A Pakistani Muslim cleric has said that polio vaccinations are un-Islamic. And such “extremist” clerics are not just in Pakistan: in Nigeria, a Muslim cleric was arrested for playing a role in sparking the murders of polio workers.
“‘We Believed Our Cleric’: Pakistani Polio Victim’s Regretful Father Urges Others To Use Vaccine,” by Ron Synovitz and Ahmad Ullah, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, December 12, 2017 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
ISLAMABAD — Five-year-old Mohammad Ashar Aziz will never be able to walk without orthopedic leg braces.
The youngest of three brothers from a village near Islamabad, he is one of just 17 children in the world — all of them in Pakistan or Afghanistan — who developed paralysis during 2017 from a wild polio-virus infection.
His father, 41-year-old day laborer Hamid Aziz, is disconsolate because he repeatedly had the chance to immunize Mohammad Ashar for free during the past five years.
Instead, Hamid Aziz says he listened to the advice of a cleric in his village, who announced over loudspeakers of the madrasah, a local Islamic religious school, that the vaccine was “not good” for children’s health, and prevented it from being administered to any of his sons.
Whenever teams of government and international aid workers came to his village as part of a massive polio-eradication campaign, Aziz and his illiterate wife, Huma, hid Mohammad Ashar and his siblings and told the vaccination teams there were no children in their home.
“Why didn’t I give the vaccine to my son?” says Aziz, who quit school at the age of 14 and knew nothing about the polio vaccine.
“We believed what our cleric told us, but now I realize that we’ve not done the right thing for our son,” Aziz tells RFE/RL. “We realize how important it was and that we should have let him get the vaccine.”
Perceptions And Misinformation
Public health studies in Pakistan have shown that maternal illiteracy and low parental knowledge about vaccines — together with poverty and rural residency — are factors that most commonly influence whether children are vaccinated against the polio virus.
Nooran Afridi, a pediatrician at a private clinic in Pakistan’s Khyber tribal region, says one of the biggest obstacles to eradicating polio in Pakistan has been “refusals” stemming from “antipolio propaganda” spread by conservative Islamic clerics in “backward areas.”
One common fallacy in parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan with low literacy rates is that the vaccine sterilizes young boys.
Antipolio propaganda also has been fueled by distrust in Western governments who fund vaccine programs — particularly after the CIA staged a fake hepatitis vaccination campaign in 2011 to confirm the location of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
Since then, some clerics have even issued fatwas saying that children who become paralyzed or die from polio are “martyrs” because they refused to be tricked by a Western conspiracy.
Taliban militants in both Afghanistan and Pakistan also have propagandized that Western-made vaccines contain pig fat or alcohol, which are both forbidden in Islam.
Pakistan’s Tehrik-i Taliban has used that false claim to justify its killing of more than 80 polio vaccination team workers in Pakistan since a massive polio-eradication effort was launched in 2012….
LB says
As much as I’d like to laugh at these illiterate, uneducated, muslim savages, this is actually a serious world-wide problem and it’s not just muslims who ignore the importance of child vaccination. There are many people in the West as well (mainly: liberals / lefitsts, vegans and fringe religious branches like lutherans, protestants, etc) who are choosing not to vaccinate their children out of some irrational fear (depending which group they are) which makes them just as dumb as these muslim tribalists. Viruses and diseases are just like us, they evolve and learn to adapt for the sake of their own survival, and the people who refuse vaccinations are giving them that opportunity.
ac says
I wanted to agree with everything, but… I just don’t understand the construction “fringe religious branches like lutherans, protestants”
Wikipedia tells me that there are 900 million protestants in the world, 80 million lutherans. hmm
gravenimage says
LB, I agree that this is dangerous and ignorant–but at least clueless leftists are not murdering polio doctors, as Muslims are:
“Gunmen Kill Nigerian Polio Vaccine Workers in Echo of Pakistan Attacks”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/09/world/africa/in-nigeria-polio-vaccine-workers-are-killed-by-gunmen.html
“Pakistan polio: Seven killed in anti-vaccination attack”
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36090891
There are many other similar stories.
