Al-Azhar slams Kurdish independent referendum

R‌asa - Egypt's al-Azhar issued a statement regarding Kurdish independence referendum, strongly condemning the action, calling it "conspiracy of the colonialists aiming at dividing the Islamic and Arab countries."

News ID: 432911

Date: 06 October 2017 - 15:41

RNA - Following the referendum on separation of Iraqi Kurdistan, Egyptian al-Azhar issued a statement criticizing the referendum and calling the actions “conspiracy of the colonialists aiming at dividing the Islamic and Arab countries,” and emphasized the necessity of maintaining the unity and territorial integrity of Iraq.

Al-Azhar also criticized raising of Zionist regime's flag in the Kurdistan region, saying that the incident shows hidden hands that support the referendum.

Meanwhile, Kurdish endowment, in response to al-Azhar's statement, described it as cruel, unjust, and inaccurate.

In a part of this statement, Kurdistan's endowments described Iraq’s mobilization forces “a threat to the Kurds and Sunni people.” The statement also claimed that Kurdistan has never been part of Iraq and will never be.

Kurdistan endowment later considered the central government of Iraq as “religious” and claimed that “with such government in power, Iraqi Sunnis and Christians cannot easily practice their religious rituals.”

Iraq’s popular mobilization forces have conducted numerous military operations inside Iraq’s Christian and Sunni majority areas and have freed multiple districts from hands of ISIS terrorist groups.

The Kurdish endowment also claimed that raising Zionist flags during Kurdistan independence referendum “was a spontaneous action taken by a number of young people.”

“You’re in a country where there’s Israeli embassy active there and the Israeli flag is raised above the building. You have daily meetings with the Zionist officials and shake hand with them,” the statement adds.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi scholars’ council also reacted to the statement issued by Iraq’s Kurdistan, condemning raising of Zionist regime’s flag in Kurdistan and considered the statement of the Kurdish endowment as “an insult to popular mobilization forces.”

The statement read: “While Zionist and Takfiri terrorists are attacking the Muslim Ummah and the Ummah is in its worst situation and while Muslim countries are being destroyed by the hands of terrorists in order for Muslims and the people of the world to forget about the issue of Palestine, we are witnessing concerned about Kurdistan endowment’s shameful efforts in defending the Kurdish independence referendum.”

“We are surprised that the Kurdish endowment, instead of dealing with the issues of Muslims and their security and unity, devotes their time to justifying the separation of the Kurdish region.”

The Iraqi scholars emphasized that the position of al-Azhar in Egypt is due to their decisive position to maintain the unity of Muslims and to preserve the power of the Muslim countries.We expect the Kurdish to pay attention to al-Azhar’s statement instead of providing useless answers to it and defending the fake government of Kurdistan.

"We categorically oppose and condemn raising Zionist regime's flag in the Kurdistan region during the referendum, and we are surprised at how the Kurdish endowment justifies it instead of condemning the conspiracy," the statement said.

The Iraqi scholars' council went on to state: The Kurdish endowment statement contains clear insults and false claims regarding the popular mobilization. This is while they sacrificed their blood to save Iraq and its unity. If the popular mobilization wasn’t there, the terrorists would have dominated the whole Iraq. We hope that our brothers in Kurdistan and the scholars of this region will return to the right path and seek to strengthen unity of the country and stand against enemy’s conspiracy.

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