This is not just in Indonesia. A Pakistani Muslim cleric has said that polio vaccinations are un-Islamic. Muslims have opened fire on a polio vaccination team in that country. And in Nigeria, a Muslim cleric was arrested for playing a role in sparking the murders of polio workers.
“Indonesian Muslim clerics reject measles, rubella vaccine as ‘unclean,’” by Jamie Seidel, News Corp Australia Network, November 12, 2018:
Indonesia’s immunisation campaign is in crisis. In August, its Muslim leadership officially forbade the use of the measles and rubella vaccine. Its followers have taken the ruling to heart — with a dramatic drop in vaccinations.
The religious proclamation — a fatwa — is not legally recognised or enforceable. But the Indonesian Ulama Council’s followers are obeying.
It was an unexpected outcome — and it has an enormous impact on holidaymakers from all over the world, including Australia.
The Indonesian Department of Health had approached the council in the hope of receiving a fatwa in support of their vaccination program. After all, the equivalent Malaysian council had made it compulsory for its Muslim followers to get vaccinated in 2016.
However, the Ulama Council (MUI) instead declared the measles and rubella vaccine to be “unclean”.
It asserts the vaccines use a gelatine as a stabilising agent which is based on ‘illicit’ substances derived from pigs.
Jewish and Muslim organisations around the world have ruled this not to be a problem.
But not so Indonesia.
“The government should strive to the fullest, as well as through WHO and Muslim-populated countries, to pay attention to the interests of Muslims in terms of the need for sacred and halal medicines and vaccines,” Secretary of the MUI Fatwa Commission Asrorun Ni’am Sholeh said.
Now Indonesian health authorities face an uphill battle in eradicating large pockets of communicable diseases.
A recent campaign on the island of Java had met with a near 95 per cent coverage rate. It had targeted almost 70 million children.
But it had sought religious backing among suspicious, more isolated, communities. Many believe vaccination to be a Western conspiracy to control Asia, or a Catholic attempt to eradicate Islam.
Now they have to contend with vaccinations being declared religiously ‘illegal’.
In some districts, vaccination coverage rates have been as low as 7 per cent.
For the vaccination program to be successful, rubella needs to have had a blanket reach of more than 80 per cent of the population. Measles needs 95 per cent.
The Ulama Council admitted the lack of vaccination posed a public health risk. It also noted there was no alternatives to the measles-rubella vaccine in use.
Angemon says
Sounds like an opportunity to me – a perfectly fine reason to bar Indonesians from entering Western nations…
Mike says
Cool window of opportunity on top of that we could spread small pocks. Ebola, polio . It’s to a point that as sick as it sounds STOP curing AIDS.
shoehorn says
Islam: not just a mental health hazard.
gravenimage says
Indonesia: Muslim clerics reject measles and rubella vaccine as “unclean”
………………….
Because “Allah” loves seeing sick and dead children.
God, I hate Islam.
boakai ngombu says
the allah god of islam (unknowable; the best of all deceivers) has only rage and is vengeful, not having compassion. its spokesman, slave (muslim), Muhammad (lately contrived; full of lusts; lacking compassion) loves to rage as well as kill..
public health programs originate in the admonition LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF, something the slave of the allah god cannot do … i.e. love what allah loves; hate what allah hates.
abad says
So let them all die from not being vaccinated.
The world is severely overpopulated as it is.
Marco says
Moving to a western country soon bringing diseases previously wiped out back. Your children will be exposed in school and you will be marked as a racist if you say word one.
KWJ says
That’s already happened in the US with measles. We eradicated it and foreigners brought it in. Some Somalian community in the US is anti-vaccine. There are a lot of cases of TB and Hep, even more so in Europe, plus HIV is still very high in Africa.
I recall reading articles about the uptick in measles in the early 2000s and a couple of children died. Children who medically can’t have the vaccine are then vulnerable to kids in school whose parents won’t do it. My state allows people not to do it for religious reasons which should not be allowed-the public health is more important than one’s over four thousand year old dislike of pork. The anti-vaxxers are bad too. And some people believe there is cultural relativism? I think the people who care about the public’s health are more advanced than those who think a minute pork element matters.