Michael Copeland says
“No stronger retrograde force exists in the world.”
Churchill
CJ says
So, Mohammad, now that you know your cleric was either ill-informed or outright lying about polio vaccinations, have you considered that everything else he tells you might be equally untrue?
DBM echo says
“Wrong in one, wrong in many”
The very essence of Islam,
gravenimage says
Good question, CJ–I would guess not.
CRUSADER says
Rotary International worked hard to eradicate polio in the world through its ambitious health inoculation program, and the most difficult spots were where Muslims resisted this, along with some places due to cultural tribal objections…mainly due to ignorance…
Still many “backwards” places in the world.
gravenimage says
Polio would likely be completely eradicated worldwide were it not for Islam.
Jaladhi says
These people have no brains since it is destroyed when they follow Quran and their clerics. For most part these clerics are uneducated, superstitious and braindead scumbags and if anyone follows them they will et what they deserve. However, they are destroying the lives of poor children which is the sad part. Ah, in service and obedience to Mo/allah sacrificing their children doesn’t bother them a bit – the usual conscienceless people that Islam creates!
utis says
So we throw millions if not billions at our “ally” and they don’t even have a universal education program? Just because some idiot savant can recite his local holy book backwards, forwards and sideways does not mean he knows crap about any other topic. People need to learn to read at least their own language so they can educate themselves. Otherwise they’re slave to holy idiots (not a term I invented).
That father deserves the pain of his guilt, but at least he has a conscience.
Interesting however, that the cleric chooses to condemn vaccination but accepts loudspeakers and electrification. Quite selective in which modern, Western, filthy innovations he accepts. Use your lungs to spread the word and camel fat candles to light your way, imam.
Sarah says
His conscience? What conscience, exactly?
I read about this story yesterday, on a linked article from TROP.
https://www.rferl.org/a/pakistan-polio-vaccination-regretful-father-paralyzed-son/28912188.html
The father doesn’t give a flying kangaroo fart about his son’s suffering. He’s mopey now, because he has to find the money to pay for the leg braces that his son needs.
That is not his guilty conscience on display. That’s him regretting that he’s just cost himself a heap of cash he can’t really afford. I was only surprised that the article I saw yesterday, didn’t have a GoFundMe for this utter moron and his family.
His kid is now paying the lifelong consequences of the actions of the father. And all the father has stated so far, as caring about, is the cost he is going to incur.
gravenimage says
utis, Muslims tend to accept any innovation that spreads Islam–loudspeakers, weapons, etc–but little else.
roberta says
“Listen and obey (your chief) even if he is an Ethiopian with a head like a raisin.”
Emilie Green says
“‘We Believed Our Cleric’: Pakistani Polio Victim’s Regretful Father Urges Others To Use Vaccine,”
Well, there’s your problem.
Maybe the real issue is that they didn’t try the solution that works, in the minds of Muslims everywhere, every time. More Islam.
So here maybe more camel urine would have done the trick since this medical remedy comes from Big Mo himself.
83423: The benefits of drinking camel urine, from,
https://islamqa.info/en/83423
Charles says
But, as I recall; for a muslim Imman, it is more “Holy” to copulate with thy neighbors GOAT then to steal his Camel! ?
These vile savages would rather see children die, then give them “Western” medicine!
Tjhawk says
These rich westerners who refuse vaccinations are very selfishly taking advantage of the fact that most of the people in the region have had their kids vaccinated. They are relying on herd immunity and not stepping up to the plate to do their part. There are kids with immune problems who cannot receive vaccinations and they NEED this herd immunity for their well being. These people have also never seen polio.
I’ve seen it. Go to Addis Ababa Ethiopia and you can see the twisted people on homemade crutches. Or worse the ones with pads on their knees, elbows, and butts, who live their lives at knee level on the streets of Addis. Polio does horrible things.
