The National Commission on Muslim Affairs (NCMF) on Monday joined growing calls for the resumption of religious gatherings during community quarantine.
NCMF secretary Saidamen Pangarungan said he will recommend the reopening of mosques, especially in areas under general community quarantine (GCQ), to Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases’s (IATF) when it meets on Tuesday.
He made the assessment after observing how Muslims in other countries like Germany and Thailand were able to pray in mosques while observing social distancing.
“We Muslims pray shoulder to shoulder and we are also aligned in one row. That is the general rule. But applying the Islamic principle of necessity and emergency, I think we can relax this rule and practice social distancing,” Pangarungan said.
Unprecedented celebration
He said he is confident most Filipino Muslims would be able to comply to social distancing measures taking note of how they celebrated the month-long Ramadan and the Eid al-Fitr.
“This year’s observance of Ramadan is really unprecedented in contemporary times because our mosques are closed, public congregation prayers are suspended and family gatherings are regulated in the whole of government fight to save lives from Covid-19,” Pangarungan said.
While there were some opposition from these restrictions, Pangarungan said the Filipino Muslims obeyed the government’s ban on mass gatherings.
“I’m happy to inform our fellowmen that this paid off because so far, we know of only around ten fatalities involving Muslim Filipinos due to Covid-19,” Pangarungan said.
The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines’s (CBCP) is also pushing for the resumption of religious gatherings in areas under community quarantine sans the existing rule limiting its participants to a maximum of 10.
Hajj pilgrimage
In a related development, NCMF said it is still waiting the announcement from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) if the hajj pilgrimage will continue this year.
Hajj is the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, KSA, the holiest city for Muslims.
Based from their initial reports, Pangarungan said the Saudi Hajj Ministry is considering reducing country’s regular 9,000 hajj contingent by half or foregoing the pilgrimage all together.
“So we would have to wait for the announcement from the Saudi Hajj Ministry [on the matter],” Pangarungan said.
He assured the payment of the Filipino participants of this year’s hajj remain intact in the “depository bank of the NCMF.”
“If the decision of the Saudi Hajj Ministry is to forego the pilgrimage, then we can immediately refund the amounts paid,” he added. (Samuel Medenilla)
Image credits: AP/Aaron Favila
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