By Lateef Ibrahim, Abuja
A Nigerian Islamic human rights organization, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), has joined the campaign in support of the vaccination for the coronavirus pandemic in the country.
The group specifically urged
The group specifically urged Nigerian Muslims and the rest of the citizens to take the vaccine without any fear in their own interest.
This was contained in a statement yesterday by the MURIC’s Director, Prof Ishaq Akintola in Abuja.
According the statement by MURIC, “The whole country is aware of the arrival of about four million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines since Tuesday, 2nd March, 2021.
“ It is our candid opinion that Nigerians cannot afford to sit on the fence in the face of daunting COVID-19 statistics around the world. 116,874,912 cases have been confirmed globally as at yesterday, Friday, 12th March, 2021. “There have also been 2,597,381 COVID-19 related deaths around the world.
“The total of confirmed cases in Nigeria stands at 158,535 with 1,969 deaths and 138,055 recoveries also as at yesterday. Nigeria had 2,878 new confirmed cases this week and that is why we cannot say we are out of the woods.
“Nigeria needs the vaccine as much as countries that have suffered high death rate from the pandemic”, the group said.
MURIC expressed worries that
nonetheless, a large number of citizens are still very skeptical about the efficacy of the vaccine.
According to the statement, “ MURIC’s message of today is directed at this conspiracy theory camp, particularly the Muslim population.
“We reaffirm the position of scholars of Islam especially that of the prolific Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah in his Majmu‘ al-Fataawa (37 volumes).
“The concensus of Islamic scholars is that vaccination is halaal (permissible). They cited the hadith of the Prophet (peace be upon him) where he said ‘Seek medical treatment’.
