Najaf Friday Prayer leader calls for prosecution of al-Sharq al-Awsat executives

Rasa – Hujjat al-Islam al-Qubanchi called for the prosecution of executives from the Saudi newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat on the basis that they published an offensive article against Arba’in pilgrimage and which damaged the honour of Iraqi women.

News ID: 425295

Date: 26 November 2016 - 11:49

RNA – During his Friday prayer sermon delivered to a large and fervent crowd of believers in the Iraqi city of Najaf’s al-Fatimiyah al-Kubra Husayniyah, Hujjat al-Islam Sayyid Sadruddin al-Qubanchi referred to the claims made in the Saudi Arabian newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat in which it accused Iranian pilgrims taking part in the Arba’in pilgrimage in Iraq of sexually harassing women and called for the newspapers’ executives to be prosecuted.

“The actions committed by the newspaper are acts of insanity and stupidity and were carried out in response to the success of the Arba’in pilgrimage,” The senior Iraqi scholar said.

Hujjat al-Islam al-Qubanchi stated that the Iraqi warriors in the army, Popular Mobilization Forces and Peshmerga forces have made great advancements due to their cohesion, courage and self-sacrifice and added that the Iraqi city of Mosul has been besieged by the Iraqi forces and more than 85,000 refugees have been liberated from the clutches of Daesh Takfiri terrorists.

He pointed to the destruction of all documents at the time of Daesh’s flight from the regions they formerly occupied and from its offices in Mosul and Nineveh province and said, “Recently, the commanders of Daesh have referred to the migration of the Prophet Muhammad from Makkah to Madinah and advised members of this Takfiri terrorists group to prepare to leave Mosul.”

The Iraqi scholar described Iraq’s return to honour and dignity as “nearby” and stated, “The fourth stage of the operations to liberate the Iraqi province of Nineveh has been successfully completed and we will shortly announce the operation to completely liberate Iraq from the filthy Daesh forces.”

Hujjat al-Islam al-Qubanchi stressed that on Saturday, November 26th the Iraqi parliament will vote on a proposal to integrate the militias that operate under the Popular Mobilization Forces and added that this will guarantee support for Popular Mobilization Forces in the future.

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