Najaf Friday preacher says some Arab states seek to topple Iraq's political order

NAJAF, Iraq — Sadruddin Kabanji, a Friday prayer preacher in Najaf, said some Arab countries are attempting to overturn Iraq's political experience. In his sermon on Friday, Kabanji claimed Arab states had mobilized at the level of armies, warplanes and volunteer calls under the slogan that Iraq had been "usurped." Kabanji said the era of dictatorship in Iraq had ended and that popular sovereignty, along with religious and political freedoms, had been restored. He argued that the Arab project disregards the political and religious will of the Iraqi people and ties it to extensions of global powers. The preacher described the Arbaeen pilgrimage as an example of popular sovereignty, religious freedom and the guiding role of the religious authority. He stressed that these attempts would fail and that Iraq would continue to belong to its people, its will and its religious authority. Kabanji said the Iraqi experience, which could not be dismantled from within, is now being targeted from outside.