Karbala Friday prayer leader condemns ‘spreading false accusations against religious figures’‎

Rasa – Hujjat al-Islam al-Karbala’i criticized “offensive content” being published against ‎religious symbols and personalities.‎

News ID: 443085

Date: 21 January 2019 - 08:47

RNA – In his Friday prayer sermon delivered to a large and fervent crowd of believers in the ‎Iraqi holy city of Karbala’s Holy Shrine of Imam al-Husayn, Hujjat al-Islam Abdul-Mahdi al-‎Karbala’i criticized what he called “slander content against religious symbols” saying, “There ‎are different forms of disrespect and disrespect to religion is one form of it and it is divided ‎into three parts: the distortion of thoughts towards religion, disrespect for religious symbols ‎and insult to the principles of religion and its followers.”‎

The representative of Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali al-Sistani in Karbala added, “Every religious ‎though has symbols and principles and the actions of its followers are firm on them. ‎Therefore, disrespecting and slandering such thoughts towards religion is not acceptable. ‎Religious beliefs are scientific and belief-based truths and some people with different ‎interpretations and pretenses are causing damage to them.”‎

Hujjat al-Islam al-Karbala’i noted, “Occasionally, religious leaders and personalities in whom ‎people believe in are being disrespected and unpleasant things are attributed to them. The ‎scholars, the virtuous, the righteous and the believers are not immune from the attribution of ‎falsehood and slander. The main goal of these actions is to eliminate such people from the ‎hearts and minds of the people so that individuals with vicious intentions can lead the people ‎astray.”‎

He stated, “The internet is a very suitable place for building, nurturing and publishing fake ‎stories and unfortunately, naïve people easily believe these lies. Such issues become even ‎more dangerous when religious and denominational symbols become are separated from ‎society and they lose their power. The glory and majesty of religious symbols is in ‎strengthening intellectual and ideological beliefs and this is a very important issue. ‎Disrespecting and slandering these symbols is the most dangerous form of disrespect and ‎slander.”‎

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