Baghdad’s Sunni mosques were closed in May for three days in protest at the kidnapping and killing of imams. (Reuters)

BAGHDAD, September 26, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – The holy fasting month of Ramadan is knocking at the door and mosques will be teeming with the faithful, but Baghdad is badly lacking in imams and preachers after a massive crackdown by US and Iraqi troops under terror-incitement claims.

"Out of 40 mosques in a district like Al-Doura (west of Baghdad), only seven still have imams," Sheikh Mohammad Al-Jabouri told IslamOnline.net.

A new survey by the Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS), the highest Sunni religious authority in Iraq, documented a systematic targeting of Sunni imams, particularly by US and Iraqi forces.

It said that 107 Sunni imams have been killed since the occupation of Iraq on April 9, 2003, while more than 163 have been arrested.

The last victim was Sheikh Mawloud Hassan Al-Turki, 70, who was killed by an American sniper on Sunday, September 26, while driving his car in Al-Adhamiya district.

The AMS study further revealed that 663 Sunni mosques have been raided.

In May, Sunni leaders declared a three-day closure of Baghdad’s mosques in an unprecedented move in Iraqi history to protest the assassinations, torture and arrests of Sunni preachers and worshipers "by official and semi-official bodies".

The crackdown on Sunni imams has forced many to abandon preaching while others even went out of sight.

"After they arrested my brother and killed my son I had to quit my mosque," lamented Sheikh Munzir Al-Ani.

"Is this the democracy US President George W. Bush has promised us?" he asked bitterly.

"They go on arresting and killing us simply because we express our opinions."

Similarly, imams Saleh Al-Mashhadani and Abdul Slam Al-Salehi had to leave their mosques and homes after Iraqi troops detained worshipers and fellow preachers earlier in the month.

But Mashhadani’s body was found Saturday, September 24, in Al-Amel district in Baghdad hours after being kidnapped by gunmen.

This persecution motivated some Sunni imams to go even further.

Sheikh Asaad Al-Hashimi, the imam and preacher of Ali Ibn Abi Taleb mosque in Baghdad’s Al-Zohour district, trimmed his beard and switched from the traditional jalabiya and turban outfit to a shirt and trousers to escape "targeted arrests".

Other imams, however, put up brave faces.

"By God, we have taken (ousted president) Saddam’s oppression into our strides and will do the same with the occupiers," Mahmoud Abdel Aziz Al-Faluji said fervently.

Abdul Moaen Al-Rawi, a 17 year-old student at the Imams and Preachers Institute in Baghdad’s Al-Adhamiya district, added enthusiastically that he would speak his mind out even if it cost him his life.

"We have nothing to lose after the Americans occupied our land," he said.

Trying to meet the severe shortage in imams during approaching Ramadan, expected someday next week, the Islamic Party and other Sunni bodies are training Iraqis who received religious education in preaching.