JNN 22 June 2015 Baghdad : Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said the Fatwa issued by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani on fighting ISIL terrorists saved Iraq against the ominous plots hatched by enemies of Iraq .

In a statement released on the anniversary of the issuance of Fatwa, Abadi said the Grand Ayatollah’s religious edict helped to prevent the spread of ISIL dominance in the region, al-Sumaria news website reported.

Last summer, Ayatollah Sistani, Iraq’s most senior Shia cleric, issued a Fatwa saying that it is a religious duty to stand up against the Takfiri terrorists and expel them from Iraq.

The Iranian-born cleric Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Iraq’s most influential religious leader,  issued a fatwa to “all able-bodied Iraqis” to defend the country, days after the radical Wahabi Group ISIS captured the city of Mosul and advanced south toward Baghdad, the capital.

Despite his identification as a Shia Religous leader, the 84-year-old Ayatullah Sistani has been so far a moderating influence in Iraqi politics. In 2o04, the cleric publicly endorsed democracy in the country, ensuring the success of January 2005 elections despite the constant, deadly violence. And after Wahabi terrorists attacked the al-Askari Mosque in Samarra in 2006, one of Shia’s holiest sites, in an act that triggered the country’s civil war, Sistani blamed the sectarian violence on foreign forces and urged reconciliation between Iraq’s Shia , Sunni and Kurd groups.

The grand Ayatollah called on all Iraqis to volunteer to defend their country and sanctities.

Abadi noted that after the grand Ayatollah’s Fatwa, the brave people of Iraq formed volunteer forces and started supporting the army in the fight against the terrorists.

Iraq has been facing the growing threat of terrorism, mainly posed by the ISIL terrorist group.

The ISIL militants made advances in northern and western Iraq in summer 2014, after capturing swaths of northern Syria.

However, a combination of concentrated attacks by the Iraqi military and the volunteer forces, who rushed to take arms after Ayatollah Sistani issued the fatwa, have blunted the edge of the ISIL offensive.