\u00a0An Australian Shia religious leader, who was shot in his face by IS terrorists outside a Shia Islamic prayer center in Sydney\u2019s west, was targeted as he locked up the building following a night observing the holy ritual of Ashura, according to a community member.<\/p>\n
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Witnesses said that a number of people had driven past the Islamic center on Rosedale Avenue in Greenacre just hours before the shooting, chanting in Arabic that \u201cIS is coming\u201d and \u201cIS will stay\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u00a0The cleric is an Iraqi Shia who is a leader at the center, was shot in the face and shoulder as he was locking up the center about 1.15am on Monday.<\/p>\n
A prominent member of Sydney\u2019s Shia community said a group of \u201cextremists\u201d had been targeting Shia Muslims trying to enter the center to observe Ashura, adding that a number of attacks had been carried out on the center in recent days by extremists and \u201csupporters of IS.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0An Australian Shia religious leader, who was shot in his face by IS terrorists outside a Shia Islamic prayer center in Sydney\u2019s west, was targeted as he locked up the building following a night observing the holy ritual of Ashura, according to a community member. \u00a0 Witnesses said that a number of people had driven …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10554,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_108372464460192_245495985553329":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[50,32],"class_list":["post-529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-australia","tag-isil"],"yoast_head":"\n