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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Friday prayers will continue as normal in mosques across the Kurdistan Region, the Supreme Fatwa Council of the Kurdistan Union of Islamic Scholars said Tuesday, despite concerns the coronavirus could spread easily among congregations.
Friday is the holy day in the Islamic week when Muslims attend mosque for group prayer and to listen to sermons.
However, there are concerns the coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, could rapidly spread through person-to-person contact in such a crowded setting.
The Fatwa Council, the Kurdistan Region’s highest religious authority, does not believe the outbreak is serious enough at this stage to warrant cancelling Friday prayers.
“According to Sharia [Islamic law], Friday sermons at this stage cannot be suspended, except in places where the disease has certainly spread and become an epidemic,” the Fatwa Council said in a statement.
It did recommend some precautionary measures, however.
“We are calling on clerics to shorten their Friday sermons and to help keep mosques clean and to advise people to take their ablutions at home.”
It also called for the cancellation of all “social and religious activities such as Isra’ and Mi’raj, Mawlood, wedding parties, and funerals everywhere”.
In the Islamic faith, the Isra’ and Mi’raj are the two parts of the nighttime journey the Prophet Muhammad took to meet Allah around the year 621. Mawlood meanwhile is the celebration of the prophet’s birthday.
The fatwa follows a decision by Iranian religious authorities to suspend last week’s Friday prayers in Tehran and 22 other Iranian provinces amid a massive outbreak of coronavirus.
It was the first time Friday prayers had been suspended since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. It is not clear whether this week’s sermons will also be canceled.
‘Rank of martyrdom’
The Kurdistan Region’s Fatwa Council also said it would bestow “the rank of martyrdom” upon anyone who dies after contracting COVID-19.
To date, no one in Iraq or the Kurdistan Region has died from complications associated with coronavirus.
“Those who die of coronavirus will be granted the rank of martyrdom,” the fatwa reads. “Relevant authorities are responsible for carrying out the burial processions in accordance with Islamic Sharia regulations.”
“Those who do not feel well or are vulnerable to contracting the virus can skip Friday sermons and group prayers,” it said.
“All religious activities involving Quran teaching classes and other subjects related to religion should be suspended.”
“Do not visit patients at home or hospital. It is better to check up on them by phone or through text message,” it added.
The novel coronavirus was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of 2019. It has since spread to at least 56 countries and territories and has infected close to 90,000 people worldwide, with the global death toll surpassing 3,000.
While the rate of infection has slowed in China, other global hotspots are struggling to contain its spread.
The Kurdistan Region has taken strict measures by closing down schools and reducing working hours across government institutions.
Kurdish and Iraqi authorities have also closed their borders with Iran and canceled direct flights serving Iranian cities. Iraqi citizens returning from Iran must undergo 14 days in quarantine.
To dodge security checks and avoid the quarantine, some Kurdistan Region residents have been smuggled across the Iranian border, security officials (Asayesh) told Rudaw on Thursday.
Five cases have been confirmed in the Kurdistan Region city of Sulaimani so far. All of the patients had recently returned form Iran.
A total of 2,484 people have been quarantined across the Kurdistan Region and 89 people have been tested, health minister Barzanji said Monday.
Iraqi provinces outside the Kurdistan Region meanwhile have confirmed 27 cases, with seven new infections recorded on Monday.
At least two of the most recent cases were returnees from Iran, a regional epicenter for the virus where 66 people have died and 1,501 people have tested positive, according to Tehran’s health ministry.
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