<img title="Image: http://www.myvivvo.com/thumbnail.php?file=art.quran.kiss.cnn_842448355.jpg&amp;size=article_medium" src="http://www.myvivvo.com/thumbnail.php?file=art.quran.kiss.cnn_842448355.jpg&amp;size=article_medium" alt="Imams in Iraq denounce Quran shooting">
										
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								<span>Imams delivering their Friday sermons in Iraq are denouncing the shooting of a Quran, the holy book of Islam, by a U.S. soldier.<br><br>"If
 we were strongly united from the beginning, that silly-minded American 
soldier wouldn't have used the Quran as a target," said Sheikh Ahmed 
Abdul-Ghafour al-Samarie, delivering a sermon at Um al-Qura Sunni Mosque
 in Baghdad.<br><br>The U.S. military and President Bush have 
apologized, but it did not stem the violent protests in Afghanistan and 
calls from both Sunni and Shiite Iraqis for the soldier to be severely 
punished.<br><br>Muslims around the world were angered when it came to 
light last week that an American staff sergeant -- a sniper section 
leader -- had used a Quran for target practice in Iraq.<br><br>Imams at mosques in the largely Sunni cities of Falluja and Mosul, and in Baghdad, condemned the act.<br><br>The Baghdad mosque prayer was broadcast live on state TV.<br><br>"This
 soldier put the head of his state in embarrassment that he had to 
apologize to the prime minister. We call upon this soldier to be 
punished. This act, we reject and we stand against it," al-Samarie said.<br><br>He said if a similar incident happened again, "the world will turn upside down and things will not go back to how they were."<br><br>Sayyed
 Muhanned al-Mossawi, a Shiite imam at al-Hakma mosque, said: "We 
condemn and denounce the criminal act by the American soldier in 
Radhwaniya in tearing the Holy Quran and using it as a shooting target."<br><br>Friday's prayer service is the most important Muslim event of the week.<br><br>The U.S. commander in Baghdad issued a formal apology Saturday and read a letter of apology from the shooter.<br><br>The
 sergeant has been relieved of duty as a section leader, officially 
reprimanded by his commanding general, dismissed from his regiment and 
reassigned to the United States, the U.S. military said.<br><br>Iraq's 
most powerful Sunni Arab party, the Iraqi Islamic Party, has demanded 
the "severest of punishments" for the American soldier.</span>
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