Robert Carter
Press TV, Baghdad Faced with the new deadly virus threat, Iraq's vulnerable citizens have found themselves in a new war for survival.

Only this time against an invisible enemy. But many in Iraq are not turning to the state for help.

Rather, seeking aid and guidance from the religious authorities, including the Attaba administrations of the Holy Shia Shrines and Iraq's Grand Ayatollah's, particularly, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali al-Sistani.

Since the arrival of COVID-19, Iraq's clerical elite have mobilised at breakneck speeds, setting up new hospitals and COVID treatment centres across the country.

Karbala's Zain El Abidine Hospital is a newly built state of the art medical facility which caters for much of the local community's needs. Much of its funding for these anti-COVID facilities has come from the Attaba organisation, which manages the Imam Hussain Grand Masjid.

But their support doesn't end here.

The Shrine factions have been investing heavily in the education sector, to train a new generation of professionals in the field of medicine.  Iraq's political class have become largely synonymous with corruption and are slow in implementing reforms.

But where the state has failed Iraqis, the Islamic establishment have rushed to the rescue.

Proving that it is Islam, not Western-styled democracy, which is saving lives here