Religious Minister reckless or ignorant?

Malaysiakini:

Ya Allah, help us combat coronavirus
by Fa Abdul

The Covid-19 outbreak has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Taking precautionary measures, many events around the world are being either cancelled, suspended or restricted.

The Asean summit has been postponed. Champions League, Europa League, London Marathon, NBA, NHL and many major sports events around the world have been postponed.

Disneyland parks around the world and Universal Studios Hollywood are closed. Green Day, Slipknot, BTS, The Who and Pearl Jam have cancelled their concerts and tours.

Even a roundtable conference on coronavirus got cancelled due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

Everywhere around the world, people are avoiding events with mass gatherings. But in Malaysia, not only are we exposing ourselves to Covid-19 by joining mass gatherings, we don’t even have any qualms about bringing our newly born babies to such events.

On March 13, 2020, more than 40 babies were brought by their parents to the Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin mosque in Putrajaya.

After the Friday prayers, the newly appointed Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Religious Affairs) Zulkifli Mohamad Al-Bakri conducted "tahnik" - an Islamic ceremony of blessing the newborns commonly done by a pious Muslim.



During the ceremony, Zulkifli dipped his finger into a bowl of honey before touching the lips of one baby. He then dipped his finger into the bowl once again before rubbing it on the infant’s palate.

Once done with one child, Zulkifli dipped his finger into a bowl of water before moving on to the next infant.

In this time of Covid-19, I cannot fathom how someone holding a ministerial post could practice such terrible coronavirus hygiene. How can he be so reckless?

As a minister, scratch that, as an adult with good common sense, he should not even have consented to the tahnik ceremony in a mosque full of Friday prayer congregation, what more take part in one.

Perhaps he still doesn’t understand the gravity of the Covid-19 situation in our country.

On second thought, perhaps he believes all we need is a few more rounds of sembahyang hajat, pleading for Allah to help us combat Covid-19.

After all, despite the official advice from the health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah last Thursday, calling everyone to postpone mass gatherings including religious events to prevent the spread of coronavirus, Zulkifli was among those who decided to turn a deaf ear.



Instead, claiming that the situation in Malaysia is under control, he insisted that Friday prayers should proceed as usual.

I wonder, does he not realise out of the 197 Covid-19 cases recorded in Malaysia as of Friday the 13th, 53 percent of the cases took place in Selangor?

Having Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya located in the heart of Selangor, should he not, as the religious affairs minister, made the call to stop any form of religious ceremonies and mass gatherings in those federal territories and state?

Surprisingly, Perlis mufti Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin had the insight to do so although there has been only one case of coronavirus recorded in the state.

Of course, one could argue that at least Zulkifli had suggested shortening the Friday sermon as a preventive measure.





But let me ask you this. How is cutting the Friday sermon short by a few minutes prevent the spread of coronavirus?

Anyone who keeps themselves well-informed about Covid-19 would know that the coronavirus is capable of surviving in the air for a few hours and survive on a hard surface for up to three days. Remaining in a seated position throughout the sermon for a few minutes less does not prevent members of the congregation from being exposed to the virus.

Then again, maybe Zulkifli wasn’t aware of this. After all, he doesn’t seem to be aware of many things related to Covid-19.

Having such a minister, maybe we should all perform sembahyang hajat for some help.