An intercession, a request to one's god to do something, is certainly not direct action. Asking one's god for another persons health is different from performing open heart surgery on that person. Intercessions are done daily, all over the world, without harming anyone. They are, by definition, spiritual.
But that is something U.S. diplomats in Erbil do not understand. In an embassy cable the diplomats write:
For a four-week period after the Israeli actions against Gaza commenced, certain religious leaders in the Kurdistan Region used their Friday sermons to exhort their congregations to acts of violence against Jews, Israel and the supporters of Israel.
What acts of violence were requested by these religious leaders?
Did they ask their congregations to bomb Israel like Israel bombed Gaza? Did they incite them to personally fight any Jew? Did they ask for suicide bomber volunteers? No. They did nothing like that.
On December 5 an Imam prayed for the Palestinian people and asked God to rain his anger at the Jewish people and destroy them. On December 5, at another mosque, the congregation was prompted to pray that God would destroy Israel and kill all the Jewish people. On January 16 an Imam told his followers "we should pray that God will destroy all the Jewish people." During his prayer, he asked God to kill the Jews one by one until none of them was left alive. He also prayed that God would "kill those who support the country of Israel as well."
An evangelical prayer leader asking his congregation to pray for the soon arrival of the end of times is not exhorting to acts of violence. A shia prayer leader asking his congregation to pray for the soon arrival of the Mahdi is not exhorting to acts of violence. A catholic priest asking to pray to god for the punishment of sinners is not exhorting acts of violence.
But the requests of the Kurdish Imams to pray for god to do something about Israel were taken as dangerous and the U.S. diplomats immediately contacted three different Kurdish ministries to have the Imams silenced. The puppets followed through and the Imams were forbidden to preach.
Such suppression of quite moderate expression of outrage, by requesting prayers for god to act rather than to call for direct action, will likely further more extreme positions and will push the more enraged believers into the political underground.
It is stupid and a mistake. That U.S. diplomats, especially in the Middle East, are unable to understand the basic concept of intercession which is used in most religions is a disgrace. Or maybe not. Maybe they need to do so to keep the "war of terror" alive.