Al-Maliki Visit to U.S. Draws Ire of Cleric

Tweet BAGHDAD, Iraq // In a sermon yesterday rich with bloody imagery and religious struggle, an influential Shiite cleric condemned Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's trip to Washington this week as a betrayal of Islam and a humiliation to his people at the hands of U.S. and Israeli aggressors.

Sheik Khafaji intertwined the bloodshed in Iraq and Lebanon, calling it a design by Christians and Jews to defeat the Muslim world.

He criticized al-Maliki's speech before the U.S. Congress and asked: "What forced you to eat with the occupiers? Is that your reward? You know more than anybody else that the car bombings, terrorism, explosions and bloodletting in Iraq are under the protection of Zionist-American plans."