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Canada: Some Toronto-area mosques remaining open despite restrictions and warnings about coronavirus

Mar 28, 2020 11:00 am By Christine Douglass-Williams

“A group of Ontario imams and Islamic scholars is fighting an uphill battle to convince management at a handful of Toronto-area mosques to completely shutter their doors. They say that while a majority of mosques are closed….a few insist on remaining open. The imams believe the refusal to close the mosques exposes an allegiance to certain foreign scholars not heeding the calls.”

On a global scale, the battle continues within Islam on whether to heed the orders and warnings about the coronavirus and practice social distancing, or to listen to Islamic clerics who insist on continuing prayers amid the coronavirus outbreak, and die a martyr if that is Allah’s will.

Pakistan was reported to be the coronavirus super-spreader to the entire Muslim world, precisely because of the influence of determined Muslim clerics and an increasingly popular Islamic revival group called Tablighi Jamaat.

The Tableeghi Jamaat’s reluctance to cite an infectious virus as cause for the disbandment is rooted in its regressive ideology, whose exponents have ranged from militant jihadists to radical preachers to Islamic televangelists unleashing a perilous blend of unscientific fantasies and bigoted fallacies. For these ideologues, cancelling congregational prayers owing to an infectious disease is synonymous with repudiating Allah’s command.

But of course the risk of spreading coronavirus goes beyond the borders of Islamic countries and communities that are adherent to the words of clerics who tell them that Muslims are immune to the virus. Gaza’s first reported cases of coronavirus involved people who attended a Tablighi Ijtema (affiliated with Tablighi Jamaat) conference “alongside 250,000 Muslims in Pakistan last month that went ahead contrary to government advice.”  Muslims also continue to gather for Friday prayers in India. In Canada, imams who have complied with social distancing “believe the refusal to close the mosques exposes an allegiance to certain foreign scholars not heeding the calls, and in the process endangering Canadian lives.”

It remains to be seen now what action Toronto authorities (and other Western cities who may be facing the same dilemma) will take in light of this threat to the health of all communities.

“Some Toronto-area mosques remain open despite dire warnings about COVID-19,” by Nazim Baksh, CBC News, March 25, 2020:

A group of Ontario imams and Islamic scholars is fighting an uphill battle to convince management at a handful of Toronto-area mosques to completely shutter their doors.

They say that while a majority of mosques are closed — some a whole week before Premier Doug Ford declared a province-wide state of emergency on March 17 — a few insist on remaining open.

The imams believe the refusal to close the mosques exposes an allegiance to certain foreign scholars not heeding the calls, and in the process endangering Canadian lives.

“We hate to see mosques shuttered, but our religion teaches us that we have an obligation to save lives and preserve people’s health,” said Zahir Bacchus, imam at Brampton’s Jamiat Al Ansar and a prominent member of the Canadian Council of Imams (CCI).

Bacchus said Al Ansar mosque decided to close its doors on March 13, two days after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic.

‘Uncharted’ territory
“The COVID-19 pandemic has put Muslims in uncharted territory,” he said. “We’ve asked Muslims to pray at home, pray with their families and loved ones — just don’t come to the mosque,” he said….

They say that while a majority of mosques are closed — some a whole week before Premier Doug Ford declared a province-wide state of emergency on March 17 — a few insist on remaining open.

The imams believe the refusal to close the mosques exposes an allegiance to certain foreign scholars not heeding the calls, and in the process endangering Canadian lives….

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Filed Under: Canada, mosques Tagged With: coronavirus, Toronto


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Comments

  1. Dude says

    Mar 28, 2020 at 11:20 am

    To keep the delusions of grandeur strong, reinforcement is required five times a day. I am the best. I am the best. I am the best. I am the best. I am the best!

    • John Kendall says

      Mar 28, 2020 at 6:00 pm

      OPEN BORDERS IS OFFICIALLY DEAD. Delivered by Covid-19.

  2. medforth says

    Mar 28, 2020 at 12:19 pm

    Belgium: 50 % of the Corona patients are Turkish !

    On 21 March it was observed that more than half of the patients in the hospital Oost-Limburg in Genk were from Turkish origin. Secretary of state Zuhal Demir urged the Turkish community in Limburg to abide by the quarantine measures.
    https://medforth.blog/2020/03/28/belgium-50-of-the-corona-patients-are-turkish/

    • SKA says

      Mar 28, 2020 at 1:50 pm

      What happened to those uniquely resilient “Turkish genes,” boasted by Erdogan, that made counter-coronavirus measures unnecessary?

      • Rufolino says

        Mar 29, 2020 at 4:32 am

        Is this Canada ? Or is it Turkey ?

        Who is in charge here ?

        (Islam is, of course. Anything else would be Islamophobic bigotry.)

    • gravenimage says

      Mar 28, 2020 at 8:59 pm

      Thanks for that information, Medforth.

  3. prebangian says

    Mar 28, 2020 at 12:53 pm

    “We hate to see mosques shuttered, but our religion teaches us that we have an obligation to save lives and preserve people’s health,” said Zahir Bacchus, imam at Brampton’s Jamiat Al Ansar and a prominent member of the Canadian Council of Imams (CCI).
    Now the good Imam should address the religion’s teachings to kill nearly everyone including Infidels Jews, gays, Christians, blasphemers, apostates, etc. King Abdulah II virtually re-wrote the Quran to delete the supremacist Jihadist verses for use in Jordanian schools, other adherents to Islam should do the same.

    • Giacomo Latta says

      Mar 29, 2020 at 4:23 am

      My guess is that the list you have given does not include anyone that Islam would consider as people. How else can someone make the aforementioned quote and somehow keep a straight face?

