The most important points stated by the Supreme Religious Authority in the Friday sermon

The second sermon of Friday prayer of the 23rd of Jumada II 1440 AH, corresponding to March 1, 2019, which was held in the holy shrine of Imam al-Hussayn (peace be upon him) and led by his eminence Sheikh Abd al-Mahdi al-Karbala'i, included important points such as:

• - We call on the concerned authorities in the Iraqi government and the international organizations to follow up on the crimes of ISIL and document it, to prosecute the perpetrators and hold them accountable.
• - We announce our solidarity with the Yazidis.
• - We call on the Iraqi government to take necessary measures to prevent their recurrence, to track the fugitive ISIL elements, and not allow them to disrupt security and stability in any part of Iraq.
• - The serious phenomenon of trafficking and drugs abuse that threatens the youth, the Iraqi family and society.
• - We warn of the proliferation of this phenomenon on a large scale while there is a lack of alertness and interest to seriously address it.
• - The proliferation of such scourge threatens the youth in our society, and has dangerous and destructive health, mental, cultural, social and moral effects on the family and society
• - If this is not addressed properly by the appropriate attention and alert by the concerned bodies to reduce it, then this deadly phenomenon will lead to a serious disaster on Iraqi society in various areas of life, as it targets the youth segment, who are the pillar and future of the nation.
• - This phenomenon has two dangerous dimensions, the first dimension is the trade, the trafficking and promotion of all kinds of drugs, the second category - the victim - the people who use it.
• - We need two combined treatments; treatment for trafficking and promotion of drugs and treatment of the drug abuse.
• - The first reasons is the weakness of the legal deterrent, which has two main reasons: The first is the lack of sufficient deterrence in the laws and legislations that were legislated to combat this phenomenon.
• - The second reason is the ineffectiveness of the executive bodies charged with limiting and treating this phenomenon
• - This has many reasons, such as the lack of sufficient freedom, and the appropriate powers for the executive authorities to deal with this phenomenon, and also the lack of mechanisms and means that give the ability to discover these materials to treat it from the beginning.
• - The second and most important thing is the economic reason - poverty and unemployment - some try to earn quick money through trafficking drugs, as the lack of adequate economic activities, poverty and unemployment, lead to this.
• - Many young people (educated or not), see that they have unknown fate and future, so they live a stressful economic, living and psychological atmosphere that may lead to anxiety and depression and psychological frustration, As a result they might seek refuge in drugs abuse.
• - There are also social factors: bad companions. Many young men and women who accompany bad companions fall in such problems.
• - Also the family and social problems experienced by some young people in the family make them try to escape from this atmosphere to another atmosphere, in which they think they will feel joy and comfort and move away from this stressful atmosphere.
• - In addition to the absolute freedom as some did not understand the meaning of true freedom, so they are misunderstanding and abusing it, which provide them with extra money that they use for these practices.
• - Lack of cultural, health and educational awareness, is another reason for this phenomenon.
• - Therefore, we need from the family, the school, the university, the institutions of civil society, the educational institutions, and the media including satellite channels and social media, to conduct an awareness campaign commensurate with the size of the phenomenon.
• - The drug abuser loses the control of his mind abilities, so he cannot see the consequences of his acts.
• - Among the other reasons is the lack of interest, treatments and procedures to curb this phenomenon by the state concerned institutions. This is due to several reasons, including the preoccupation of the ruling class by the political conflicts and quarrels, and the private interests, which distract them from carrying out their tasks.
• - We are all concerned with dealing with this phenomenon, we need to perform our role in the society.
• - First: The responsibility of the family: The family has the role of monitoring and guiding their children, it has also the role of keeping them away from the bad companions and the appropriate atmosphere that may lead them to fall into the trap of this dangerous phenomenon.
• - One of the basic responsibilities of the family is to take care of the education of its children and making them be busy with their studies and useful activities, to provide an atmosphere of trust and respect for their children while maintaining a good communication to build a friendly relationship with the children based on the respect and appreciation inside the house to give healthy self-confidence.
• - Secondly, the responsibility of the school, the university and the educational institutions to warn against the dangers of this phenomenon, to entrench the good principles and values, and to inform the individual and society that ethics and good principles play a very important role in life as the academic sciences do.
• - We should care about the principles, morals and good values, and educate our youth on these principles.
• - Thirdly, the interest of the state institutions concerned with providing job opportunities for young generations, as the unemployment is increasing year after year, by opening the door and providing the elements of activating the private sector to absorb more unemployed people and properly employ the funds.
• - Fourth, support the security and competent agencies - health and awareness - to play their role in addressing this phenomenon and non-interference in their work, and the application of the law for the deterrence of the drug traffickers, and the legislation of laws that enable the force of deterrence and accountability.