Covidiots - Muslims For Covid-19

Ala Hazrat Dargah Islamic Seminary, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India.
"Alcohol-based hand-cleanser is 'Haraam'"

Use of alcohol-based sanitizer in mosques sparks off debate among scholars- The New Indian Express

In another astonishing example of the danger religious superstition poses in a Covid-19-infected world, a Muslim cleric, Mufti Nashtar Farooqi, in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India, has declared alcohol-based hand-cleanser 'haraam' (evil, banned) and therefore prohibited to Muslims. In particular they should not bring it into or use it in a mosque because it is ‘napaak’ (impure). He gets this from a passage in the Qur'an which forbids the drinking of alcoholic beverages - as though people drink the hand-cleanser - and his seminary, Ala Hazrat Dargah, has issued a fatwa against them

Darul Uloom Deoband Islamic seminary, Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh
"Alcohol-based hand-cleanser is Halal"

However, using the same Qur'an, other Islamic 'scholars' from the Saharanpur-based Deoband Darul Uloom, the biggest Islamic seminary in Asia, have found no such prohibition and declared these hand-cleansers, 'halal' (good, permitted). Obviously, Allah's sacred text is subject to diametrically opposite interpretations.

Meanwhile confusion now reigns within India's Muslim population - do they risk the wrath of Allah by ignoring the fatwa and reducing the risk to themselves and others from the Covid-19 virus by using alcohol-based hand-cleansers, or do they take a chance on the other interpretation of Allah's perfect word, and use the alcohol-based hand-cleansers recommended, free from the fear of Allah's displeasure?

After all, it's not as though Allah wowuld now take a sensible, pragmatic view on pandemic control due to something of which 6th Century Hijaz camel-traders were completely unaware - viruses, so the chance of him permitting the sensible precaution of alcohol-based hand-cleansers are unknowable since he said nothing about them as such 1500 years ago and the only use for alcohol he could think of was getting drunk!

In fact, what we're witnessing here is possibly another example of how two parasites - Covid-19 and religion - can form mutually beneficial alliances when they both occupy the same host. As with the Christian allele of religion where people are encouraged to gather together to sing and shout, the better to spread the virus, despite laws prohibiting it, here we have religion discouraging simple hygiene precautions so the virus can spread more easily.

Or perhaps all we have is another example of how ignorant stupidity predisposes towards religion and how religious 'scholars' will interpret supposedly inerrant sacred texts to suit their own purpose when they feel they should be getting in on the act. Either way, the world would currently be a much safer place without religious stupidity confusing what needs to be a concerted, consistent and evidence-based approach to combat one of the most serious threats to ever befall mankind, until science can provide definitive prevention and treatment. World-wide Covid-19 deaths are now around 3 million and rising.

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