BAGHDAD: In a rare intervention at Friday prayers in the holy city of Kerbala, a message from Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who is the highest religious authority in Iraq, said people should unite to fight back against a lightning advance by militants.
“People who are capable of carrying arms and fighting the terrorists in defense of their country … should volunteer to join the security forces to achieve this sacred goal,” said Sheikh Abdulmehdi al-Karbalai, delivering Sistani’s message.
He warned that Iraq faced “great danger,” and that fighting the militants “is everybody’s responsibility, and is not limited to one specific sect or group.”
People in Ayatollah Sistanis office said the statement was a response to one issued by the leadership of ISIS threatening to seize not just the predominantly Sunni areas of northern Iraq, but also Baghdad and the cities of Karbala and Najaf, which are sacred to Muslims, particularly to the Shia world.
Iraq and the Iraqi people are facing great danger, Sheikh said. The terrorists are not aiming to control just several provinces. They said clearly they are targeting all other provinces, including Baghdad, Karbala and Najaf. So the responsibility to face them and fight them is the responsibility of all, not one sect or one party. The responsibility now is saving Iraq, saving our country, saving the holy places of Iraq.
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