Beirut, July 20: Lebanon’s most influential Shiite cleric issued a religious edict saying Muslims who have serious concerns about contracting swine flu while performing the annual hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia may stay away this year.
However Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, who is widely respected among Lebanon’s 1.2 million Shiites and many others in the Muslim world, said the entire pilgrimage should not be canceled under any circumstances because it is a “divine duty.”
The fatwa comes as some in the Muslim world have raised questions about the risk posed by swine flu to the millions attending the Muslim pilgrimage, which takes place this year in December.
The hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam and all able-bodied Muslims are required to perform it at least once in their lifetime if they can afford it. It attracts about 3 million people every year to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Hundreds of thousands more Muslims also perform Omra, the voluntary lesser pilgrimage that can be completed at any other time of the year.
Saudi and international health experts have already recommended that children, pregnant women, the elderly and those with chronic diseases stay away from hajj this year.
Fadlallah said Saudi authorities and authorities in the countries where pilgrims originate have an overriding duty to take extraordinary health measures to prevent a swine flu outbreak among pilgrims.
The cleric said Muslims who are not scared of contracting swine flu at the hajj may perform the pilgrimage normally. However those who are “possessed by fear of contracting the disease … or are in a severe psychological state over it” may stay away this year.
Fadlallah’s office said the fatwa was issued in response to a query by Lebanon’s Health Ministry as well as many in the Arab and Islamic world.
The number of cases of swine flu cases in the Arab world has been growing, with countries reporting cases but so far no deaths almost every day.
The World Health Organization, which declared swine flu to be a pandemic, or global epidemic, said this week it will stop counting individual cases because it is too overwhelming for countries where the virus is spreading widely.
WHO had reported nearly 95,000 cases including 429 deaths worldwide. But those numbers are now outdated.
-Agencies