World church leaders, notably the Pope, have been far more active in their efforts to avert a war on mainly Muslim Iraq than their Islamic counterparts.
This has more to do with a comparative lack of political freedom in the Middle East than any religious conviction, diplomats and analysts in the region said.
Pope John Paul has issued fervent appeals to prevent an Iraq war, sending envoys to Baghdad and Washington and receiving British Prime Minister Tony Blair at the Vatican.
The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the Anglican spiritual leader, has also thrust into the political fray, criticising U.S. and British policies on Iraq.
In contrast, senior Muslim clerics and Islamic institutions have seemed strangely inactive on the issue.
Analysts say this is due to political circumstances, not faith. They say Muslims care about peace as much as Christians do, but believers in the Islamic heartland of the Middle East are hamstrung by limited political openness at home.
"You should note that Christian groups and churches in the Middle East didn't do anything either. This isn't about Christianity or Islam. This is about state control and intimidation," a senior Western diplomat in Cairo said.
"In principle, it's the same reason you saw massive anti-war demonstrations in Europe and elsewhere in the West but not here, unless organised by the governments," he said.
Analysts say worshippers and religious institutions in the Middle East, the birthplace of Islam, do not enjoy the same freedom of expression as they do in the West.
In some cases, senior religious figures are appointed by governments and public sermons are dictated by the authorities.
"Clearly we've got a case where all sorts of leadership are nationalised, whether religious or political or whatever, and the voice of the state is the only voice," said Hisham Kassem, an Egyptian intellectual.
AVOIDING RELIGIOUS SPIN
Analysts say regional states do not want to put a religious spin on the Iraq conflict. So they have opted against peace missions by bodies such as Cairo's al-Azhar, the most respected seat of Sunni Islamic teaching, and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, which groups more than 50 Muslim nations.
"Governments in the Middle East want to keep religion out of the public discourse. They don't want this war to look like a clash of religions," a European diplomat in the region said.
The only recent contribution to the war debate by the state-appointed head of al-Azhar, Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, was to say a war on Iraq would not be a war on Islam, and that calls for "jihad" (holy struggle) were not a call to arms.
Islamic Studies professor Mohamed Serag at the American University in Cairo said many Arab states allied to the United States, or dependent on its aid or protection, were loathe to sanction religious initiatives which could anger Washington.
Several Arab nations, including some conservative Muslim states of the Gulf, host U.S. troops and are expected to be the launchpads for an expected invasion of Iraq.
"They (Arab states) don't want to oppose American policies in the region," Serag said. "They need America as their supporters because they are not supported by their own people, so they have to rely on any other forces to support them."
The senior Western diplomat said that to allow angry Muslim publics to vent some of their anti-war feelings, Arab states "allow preachers to speak in their sermons about the horrors of war, but then do nothing to stop it but utter platitudes".
"You cannot allow your religious figures to issue firebrand sermons or religious edicts against war while at the same time allowing U.S. troops on your soil or having warships cross the Suez Canal every day," he said.
Several analysts said Arab states had also prevented the kind of mass anti-war prayer rallies seen in countries like Indonesia, the world's biggest Muslim nation, out of concern that any large public gathering could spin out of control.
Tight security has also kept a lid on all demonstrations in the Arab world, where opposition to war runs high.
"Any sort of meeting with anything more than few hundred people could erupt in a totally different direction. They could meet over Iraq and then the eruption takes place over something else," like corruption or other grievances, Kassem said.