'God is with us': Many Muslims in Pakistan flout the coronavirus ban in mosques
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Saturday
January 28, 2023

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 2023
'God is with us': Many Muslims in Pakistan flout the coronavirus ban in mosques

South Asia

Reuters
13 April, 2020, 04:45 pm
Last modified: 13 April, 2020, 04:46 pm

Related News

  • IMF announces visit to crisis-hit Pakistan
  • Pakistan's cenbank foreign reserves fall $923 mln to $3.68 bln -statement
  • Power surge crashes Pakistan grid, plunging millions into darkness
  • Pakistan ready to take back plots, cut salaries of govt employees
  • Pakistan seeks US help in unlocking $1.1 billion IMF loan - Dawn

'God is with us': Many Muslims in Pakistan flout the coronavirus ban in mosques

The Islamic lobby holds immense clout in Pakistan, a country of over 200 million people

Reuters
13 April, 2020, 04:45 pm
Last modified: 13 April, 2020, 04:46 pm
FILE PHOTO: A police officer uses a megaphone, requesting people to go and pray at home, at the locked entrance gate of a mosque during a lockdown after Pakistan shut all markets, public places and discouraged large gatherings amid an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Karachi, Pakistan March 27, 2020. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A police officer uses a megaphone, requesting people to go and pray at home, at the locked entrance gate of a mosque during a lockdown after Pakistan shut all markets, public places and discouraged large gatherings amid an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Karachi, Pakistan March 27, 2020. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro/File Photo

Sabir Durrani says he offers prayers almost every day at a mosque in the central Pakistani city of Multan. He says that often a dozen or more men are in attendance - none of them wearing protective face masks.

Durrani, 52, is among thousands of devout Muslims flouting Pakistan government orders issued late last month banning religious congregations of five or more people to stem the spread of the coronavirus. The disease has so far infected more than 5,300 people and killed 93 in the world's second-most populous Muslim country.

"Our prayer leader told us that the virus can't infect us the way it does Western people," Durrani told Reuters. "He said we wash our hands and we wash our face five times a day before we say our prayers, and the infidels don't, so we need not worry. God is with us."

The Islamic lobby holds immense clout in Pakistan, a country of over 200 million people. Religious parties have not been successful in electoral politics but they are able to whip up large, often violent, crowds on matters pertaining to religion, such as in support of the country's harsh blasphemy law.

"Religion and prayers are an emotional issue for many people in Pakistan, and the government has to be sensitive to that," Mirza Shahzad Akbar, a special assistant to Prime Minister Imran Khan, told Reuters.

More than 60% of the coronavirus cases in Pakistan have so far been linked to Muslims returning from pilgrimages in the Middle East and followers of the Tablighi Jamaat, an orthodox proselytizing group.

But the worry is of a big spike coming from the congregational prayers held in mosques, especially on Fridays, the Islamic sabbath. The numbers in attendance at prayers are likely to increase with the onset of the holy month of Ramadan within two weeks, and authorities are struggling to cope.

While the Council of Islamic Ideology, a body that advises the government on religious issues, has called on clerics and the public to cooperate with government measures, several priests and local leaders have opposed the ban.

A prominent leader of a religious party told a crowd of hundreds of people gathered for a funeral last week that government orders to limit congregations were unacceptable.

"If you do this, we will be forced to think that mosques are being deserted on America's instructions," Mufti Kafayatullah told the crowd. "We're ready to give our lives, but not ready to desert our mosques."

BLIND EYE

In Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, police were attacked for a second straight week as they attempted to halt prayers at a mosque last Friday. A policewoman was injured in the clashes, and in the previous week, police fired shots in the air to quell an angry mob.

In other cities, police seem to be turning a blind eye to some mosque gatherings.

Last Friday, one of the top Twitter trends in Pakistan was "Muslims, the mosque is calling you".

In the capital, Islamabad, hundreds gathered on Friday without any hindrance at one of the city's largest mosques, located just two miles (three km) from the seat of Pakistan's government, including parliament and the prime minister's secretariat.

On March 27, authorities filed 88 cases against mosque administrations in Karachi and arrested 38 people for defying restrictions on Friday congregations, but charges were dropped a day later, and the people were released.

"I think it's partly appeasement and partly the fact that Pakistan's governments and politics are locked permanently in an electoral framework in which they don't want to lose support of the religious elite and religious proletariat," Pakistani author and defence analyst Ayesha Siddiqa told Reuters.

Akbar, the special assistant to the prime minister, said most mosques were cooperating with the government.