There may be problems with vaccinations that we don’t fully understand, but we DO know is that they can eradicate horrible diseases completely if the entire population buys in. If these people wouldn’t have their kids on the streets of Addis, Karachi, or Kabul without a vaccination, then they shouldn’t allow their kids into the local schools or any public place without one. They’re freeloaders who can only be so self righteous because everybody else got vaccinated.
Sorry, not an islam rant, just a rant.
Hugo Hackenbush says
Short form of your comment: Only those with a full stomach, a home and clothes on their back can afford the luxury of irrationality.
Westman says
Too short. Only those, living in a sea of rational people, can afford the luxury of irrationality about vaccinations. It isn’t about wealth – the vaccinations are free from governments and NGOs in 3rd world countries; it’s about the stupidity of people who roll the dice on the advice of ignorance, whether Imams against vaccinations or Jehovah’s Witness’ against blood transfusions.
Hugo Hackenbush says
Generated (via productivity) wealth is a proxy for rationality.
F J says
Herd immunity is a fallacy. If the herd is immunised it is still a carrier anyway! Just because you don’t have a viral load to produce symptoms doesn’t mean the virus is not using you as a host whilst not being able to destroy your body totally. When will folks get that fact. !!
It is also about choice… as not everything about immunisation is positive…. though you obviously have been convinced by the government info-mercial for drug companies. The choice to say no to the injection ..not the choice to kill those who administer the dose. FJ
brane pilot says
Vaccination against smallpox is the next to be forbidden by Muslim geniuses.
In a generation we will be able to thank Islam for the re-introduction and global spread of human scourges that were all but eradicated by Western science.
commonsense says
…Not if we keep all these savages OUT.
Anne Smith says
Your comment about smallpox is very interesting,. I used to go in and out of Karachi fairly regularly forty years ago and the sight of men with scarred faces was extremely common.
Britain made the mistake of letting thousands of these Pakistanis into UK and none was screened for TB or any other disease. Now in UK, despite having eradicated TB some years ago it has arrived back with us again.
At least when people applied to go into the USA they needed a TB X ray to prove they did not have the disease. Does this still apply or can they all come in without any health clearance?
What is even more worrying in UK is that these Muslims from Pakistan, India and pretty well everywhere are allowed in with no health screening and then they pop under a few days later working in cafes, bars and restaurants (usually owned by the family) handling food and not having had the food workers health checks which I believe are mandatory in the USA.
underbed cat says
If the only information he is getting is wrong, I can’t criticize this poor man’s sorrow, and the paralysis of his son. There is controversy, however polio was eradicated when vaccines were given, now with mass migration that has no polio protection from vaccinations our young children are at risk, as the virus may have morphed to stronger, and will spread. I don’t know if the protest against the western workers who tried to vaccinate and protect was politically motivated but the tragedy is that the were killed for trying to protect.
Politics and misinformation go hand in hand for the evil.
Hugo Hackenbush says
Whenever I had to deal with a parent who did not want to immunize their child I would remind them that exposure to wild polio was only a plane trip away. And coming soon to a school near YOU!
Hugo Hackenbush says
By the way, the photo implies the use of the Salk (injection, killed) vaccine. In 3rd world countries it is the Sabin (oral) vaccine that is still used (live attenuated) as it can spread via feces to the unvaccinated and actually immunize them. The 1 in a million chance of getting polio from the live vaccine (first dose, drops to 1 in 3 million with the 3rd dose) is worth it in those countries due to the endemic wild-type polio virus.
Lynn says
I suspect that the concept of inshallah plays a part in the refusal of vaccines. After all, if Allah has predetermined everything that will happen and you or one of your children is crippled by polio, it must be because Allah willed it to happen. If your children don’t get polio, the Allah willed that as well. So there is no need to go against the recommendation of the mullahs because Allah has willed whatever happens anyway.
