Guidelines of the rational religious authority in the battle against ISIS terrorism A study of the Friday sermons of the religious authority’s dependents in Karbala 2014-2015

Abstract

Since 2014, Iraq in particular has suffered from the fiercest terrorist attack that targeted its existence as a state, as ISIS terrorist gangs were able in June of 2014 to control the city of Mosul and continued their advance south towards the capital, Baghdad, amid a state of weakness and decline of the Iraqi security institutions from the army and police responsible for protecting Iraq's security and stability, as well as the public's sense of weakness and fear of the future, which became unknown at that time as a result of lack of confidence in self-capabilities in the face of danger. In light of this difficult atmosphere, attention was drawn to the rational religious authority in Najaf, which was and still enjoys the confidence and popular support, and themajority of people were waiting for him to take a  decisive position in  which to restore things to a state of balance and stop the collapse in the face of the terrorist attack.

This study tries to clarify the importance of the role played by the rational authority since the announcement of the fatwa of efficient defense on June 13, 2014 until the end of 2015 in the battle against ISIS terrorism, and the extent to which the reference classifies the degree of danger posed by extremist ISIS ideology to Iraq and Iraqis together, and to indicate the nature and importance of the directives of the reference and its weekly advice that it was announcing through the Friday prayer platform in Karbala on the lips of its adopters.  To the government, the fighters and the general Iraqi people, and to monitor closely the developments of events on the battlefields.