He added however: "This is a sensitive matter, we don't want to impose it using a stick. And even if we wanted to, there aren't enough sticks to implement it across Pakistan."

Coronavirus chronicle

Pakistan

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • How will Bangladesh pay for massive upcoming power projects this year?
    How will Bangladesh pay for massive upcoming power projects this year?
  • Israeli forces work next to a covered body at the scene of a shooting attack in Neve Yaacov which lies on occupied land that Israel annexed to Jerusalem after the 1967 Middle East war January 27, 2023. REUTERS/Ammar Awad
    Seven dead in synagogue attack outside Jerusalem
  •  Gautam Adani, center.Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg
    What really worries Indians about Adani's empire

MOST VIEWED

  •  Gautam Adani, center.Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg
    What really worries Indians about Adani's empire
  • Bishnu Prasad Paudel (L), Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister along with Narayan Kaji Shrestha (C), Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Physical Infrastructure and Transport and Rabi Lamichhane (R), Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister administer the oath of office at the presidential building "Shital Niwas" in Kathmandu, Nepal, December 26, 2022. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar/File Photo
    Nepal deputy PM loses job after top court rules his ID invalid
  • FILE - Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan speaks during a news conference in Shaukat Khanum hospital, where is being treated for a gunshot wound in Lahore, Pakistan, on Nov. 4, 2022. Imran Khan says a protest march toward the capital Islamabad suspended after he was wounded by a gun shot in an apparent attempt on his life will resume Tuesday. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudhry)
    Imran Khan claims ex-President Zardari behind new plot to assassinate him
  • Reactions to Adani's $48 billion stock rout
    Reactions to Adani's $48 billion stock rout
  • A Pakistani ranger is seen standing near Indian (L) and Pakistani flags during a fair in Chamliyal in Jammu and Kashmir in this June 22, 2006 file photo. REUTERS/Amit Gupta/Files
    ‘Intransigence’: India notifies Pakistan of plans to amend Indus Waters Treaty
  • Myanmar soldiers take part in a military parade to mark the 74th Armed Forces Day in the capital Naypyitaw, on March 27, 2019. Photo:Reuters
    Two years after Myanmar coup, UN says situation 'catastrophic'

Related News

  • IMF announces visit to crisis-hit Pakistan
  • Pakistan's cenbank foreign reserves fall $923 mln to $3.68 bln -statement
  • Power surge crashes Pakistan grid, plunging millions into darkness
  • Pakistan ready to take back plots, cut salaries of govt employees
  • Pakistan seeks US help in unlocking $1.1 billion IMF loan - Dawn

Features

Sketch:TBS

Why we need consumer education for consumer wellbeing

14h | Thoughts
Dr Ahsan H Mansur, Executive Director, Policy Research Institute. Illustration: TBS

Twin shocks call for stronger domestic policy response

15h | Thoughts
December-er shohor, taxi taken for airport and the Park Street bathed in lights. Photo: Jannatul Naym Pieal

Exploring Kolkata on foot, empowered by Google Maps

16h | Explorer
Island hopping in Bangladesh?

Island hopping in Bangladesh?

18h | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

Kajol’s road paintings bring change in Gafargaon

Kajol’s road paintings bring change in Gafargaon

1d | TBS Stories
Carew & Company witnessed a remarkable growth

Carew & Company witnessed a remarkable growth

1d | TBS Stories
Gavi may have to leave Camp Nou

Gavi may have to leave Camp Nou

5h | TBS SPORTS
After all the controversies, how is Shah Rukh Khan's ‘Pathaan’?

After all the controversies, how is Shah Rukh Khan's ‘Pathaan’?

7h | TBS Entertainment

Most Read

1
Picture: Collected
Bangladesh

US Embassy condemns recent incidents of visa fraud

2
Four top bankers arrested in DSA case filed by S Alam group 
Bangladesh

Four top bankers arrested in DSA case filed by S Alam group 

3
Illustration: TBS
Banking

16 banks at risk of capital shortfall if top 3 borrowers default

4
Photo: Collected
Splash

Hansal Mehta responds as Twitter user calls him 'shameless' for making Faraaz

5
A frozen Beyond Burger plant-based patty. Photographer: AKIRA for Bloomberg Businessweek
Bloomberg Special

Fake meat was supposed to save the world. It became just another fad

6
Representational Image
Banking

Cash-strapped Islami, Al-Arafah and National turn to Sonali Bank for costly fund

EMAIL US
[email protected]
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2023
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - [email protected]

For advertisement- [email protected]