Defending Holy Sites in Iraq Necessary for All Muslims: Iranian Cleric
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A senior Iranian cleric said on Monday that defending the holy sites in Iraq against the extremist terrorists is necessary for all the devotees of Islam, Shiite Muslims in particular.
In a message on Monday, Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi announced that defending the integrity of the neighboring country, Iraq, and particularly the Shiite holy sites was necessary, calling the defense as "Jihad to the Cause of Allah."
“We all know that after the Takfiri (extremist) terrorists and their supporters in some Arab countries, the US, and Israel suffered a humiliating defeat in Syria, they tried to make it up in Iraq based on a false assumption that ethnic diversity and Shiite-Sunni division could undermine the Iraqi army and help them (terrorists) advance,” underscored Ayatollah Makarem in a message.
The cleric warned the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist group that if necessary, millions of Muslims from other countries would flood into the holy sites in Iraq to join the Iraqi armed forces and the volunteers.
Earlier another Iranian Shiite cleric Ayatollah Hossein Nouri Hamedani had raised the alarm over the threats posed by the terrorist group ISIL.
The ISIL is a militant group in Iraq and Syria backed by the West and some regional Arab countries. The terrorist group claims as an independent state the territory of Iraq and Syria, with implied future claims intended over more of the Levant, including Lebanon, occupied Palestine, Jordan, Cyprus, and Southern Turkey.
In addition to attacks on government and military targets, the group has claimed responsibility for attacks that have killed thousands of Iraqi civilians.
In early June this year, following its large-scale offensives in Iraq, the extremist ISIL seized control of most parts of Mosul, the second most populous city in Iraq and its surrounding Nineveh province.
The terrorists’ attacks have reportedly forced more than half a million people in and around Mosul, the capital of Nineveh Province, to flee their homes.
Meantime, nearly 1.5 million Iraqis have volunteered to join battles against the militants shortly after senior religious and political leaders, including Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, called on the nation to take up arms and defend their country against militants. Tens of thousands of volunteer forces from all walks of life in Iraq have taken up arms to fight against the ISIL following Sistani’s fatwa.
Grand Ayatollah Sistani, who rarely appears in public, is highly influential in the Shiite Muslim world and is adored by millions.