Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council suspends all major prayers and other services temporarily due to COVID 19 threat
borkena
April 1, 2020
Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council, the highest religious authority in the Islamic faith, announced a decision on Tuesday in connection with the Coronavirus.
The Council moved beyond social distancing during prayers in Mosques. Rather, it wants Ethiopian Muslims to pray at home until the COVID 19 situation changes.
“It is not just elderly people, and those who contracted COVID 19 but also members of the Ethiopian Muslim Community must do their Salat prayer,” the statement from the Council said.
Moreover, the Council called on all Ethiopian Muslims to religiously practice COVID 19 prevention guidelines from the ministry of health and other relevant government institutions.
Friday Prayer in Mosques is suspended starting March 31 until further notice. The Council noted that the disease is complicated and spreads fast, and there will not be Friday prayer to the point when health professionals confirm that the danger that COVID 19 posed on humankind is reversed.
Muazzin, a man who calls for prayer from the minaret of a mosque, will continue to provide service five times a day, but it needs to be understood that it is not a call to go to mosques this time but to remind believers to pray in their homes.
The Council has also decided for preaching and teaching the faith to be suspended in urban centers and the countryside until “God eliminates the pandemic.”
The Supreme Council called upon Muslims to avoid handshakes, for it is established that the disease could be transmitted that way.
All the decisions that the Supreme Council passed are based on Islamic teachings said the statement from the Council.
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