Sheikh Hareth al Dhari, shown at his Umm al Qura Mosque in Baghdad, Iraq, on July 6, 2004, is founder of the ultraconservative Association of Islamic Scholars.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's Shiite-led Interior Ministry on Thursday issued an arrest warrant for one of the country's most prominent Sunni Muslim clerics, charging him with violating antiterrorism laws.

The move against Sheik Harith al-Dhari, 65, leader of the Association of Muslim Scholars, is likely to stoke sectarian fighting in a city that's already flooded with corpses.

"This decision will have a very bad effect on Iraq's security situation," said Salim Abdullah al Jubouri, a legislator from the Iraqi Accord Front, a parliamentary bloc of mostly Sunni Islamists. "We are now going through the process of national reconciliation, and we should all stand together in facing the security crisis and be wary of leading this country into civil war."

Brig. Gen. Abdul Kareem Khalaf, the Interior Ministry spokesman, denied that sectarianism played a part in the decision to issue the warrant.

"The judge issued the warrant after accounts by eyewitnesses and other evidence that proves Harith al-Dhari broke the law," Khalaf said. "We're the only ministry that's proved it's not sectarian. We issue warrants against Shiites maybe more than we do Sunnis. This ministry has proven it's a ministry for all Iraqis."

Iraqi officials didn't specify how al-Dhari allegedly violated the law. However, the warrant probably is linked to a recent television interview in which he was supportive of al-Qaida as part of Iraqi resistance, though he said he disagreed on targeting civilians.

Known for his fiery sermons against the U.S. military presence in Iraq and the Shiite-led government, al-Dhari also mocked an offer of reconciliation in exchange for abandoning the insurgency.

On Tuesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, and President Jalal Talabani, a Sunni Kurd, derided al-Dhari as having "nothing to do but incite sectarian and ethnic sedition."

"Those who urge to provoke violence and sectarian strife will be chased. They have no place in Iraq," Khalaf said.

Al-Dhari's aides said he was on a trip to Jordan. His Association of Muslim Scholars, which claims to represent more than 6,000 mosques throughout Iraq, called on Sunnis to show restraint and refrain from retaliation.

"This measure . . . is a reflection of the bankruptcy of this government," the statement read.

Despite the calls for restraint, some clerics privately predicted a fiery answer to the charges at weekly congregational prayers Friday.

The timing of the arrest is particularly incendiary. Earlier this week, suspected Shiite militiamen kidnapped scores of employees from a Sunni-run branch of the Ministry of Higher Education. Nearly every aspect of the attack remains in dispute, with the Shiite government and the Sunni minister of higher education at odds over how many people were abducted, how many have been freed and who staged the operation.

Critics accuse the Association of Muslim Scholars of serving as a public front for the insurgency and of funneling cash and weapons to Sunni fighters. Its offices have been raided repeatedly in the past two years. Al-Dhari has refused to officially join the political process while U.S. troops are present, but factional leaders regularly turn to him as a conduit for talks with Iraqi insurgents.

Al-Dhari's supporters say the association has provided humanitarian aid to families displaced by fighting, especially in the restive western town of Fallujah. Foreign diplomats in Baghdad have said that al-Dhari was instrumental in securing the release of several hostages seized by Sunni insurgents.

Most recently, the association has been at the forefront in denouncing Shiite Muslim death squads blamed for killing Sunnis, including more than 40 of al-Dhari's colleagues. The group's Web site features a section called "Martyrs of the Association" and an archive of releases about members found tortured and slain by suspected Shiite militiamen.