Dulami, spokesman of the General Conference for Sunnis in Iraq, called on fellow Sunnis "to organize themselves to take part in the coming elections and to start to register their names at the offices of the electoral commission." Al-Dulami said Sunni clerics would soon issue a religious decree repeating the call. Following al-Dulaimi's call, Humam Hammoudi, head of the committee to draft a new constitution, said 15 Sunnis had been approved to join the committee and would begin work Wednesday. On Monday, a hardline Sunni Arab cleric, Harith al-Dhari, condemned all kidnappings, calling them "a bad phenomenon that emerged after the occupation of Iraq by America and its allies." Al-Dhari heads the Association of Muslim Scholars. Sunni Arabs are estimated to make up about 20 percent of Iraq's 26 million people and dominated Iraqi political life for generations until the collapse of Saddam's regime in 2003.