  4. mortimer says

    Mar 28, 2020 at 1:01 pm

    The side by side alignment of men at the mosque is ideal for spreading the virus. We have seen how irresponsible the mullahs are. When the mullahs advise their followers to do something dangerous, the mullahs don’t apologize for bad judgment, they blame the dirty kufaar.

    The mullahs play ‘Heads-I-win-tails you lose’. They move the goal posts.

  5. DP111 says

    Mar 28, 2020 at 1:19 pm

    Surely it is haraam for a mosque to obey orders from a Kuffar government.

  6. Thomas F Mills says

    Mar 28, 2020 at 1:32 pm

    Don’t understand why there are not any Laws in the USA and Canada and for any Civilized Country that Forbids islam any form being Practiced. It is a pathetic SCAM,
    Not in any way a religeon

    • Brian Hoff says

      Mar 28, 2020 at 8:31 pm

      You are thinking all mosque are open. CAIR ask all mosque in America to close down. All mosque in Saudi Arabia are close including the two most holy mosues. The mosuevI go-to is close. So stop being than Islamoprobic.

      • gravenimage says

        Mar 28, 2020 at 9:00 pm

        Notice that “Brian Hoff”–really, “DefenderofIslam”–has no words of criticism for his pious coreligionists in Canada flouting Kuffar guidelines. But then, why would he?

        • James Lincoln says

          Mar 28, 2020 at 9:50 pm

          He is “deflecting”, gravenimage…

        • gravenimage says

          Mar 28, 2020 at 9:52 pm

          Exactly, James.

        • Brian Hoff says

          Mar 29, 2020 at 10:33 pm

          The Islamist scholor doesnot know that the Prophet said Muslim cannot travel to than place where there is than plague or leave than plague area.

      • E T says

        Mar 29, 2020 at 8:45 am

        Islamophobic, yes stop being Islamophobic, the Muslim Brotherhood hoods who made up the word will not be happy, nor will all the politicians who are aiding in the population replacement plan. Methinks Brian Hoff is another “little son of Allah”.

        Qura’an 8:12 is Kafirophobic

        • E T says

          Mar 29, 2020 at 9:09 am

          Islamophobia is a required element of the Islamist narrative in non-Muslim countries.
          It’s all about diversity, oh ya,

          “ Do not let this battle pass you by wherever you may be. you must strike the soldiers, security, and intelligence members, as well as their treacherous agents. destroy their beds, em bitter their lives for them and busy them with themselves. if you can kill a disbelieving American or European— especially the spiteful and filthy French or an Australian, or a Canadian, or any other disbeliever from the disbelievers waging war, including citizens of the countries that entered into a coalition against the Islamic State, then rely upon Allah, and KILL him in any manner or way however it may be. if you are not able to find an IED or a bullet then single out the disbelieving American, Frenchman, or any of their allies. Smash his head with a rock, or slaughter him with a knife or run him over with your car or throw him down from a high place, or choke him or poison him…..”

          What the hell kind of a sissy would have a phobia against a barbarian or Islam? Oh ya they are so normal, oh ya.

          Justine knows they are just kidding.

        • Brian Hoff says

          Mar 29, 2020 at 10:51 pm

          Our mosque close down afew before CAIR ask mosque in america to close.Many Mosues in the Dallas area close they door aweek before El Pase mosque did .

        • Brian Hoff says

          Mar 29, 2020 at 10:59 pm

          It the last PM of Canada fault for his antiIslam and antiMuslim speech and action.

      • Thomas F Mills says

        Apr 1, 2020 at 6:09 am

        Bryon Hoff. Have you visited any islamic countries ? Worked or lived in any ? If you had lived in for over thirty years., you would understand my opinion

  7. PRCS says

    Mar 28, 2020 at 2:58 pm

    The final section of that CBC article
    (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-mosques-coronavirus-1.5508545)

    Allegiance to foreign scholars

    But the imam at Makki mosque in Brampton told CBC News that management at his mosque don’t care “two cents” about the opinion of Canadian scholars.

    “They’re taking their religious orders from scholars residing in New Delhi, India, not from reputable Canadian Imams,” he said.

    “And the scholars in India have instructed them not to close down their mosques until there is an order to do so.”

    “I’ve seen a video message with my own eyes from a cleric in New Delhi which who said that a Muslim is never impure and therefore it is impossible for a Muslim to impart an impurity to another Muslim,” he said.

    “How can we preserve life when this sort of nonsense is being promoted in our community? There is nothing we can do about it.”

    ———–

    For those who think Muslims infecting other Muslims is ‘a good thing’: every “filthy unbeliever” they come into contact with is just as likely to be infected, too.

    • gravenimage says

      Mar 28, 2020 at 9:03 pm

      So true.

  8. Gork says

    Mar 28, 2020 at 5:16 pm

    Most other religions value life a bit more than they do, obviously.

  9. Battle says

    Mar 29, 2020 at 6:11 am

    Arrest the imam.

    • E T says

      Mar 29, 2020 at 8:46 am

      Close all the mosques and deport the invaders.

  10. ronyvo says

    Mar 29, 2020 at 6:53 am

    That should NOT surprise any one here with Justin Trudeau is in power.

  11. E T says

    Mar 29, 2020 at 11:45 am

    Wednesday is Justine Trudeau Day

  12. OLD GUY says

    Mar 29, 2020 at 7:44 pm

    Being smart is not an islamic muslim requirement. Also allowing muslims to invade your country through mass migration is also not too smart. Nothing good comes from muslims immigration for the country that allows them in.

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