controversy in Guinea over the ban on prayers
How can the appliance of barrier gestures in opposition to the coronavirus and the follow of Ramadan be reconciled? In Guinea, for well being causes, the authorities banned evening prayers organized through the final ten days of Lent, for concern of the epidemic. A measure that’s controversial and has provoked demonstrations in Higher Guinea and Forest Guinea.
This measure is extremely criticized in areas the place few instances of Covid-19 have been detected. Like Higher Guinea, the place residents are crying out for injustice and the place non secular leaders imagine their rights are being violated.
As a result of it’s a follow rooted within the Moors: it corresponds to “Future Evening”, a second of prayer that is taken into account very helpful. Banning them subsequently creates frustrations, explains sociologist Sayon Dembélé.
“The final ten days of the month of Ramadan are thought-about a very powerful, it’s an important second for Muslims and forbids them to create pressure. Forcing the curfew is an element of a type of comparability that individuals don’t perceive. It has extra to do with some form of inconsistency in the general public energy of the individuals who imagine that others are out all day, so why ought to they be forbidden to satisfy to hope? ”
For the well being care authorities, the precedence is to restrict the dangers of contamination by avoiding cluster formation. Nonetheless, the evening prayers final between one and three hours, all in a closed room, states Dr. Sakoba Keïta, who heads the Nationwide Well being Safety Company: this will promote the unfold of the epidemic, warns this healthcare skilled.
In a press release, the Nationwide Entrance for the Protection of the Structure lamented the dying that occurred on the evening of Wednesday to Thursday of a teen in Kérouané after demonstrations in opposition to this measure. The FNDC condemns the violence perpetrated by the safety forces in opposition to the residents.
.