The representative of the Supreme Religious Authority, Sheikh Abdul-Mahdi al-Karbalai, read the statement issued by the Supreme Religious Authority's office in Najaf.
Al-Karbalai said during the Friday prayer’s sermon held at the holy shrine of Imam Hussein "pbuh" on December 6, 2019, that "We read below the statement issued by His Eminence's office in the holy city of Najaf":
"There is no doubt that the popular movement is an effective means to pressure those in power into making real reforms to the way they running the country by, but only if the movement extends to various groups. The main condition to reach that means is by prohibiting popular movement from being dragged into acts of violence, chaos, and vandalism. Besides the prohibition of these acts legally and theologically, they will produce adverse repercussions on the reformist movement and will lead to the decline of solidarity with it gradually. By looking at all the precious bloodshed in order to achieve the legitimate goals of this movement, you must be vigilant about this, and to be aware not to give a pretext to those anti-reformists to prevent its application through this way."
"Keeping the pretests peaceful and violence-free is of major importance and a solidarity responsibility for everyone. It is the responsibility of the security forces to protect peaceful protestors and to allow them to express their demands freely, as it also the protestors' responsibility to forbid saboteurs from slipping into their ranks to attack security forces or public and private property or to cause harm to the interests of citizens."
"Supporting and respecting the security forces, uplifting their morale, and encouraging them to play their fundamental role in maintaining security and stability as required, is the duty of everyone. There is no way to avoid chaos and disturbing in the public order without those beloved, as everyone has noticed what happened within some areas when the security forces could not do what is expected of them, until the tribal men stood up and played a prominent role in protecting the civil coexistence and preventing chaos and devastation, and for that, they have all thanks and appreciation, but everything should go back to normal in all areas such as maintaining security, stability, and protection of government facilities and citizens' property from saboteurs attacks by official security forces, while committing to behaving professionally in dealing with all the protests in order not to repeat the tragedies of the past weeks."
"We condemn once again, the events occurred in the past days such as the shedding of innocent blood and the vandalism of private and public property. We also call on all those affected to take legal means to claim their rights, and we call upon the judicial authorities to hold accountable and punish anyone who committed a criminal act - from any party- as determined by the law."
"We reiterate our warning of those plotting against the country and seeking to exploit the protests demanding reform to achieve certain goals that undermine the higher interests of the Iraqi people and are not in harmony with their genuine values."
"We also reiterate what the religious authority has previously affirmed that it is for all Iraqis without any discrimination between their affiliations and orientations, and is working to secure their public interests as much as possible, while its name should not be used by any of the groups participating in the protests so it would be not identified alongside certain group individually.
In conclusion, we hope that the selection of the new prime minister and the members of his cabinet, will be achieved within the constitutional period and according to the aspirations of citizens away from any external interference, noting that the religious authority is not a party in any talk in this regard and has no role in it by anyway.