Hugo Hackenbush says
In a similar vein there is no need to practice coitus interruptus when raping a captive as Allah will cause to be born those he wills to be born and no others (see Bukhari regarding this question posed to Mr. M. by some of his willing executioners).
Thomas Kimball says
I’m with Allah on this one!
gravenimage says
True, Lynn.
David says
“We believed our cleric.” Do I perceive a crack in the armour? Is it too much to hope for or merely wishful thinking?
gravenimage says
Probably too much to hope for, David.
mike9a says
What about proclamation of killing infidels, raping women, hating Jews and everyone as un-Islamic? For a good start! Ahgreee@$@#$@! This inbreeding is producing creatures with two brain cells with half not working.
C T says
The bad health advice of Islam strikes again. Go look up consanguinuity and birth defects if you have time and the stomach for it.
Mo says
Oh, these poor kids!
As I always say, the death cult of Islam brings nothing but ignorance, oppression, violence, and death everywhere it is practiced in the world. Even to its own most devout followers!
Salome says
“Five-year-old Mohammad Ashar Aziz will never be able to walk without orthopedic leg braces.” Then he’s one of the lucky ones. If only these people could see what polio really does when it means business–although perhaps we should be thankful for small mercies that they don’t.
Brian says
The only martyrs in this report were the 80+ aid workers that were murdered for trying to protect children from polio.
gravenimage says
Spot on, Brian.
LR says
I too feel very bad for this poor father, and these poor people…They are totally uneducated, and only know about surviving in their own little, isolated environs. Of course they are going to listen to their ignorant, stupid imam…These people should at least run him out of town.
I remember when it would come across the news about the polio workers being murdered……And soooooo many people want ‘open borders’, and welcome anyone…UGH!
Z says
“Since then, some clerics have even issued fatwas saying that children who become paralyzed or die from polio are “martyrs” because they refused to be tricked by a Western conspiracy.”
They aren’t martyrs, they are victims who suffered for absolutely nothing!
gravenimage says
More victims suffering because of Islam.
Sarah says
You stupid idiot.
Because you chose to take your medical advice from some moron with a beard, clutching the Quran, shrieking about hellfire and the big bad West, your son now gets to spend his entire life, disabled.
You don’t get sympathy, pity or compassion from me. I feel sorry for your son, having been lumped with the raw deal of being born into the family that you created.
You chose to take the advice from some religious man, on a scientific topic – and your son now pays the consequences, meanwhile your biggest concern is finding the money for his leg braces. Which tells me that you don’t seem to grasp that your poor son is going to live a really crap life, given its Pakistan and he is now disabled.
Its a shame that you didn’t get a good dose of Polio yourself. An iron lung for you, might have prevented your poor son for paying the consequences of YOUR actions, you inbred, painfully stupid moron. You heard all the anti-Western shrieking from that Imam and wanted to believe it, wanted to listen to it – that’s the truth of the matter. You wanted to believe the mindless hatred.
I hope your cheap satisfaction in hating the West yet again for yet another pointlessly harebrained reason was worth it. Your son gets to spend his life paying for it. Someone needs to castrate you, you are far too idiotic to spread your seed further and lump the world with your ‘progeny’.
Sarah says
I refer to the following article as justification for my comment relating to the father caring only about the financial costs, as a result of not vaccinating his children.
https://www.rferl.org/a/pakistan-polio-vaccination-regretful-father-paralyzed-son/28912188.html
Georg says
Never believe your cleric.
gravenimage says
Not if he’s a Muslim, certainly.
gravenimage says
“We believed our cleric”: Kids contract polio after Muslim clerics say vaccination is un-Islamic
…………………
He probably did not say that getting polio is un-Islamic–just that acting to prevent it is.
Islam *loves* suffering and death. *Ugh*.
Charles says
Strange!
Getting a vaccine that will save your life is “unislamic”???
But mounting, raping a goat IS OKAY???
TALK ABOUT YOUR WIERD, savage, pagan, barbaric fools!
? cheers!