwaniya in tearing the Holy Quran and using it as a shooting target.\"<br><br>Friday's prayer service is the most important Muslim event of the week.<br><br>The U.S. commander in Baghdad issued a formal apology Saturday and read a letter of apology from the shooter.<br><br>The\r\n sergeant has been relieved of duty as a section leader, officially \r\nreprimanded by his commanding general, dismissed from his regiment and \r\nreassigned to the United States, the U.S. military said.<br><br>Iraq's \r\nmost powerful Sunni Arab party, the Iraqi Islamic Party, has demanded \r\nthe \"severest of punishments\" for the American soldier.<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><br>","created_by":null,"created":null,"modified_by":null,"modified":null}