ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Authorities in the Kurdistan Region’s Sulaimani province suspended and detained a cleric after worshippers interrupted his Friday sermon for allegedly insulting Kurdish fighters in northeast Syria (Rojava), as tensions mount between Rojava and Damascus amid clashes. 

Commotion erupted at a mosque in Sulaimani’s Kalar district, administratively part of the Garmiyan administration, on Friday after Sherko Karim, the mosque’s imam, allegedly insulted Kurdish fighters in Syria during his sermon. 

“I heard with my own ears insults against Kurds and the martyred fighters of Rojava,” Hassan Abdullah, a worshipper at the mosque when the incident took place, told The New Region. “It was clear that the preacher had prepared himself because he said ‘I have held myself back for a week.’”

“I couldn’t contain myself, I spoke up, and chaos erupted,” he added. 

However, Karim told The New Region that he did not intend to be disrespectful and that his speech was misinterpreted. 

Garmiyan’s endowment directorate promptly suspended the imam from his duties, with security forces calling him in for questioning and saying a recording of his speech was being received. 

“From now on, he will not return to the mosque, and an investigative committee will be formed,” the directorate said. “According to laws and guidelines, mosque preachers must adhere to the sermons they are provided, and the mosque is not and should not be a place for political topics.” 

The incident comes as tensions remain high in Syria after state-affiliated forces in early January launched a military offensive against Kurdish-led security forces (Asayish) in Aleppo's Kurdish-majority neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyeh, aiming to drive the Asayish out of the neighborhoods. 

The clashes went on for six days and led to hundreds of civilian casualties and the displacement of more than 155,000 residents.

The developments are threatening a shaky March 10 agreement, signed between the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Damascus, that would see the SDF and Rojava’s institutions integrate into the Syrian state apparatus.