KUCHING: The government should reconsider its decision to resume congregational prayers in mosques and suraus.
In making this call, Galen Centre for Health and Social Policy chief executive Azrul Mohd Khalib said a review over the guidelines for religious congregational activities found that social-distancing, hand-hygiene and mask-wearing protocols had been included.
However, he also pointed out the lack of consistency on several points, which could increase the possibility of Covid-19 infection, non-compliance with the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO), and ineffectiveness in disease prevention.
On Thursday, Minister in Prime Minister’s Department (Religious Affairs) Datuk Seri Dr Zulkifli Mohamad Al-Bakri said mosques and suraus in the Federal Territories and also the ‘green zones’ (those not registering any positive Covid-19 cases) would be allowed to conduct Friday prayers and other congregational prayers under strict standard operating procedure (SOP).
“They (congregations) must follow the SOP set by the Health Ministry and the National Security Council.
“It includes the requirement to observe social-distancing, practise sanitising and obtain details of (congregation) members for record purposes.
“The number of people in the congregation should not be less than three (not including the imam) and not more than 30 at any one time,” the minister was quoted as having said.
He said for mosques and suraus in other states, the matter would be under the jurisdiction of their respective Islamic affairs authorities.
Zulkifli also said only those aged between 15 and 70 would be allowed to attend the congregational prayers.
In this respect, Azrul said anyone above the age of 50 would be at a higher risk of being infected with Covid-19 and developing severe complications later on.
“Such risk multiplies when that elderly person has a chronic disease.
“At least 40 per cent of people in that age category have at least one undiagnosed chronic illness such as diabetes or cardiovascular disease.
“The majority of those attending these congregational prayers would be men – men are at a greater risk of dying from this disease than women,” he pointed out, adding that participating mosques and suraus must ensure that there would be a regular, uninterrupted supply of face masks and alcohol-based hand sanitisers to members of the congregations.
Back on compliance with the SOP, Azrul said this would be a very challenging task.
“Take the Federal Territories as an example; how would you enforce the guidelines for at least 84 mosques, 108 surau Jumaat and 486 suraus registered with the Islamic Affairs Department?
“The recent statement implies that there would be police and officials from the religious authorities on site. Would there be enforcement personnel stationed at each of these locations for the daily and ‘tarawih’ (Ramadan nightly) prayers for at least the next two weeks? Even in the green zones, it is a major undertaking,” he said.
In this regard, Azrul recommended others to emulate Selangor in starting off with limiting daily and Friday prayers to just nine district mosques and five royal mosques, allowing for better monitoring over adherence to the SOP.
“Restricting the (number of members of the) congregation to just 12 individuals and none of whom is above the age of 60, should be adopted by all Islamic affairs authorities in other states,” he stressed.
Azrul also also warned about the possibility of Covid-19’s third wave in Malaysia.
“Disease prevention depends on the ability to change people’s behaviours towards adopting protective actions and attitudes. It is one of the hardest things to do in public health interventions.
“It takes time. During a public health crisis involving an infectious disease, we must place disease prevention and control as a priority before anything else,” he added.
The Galen Centre for Health and Social Policy is an independent public policy research and advocacy organisation based in Malaysia, dedicated to discussing health and social issues through the lens of public policy.