ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Monday called on Iran to hand over members of fringe religious groups that call on its members to sacrifice themselves by suicide, saying they were formed due to “cultural and ideological immorality.”
Sadr was responding to a question from a supporter about the Sacrificers, also known as al-Alahhiya (the Divine Ali), and the Qurban groups that deify the Shiite Imam Ali and offer human sacrifices in his name.
He called on Iran to “hand them [the members] over to the Iraqi government to punish them, or to the religious seminary to hold them accountable religiously or legally as soon as possible.”
The groups allegedly have thousands of members across Iraq, believed to have been influenced by similar religious movements in Iran.
Their practices involve picking a member through random draw to commit suicide by hanging.
“All these movements and others are the result of cultural and ideological immorality,” Sadr stated. “Anyone who claims divinity for someone other than God is outside the mercy of God Almighty and will receive nothing but punishment and disgrace.”
Fringe religious groups are a growing trend in Iraq and security forces, particularly in the south, have carried out multiple operations against them.
Iraqi security forces on Friday arrested ten suspected members of the Sacrificers in the southern Maysan province.
In September, Iraq’s judiciary instructed the courts to be strict on fringe religious groups that it said “pose a threat to the lives of citizens.”
Sadr was responding to a question from a supporter about the Sacrificers, also known as al-Alahhiya (the Divine Ali), and the Qurban groups that deify the Shiite Imam Ali and offer human sacrifices in his name.
He called on Iran to “hand them [the members] over to the Iraqi government to punish them, or to the religious seminary to hold them accountable religiously or legally as soon as possible.”
The groups allegedly have thousands of members across Iraq, believed to have been influenced by similar religious movements in Iran.
Their practices involve picking a member through random draw to commit suicide by hanging.
“All these movements and others are the result of cultural and ideological immorality,” Sadr stated. “Anyone who claims divinity for someone other than God is outside the mercy of God Almighty and will receive nothing but punishment and disgrace.”
Fringe religious groups are a growing trend in Iraq and security forces, particularly in the south, have carried out multiple operations against them.
Iraqi security forces on Friday arrested ten suspected members of the Sacrificers in the southern Maysan province.
In September, Iraq’s judiciary instructed the courts to be strict on fringe religious groups that it said “pose a threat to the lives of citizens.”
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