All Mosques Closed in Tajikistan due to Coronavirus

News:

Starting from March 4, all mosques in the capital of Tajikistan, Dushanbe, will be closed for collective prayers, only janaza prayer is allowed. This decision was made on the 3d of March at a meeting of the Council of Ulema of the country in connection with the danger of a coronavirus epidemic, the proper appeal was published on the website of the Islamic Center of Tajikistan. “In order to prevent infection and the spread of the virus among the inhabitants of the country, it was decided to temporarily refuse to perform collective prayers, except for performing janaza”, the statement says.

Comment:

After the promulgation of such a decision, the residents of Tajikistan began to stock up on foodstuffs and buy them in large quantities, which led to a jump in food prices, such videos were published in the Tajik segment of social networks, which indicate the spread of panic among the population.

Earlier Afshin Mukim, a spokeswoman for the Religious Affairs Committee, told Asia Plus that a temporary quarantine situation is likely to be announced in all mosques of the country in the coming days. “Depending on specific circumstances, including the appeal of some clergymen to visitors to the mosque to temporarily refrain from participating in worship, we can say that this is a direct preventive decision made by the clergy and representatives of mosques. The decision was made taking into account the current situation and the recommendations of the Islamic Center of Tajikistansaid Afshin Mukim.

At the same time, observers are perplexed about why, in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus and its spread, the authorities closed mosques, while all educational institutions in the country operate in the same mode. Given the fact that over the past 10 years, the Rakhmon regime has closed thousands of mosques, using any reason to ban any symbol of Islam, it becomes obvious that coronavirus was just another reason to close mosques, and this decision is not at all caused by the care about health of the population.

Similar situations can be observed in many other Muslim countries and even in Saudi Arabia, where Mecca was closed to visitors to perform Umrah, and at the same time, all large-scale entertainment events and concerts in Jeddah continue and are not cancelled, which, logically should be done.

And, although quarantine measures are part of Islam and Omar bin al-Khattab (ra) in his life implemented the first quarantine measures during the epidemic in Sham, nevertheless, they should be implemented sequentially, and not only in relation to religious objects. It is paradoxical that the rulers in Muslim countries have fallen to such a point that even in a pandemic they manage to benefit for themselves by banning one or another part of the Islamic life of society that public opinion did not allow them to close before.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by

Mansour Sharif

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#Korona