Bolanle Akanji
Moderator
A radical Pakistani religious scholar, Maulana Sami-ul-Haq, who heads the hardline Dar-ul-Uloom Haqqania seminary and is also known as the “Father of the Taliban” has issued a fatwa encouraging parents to immunise their children against polio and other fatal diseases, saying that vaccinations comply with Islamic law.
This comes more than a year after the Pakistani Taliban banned polio immunisation following a fake CIA vaccination programme meant to help track late Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden.
The statement read in part:
“According to Sharia there is no harm in using vaccines which medical experts recommend to save children against deadly diseases,”
“Polio, measles, tetanus, tuberculoses…are fatal and dangerous diseases and the vaccines to save young children and pregnant women are effective and harmless. There is no reality in the doubts and suspicions being spread against these vaccines.
“Parents should give the injections and drops of these vaccines to their children to save from fatal diseases,”
The ban led to a surge in polio cases in Pakistan that threatened efforts to eradicate the infectious crippling disease, which is also prevalent in Nigeria and Afghanistan.
Taliban fighters have launched regular attacks on medical workers and security personnel resulting in at least 25 deaths since the June 2012 ban on inoculation.
This comes more than a year after the Pakistani Taliban banned polio immunisation following a fake CIA vaccination programme meant to help track late Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden.
The statement read in part:
“According to Sharia there is no harm in using vaccines which medical experts recommend to save children against deadly diseases,”
“Polio, measles, tetanus, tuberculoses…are fatal and dangerous diseases and the vaccines to save young children and pregnant women are effective and harmless. There is no reality in the doubts and suspicions being spread against these vaccines.
“Parents should give the injections and drops of these vaccines to their children to save from fatal diseases,”
The ban led to a surge in polio cases in Pakistan that threatened efforts to eradicate the infectious crippling disease, which is also prevalent in Nigeria and Afghanistan.
Taliban fighters have launched regular attacks on medical workers and security personnel resulting in at least 25 deaths since the June 2012 ban on inoculation.
