I think that the title of this post says it all, but I will go into some more depth. The Covid-19 outbreak has obviously put religious people all over the world into quite the bind, as services in most places of worship are no longer being held with some services being moved to online platforms etc. I wrote on a previous post about Muslims being faced with the most difficult decision about closing, being that we are very close to Ramadan, but most mosques are doing the responsible thing and closing. However, in Pakistan, there is a rift; a large disagreement between the government and the religious officials running the mosques. The article from Al Jazeera details it all, many mosques across Pakistan have decided that they would rather remain open despite the advice of all of the social distancing guidelines and orders from their own government. “[Lockdowns are] not the answer to these problems,” Aziz had told Al Jazeera. “We believe the people should not be made to fear things right now, they should have faith in God at this time, and to place their hope in him … If death is written for you, then it will come”. Pakistan has seen more than 7,000 cases thus far, but in my opinion, if mosques remain open with or without any social distancing protocols, that number will skyrocket in the coming weeks.
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