Muslims agree to peace

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070511/NEWS05/705110433

Metro Detroit harmony sought

May 11, 2007

BY NIRAJ WARIKOO
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

In what they called a historic agreement, Muslims from across Michigan signed a document Thursday that calls for unity between Sunnis and Shi'ites, the two main sects of Islam whose metro Detroit relations have been strained in recent months.

About 30 Muslim leaders gathered at the Islamic House of Wisdom, a Shi'ite mosque in Dearborn Heights, to sign the Muslim Code of Honor. It calls on Muslims to refrain from insulting each other and using foreign literature that promotes hatred of Muslim sects.

The one-page document bans takfir, a part of Islamic law in which Muslims say that other Muslims are not true believers. Some Sunnis don't consider Shi'ites to be true Muslims.

"People shouldn't have the fear that Detroit is going to turn into Baghdad," said Dawud Walid, a Sunni who heads the Council on American-Islamic Relations' Michigan branch.(MORE)