Pakistan: Muslims crowd into mosques, “We don’t believe in coronavirus, we believe in Allah”
This piety endangers all the people with whom these mosquegoers come into contact.
“‘We don’t believe in corona, we believe in Allah’: In Pak, people continue praying in mosques,” AFP, March 28, 2020 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
Islamabad, March 28: Worshippers crowded into mosques in Pakistan on Friday, defying warnings about the fast-spreading coronavirus and fuelling fears of a public health crisis in the impoverished country.
In contrast to many other Muslim countries, Pakistani clerics and government officials have refused to close mosques attended by millions each week, where hugs and handshakes are common.
The country’s leading religious scholars have only advised that the old and sick avoid prayers and instructed clerics to keep sermons brief.
“We don’t believe in coronavirus, we believe in Allah. Whatever happens, it happens from Allah,” said Altaf Khan, as worshippers wearing masks arrived for Friday prayers in the capital Islamabad.
Tiktok videos garnering hundreds of thousands of likes on social media in Pakistan have called for Muslims to attend mosques despite public health warnings.
“Most of the people are terrified,” said Islamabad resident Syed Ashfaq Ahmed after visiting a mosque this week.
“They went to the mosque to seek help from Allah.”
Pakistan has so far declared 1,235 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and nine deaths but there are fears that limited testing is understating the true scale of the outbreak which has infected more than 530,000 people globally.
The majority of its early cases have been directly linked to pilgrims returning from Iran, where for weeks authorities refused to close its shrines as the virus spread, exposing possibly tens of thousands of people….
Saudi Arabia has halted pilgrimages and closed mosques, while scholars in Egypt have issued a fatwa permitting the banning of public prayers to help contain the virus outbreak.
Turkey has shut mosques to mass gatherings while Muslim organisations in Indonesia called for Friday prayers to be carried out at home — though many ignored the advice.
Muslims turned out as normal in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul, however, where mosques were packed and prayer leaders called on their congregations to be brave.
“Allah will protect Muslims from disasters from the coronavirus,” a prayer leader told a crowded mosque in the city….
But Prime Minister Imran Khan has repeatedly refused to interfere in the issue of shutting mosques or even order a country-wide lockdown, citing the economic damage that could be unleashed.
“Religion is always the weakest link of the state institutions. The government fears the reaction from the clergy,” said Amir Rana, director for the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies.
“The clergy has the ability to challenge their religious credentials and cause political damage.”…
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