Iraqi Ayatollah Al-Qazwini Joins the Fight against ISIS

In a Friday sermon delivered in Karbala on June 14, 2014, Iraqi Ayatollah Mortada Al-Qazwini said that he was responding to the call of Ali Al-Sistani to bear arms against ISIS.

Following are excerpts from the sermon, which was broadcast on Anwar TV and posted on the Internet:

Mortada Al-Qazwini: The military fatigues and this rifle that you see me holding – regardless of my advanced age, my frailty, my illness, and the heart attack I had – are in response to the call of the highest authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, the representative of the Imam Mahdi.

May Allah grant him a long life. I respond to his call.

He called upon all Iraqis who are capable of bearing arms – the young and the not-so-young... He addressed his call to all Iraqis capable of bearing arms and using them.

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