Just as Wahhabi hordes befell the holy of Karbala in the 18th century so that Imam Hussain’s shrine would be torn down and all its followers massacred, Wahhabism’s foot-soldiers aim to discredit Shia Islam, by challenging its people’s morality. The article was published as Arbaeen, a Shiite pilgrimage that commemorates the 680 AD death of Imam Hussein and is one of the world’s largest religious events, was peaking in the Iraqi shrine city of Karbala. The article quoted a fabricated World Health Organisation spokesperson as saying that after last year's pilgrimage more than 169 Iraqi women became pregnant out of wedlock.
An Iraqi court has issued arrest warrants for two correspondents with a London-based pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat over a false news report accusing Iranian pilgrims of sexually harassing Iraqi women.