May it be Baldev
Singh a Sikh preacher’s reluctance to quarantine or Swami Chakrapani the FAKE
Hindu Mahasabha President’s ‘Gaumutra
Party’ religion and religious leaders seem to have played a huge role in
spreading both "fake news"
about the virus and the deadly coronavirus, COVID-19, itself. Today we try to establish the relationship
between religions and the pandemic using the examples of the Tablighi Jamaat and the Shincheoji Cult.
Tablighi
Jamaat
The Tablighi Jamaat translates to "an outreach
society" or "a society to spread the faith". It was set up
nearly a hundred years ago by a Sunni Deobandi Islamic scholar Maulana Muhammed
Ilyaas Khandhalawi. The Jamaat aims at propagating the basic principles of
Islam pledged by Prophet Mohammed. It is estimated that Jamaat has between
150-250 million members primarily in South Asia. At the Jamaat congregations,
various small groups of preachers are created with a senior among them being
their leader. These groups visit various destinations through mosques to spread
Islamic practices among Muslims.
The congregation in question took place in early
March in Banglawali Masjid in the Nizamuddin area where the Markaz or the headquarters of the
Jamaat is located. It is believed that over 800 foreigners from Indonesia,
Thailand, Malaysia, Nepal, Myanmar, Kyrgyzstan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka had
attended the event. According to the government, over 2,000 foreigners from
almost 70 countries had arrived in India since January 1 to participate in
Jamaat activities where over 1,000 of them got stuck at Nizamuddin due to the
lockdown. Many of them had a six-month tourist visa. The authorities were
alerted due to the death of an Indonesian citizen who had participated in the
congregation and was traveling in Telangana. He was found COVID-19(coronavirus)
positive on 18th March. The Home Ministry alarmed all state governments about
the preachers of the Tablighi Jamaat on 21st March. The Jamaat claims that
about 2,500 of its members were at the Nizamuddin Markaz. After the unexpected
announcement of the 'Janata Curfew' on 22nd March and eventually the 21-day
lockdown, a huge number of Jamaat
members were left stranded at the Markaz while about 1,500 of them had left.
According to the stats from various states and union territories, almost 400
positive cases and around 20 deaths have been directly attributed to the
Jamaat.
Initially, Maulana
Saad the head of the Nizamuddin Markaz refused to co-operate with Delhi
Police and the security agencies who asked them to vacate Banglawali mosque,
Thus, Home Minister Amit Shah requested National Security Advisor Ajit Doval to
do the needful. According to various sources, Doval reached Nizamuddin at
around 2.00 am on 29th March and convinced Maulana Saad to get the occupants to
be tested for the COVID-19(coronavirus) infection and be quarantined. There
have also been extensive reports of the Jamaat members refusing treatment and
allegedly misbehaving with the medical staff equipped to help them. It's going
to be interesting to see the extent of damage this is going to cause India.
Shincheonji
Cult
The
Shincheonji Church of Jesus, the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony
was founded in 1984 by a man named Lee
Man-hee, now 88, who has proclaimed himself as the "Promised Pastor" sent by Jesus
Christ who is incredibly capable of deciphering the Bible's Book of Revelation.
Shincheonji claims that it has more than 250,000 followers. Most mainstream
Protestant Christian groups reject Lee's teachings and call Shincheonji a cult.
The Presbyterian Church of Korea claims that Mr. Lee's views are "heretical" and "anti-Christian."
Some of Shincheonji's practices such as extreme
secrecy, the banning of health masks, praying closeby etc. are said to have
helped the spread of the disease among congregation attendees. The church's
leaders have been accused of deliberately withholding information about its
membership, cramping the health authorities' efforts to track and test every
person who might have come into contact with someone infected with the virus
(COVID-19). The suspicions on Shincheonji began after officials identified a
61-year-old member (patient 31) as a "super-spreader",
responsible for the big outbreak of the coronavirus in the city of Daegu, the source of three-quarters of
South Korea's cases. Investigators are still trying to determine exactly when
the infamous "Patient 31"
contracted the disease. Officials said she came into contact with hundreds of
fellow devotees and attended two full congregations after she started showing
symptoms. Testing has revealed startlingly high infection rates among church
members, who make up a large sum of South Korea's cases.
The church though continues to refute all
allegations. In a "letter of appeal"
posted on its website on March 4, it claims that "some 4,000 cases of
injustice against Shincheonji congregants" had been reported since the
beginning of the outbreak. Some members were allegedly fired by their employers
for belonging to the Shincheonji cult; it also claims that others were abused
and assaulted by their spouses. Some members vouch that the church is being
turned into a scapegoat so that the government could wash their hands off of
their initial negligence. Interestingly the South Korean government recently declared
that they would charge Lee Man Hee the leader of the church with homicide. It's
going to be intriguing to see if the government will go ahead with the trial or
is it just another political stunt to put the angry common Korean on the
government's side.
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