Area Muslims promote new code of unity

In a ceremony that may be repeated as early as today in Detroit and later in other U.S. cities, a number of leading Southern California Muslims, including prominent Shiite and Sunni clerics, recently signed a "code of honor" that offers strategies for overcoming and avoiding divisions within the community.

Among the code's guidelines are banning the practice of takfir, judging other Muslims as nonbelievers, and forbidding hateful speech about the beliefs and revered figures of other branches of Islam.

"When it comes to interfaith efforts, we are brilliant," said Moustafa Al-Qazwini, an influential Shiite cleric who played host to the March 31 signing ceremony at his Costa Mesa mosque. "But when it comes to intra-Muslim work, we don't do enough."

Sunnis and Shiites vary little in their core beliefs but disagree on the question of the rightful successor to the prophet Muhammad.

In many countries, class divisions also arise, with Sunnis often in positions of power and Shiites in the lower economic and social groups.

Sunnis dominated in Iraq for many years, and Southern California leaders say political and historic disagreements may be more to blame for the current violence there than any significant theological distinctions.

Differing prayer practices can also cause tensions. The code of conduct urges Muslims to be tolerant of one another's prayer traditions but also to respect the manner of worship of the majority in a given mosque. Al-Qazwini said that just last year he was asked to leave a Sunni mosque in Seattle, even though the mosque's leader was supportive of him.

The local reconciliation effort, which began with a February meeting at the Muslim Public Affairs Council's office in Los Angeles, was prompted by spiraling violence in Iraq and several incidents of vandalism in Michigan.

In January, soon after the execution of deposed president Saddam Hussein in Iraq, half a dozen Shiite-owned businesses and mosques in greater Detroit were vandalized, with windows broken and, in one case, anti-Muslim graffiti spray-painted on an abandoned mosque. A spokeswoman for the Detroit Police Department said last week that the cases remained under investigation, with no claims of responsibility so far.