Deborah says
(This is a ‘re-broadcast/text): Good! I say to All of the doctors: Get the hell out of these shi*holes Before You are killed! Go to places where people Want their children to grow up into Healthy adults, not Cold-blooded, Barbaric Killers. Allow these viruses to do what mankind Cannot/Will Not. I print this as I am listening to Christmas Carols. I, as an American, am Not going to sleep in the light of a Jihadist moon! (And to All of these PC Apologists, I say: (Blank) You). I intend to Keep what Brave men and women have fought and died for: My Constitutional Freedoms! G-d Rest Ye Merry (Free) Gentlemen/Women this Holiday Season! And to We the People: Remember.
No Fear says
Country with the most muslims Indonesia has a higher per capita HIV rate than the “great satan” USA and satan’s little brother Australia.
PRCS says
Though not common here, in the good ‘ole U.S.A., some non-Muslim zealots do refuse various medical interventions to their own children in keeping with religious beliefs.
That’s disgusting, no matter what religion is involved.
Terra Nova says
The UN wrote together with the EU a new pact that every country has to sign begin December in Morocco.
It consists out of: “Every migrant has from that day on the right whenever he/she wants to migrate, they can migrate to any country they wish to go. The country of their choice has to make sure that they take care of the migrant in any way and that all has to be payed by the taxpayer of that country. They have to pay for accommodations, food, medical help, etc.
The USA will not sign, neither will Hungary and Polen, and now after reading it, I hope more countries will not, because then they got completely what they wanted and it is the end for the western world and then Germany, France and England and a few more, you will see what you have done..
Anne Smith says
This is the Marrakesh Agreement which is being foisted on Europe by its “leaders”.
Not surprising as the UN is now totally dominated ;by Muslim countries.
I expect our totally useless and incredibly stupid PM Theresa May will happily sign up to it. She adores Muslims and cannot do enough to accommodate them in Britain, visiting mosques and taking part in their ceremonies, as well as making special broadcasts to them telling them how welcome they are.
Funnily enough she hasn’t done the same for Hindus, Buddhists, Pagans, Roman Cathollics or Protestants.
Indiana Tom says
So why is a dog in the photo? I thought they were forbidden under Sharia Law?
Bill says
It would, I am sure, be terribly wrong to say that the more of these creatures get polio the better …
Indiana Tom says
Hey kids, let’s have a big sleepover party with little Mohammed here; so we can play how many little red dots he has? It will be just like the American kiddie sleepover parties America had in the 1950s!
Yeah, yeah, and guess who got to attend those little sleepover parties with sick friends in the 50s and early 60s? Me and millions of other baby boomers.
Hey, polio is making a comeback with no vaccines? Well, that should be cool watching kids in braces again!It will be just like the good old 1950s! We can have March Of Dimes marathons and drives! Just like when I was a kid!
TB is coming back also. Hey, kids in iron lungs are loads of fun to watch! I always loved Christmas Seals. Bringing Holiday cheer knowing people were dying of TB!
I really do hope that iran gets nukes. We can have Duck and Cover movies in all the grade schools again. I always loved Bert the Turtle and diving under my desk. The Fallout shelters were really cool also!
The nostalgia of it all!
PRCS says
You too, eh?
elee says
If Allah wanted believers to sacrifice their children you’d think he’d let them do it relatively quickly with a knife. Well, so much for logic compassion and Islam.
Indiana Tom says
More fun to watch them die in an iron lung.
WPM says
It is children being abused by their own parents ,being not only brought up in a religion of hate ,violence bigotry ,but being denied life saving medicine for free from western society they are taught to hate and fear by their parents.
Anjuli Pandavar says
I think the ulema should get done for crimes against humanity.
Georg says
“Muslim clerics reject measles and rubella vaccine as “unclean”
Nothing “cleaner” than rubella and measles. Bravo, Islam. Yet another example of the self-evidently progressive nature of the R.O.P.