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HEALTH-VIRUS-IRAQ-PRAYERS
Thousands join Iraq’s first weekly prayers since Covid-19
BAGHDAD, Sept 11, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Thousands of supporters of Iraqi cleric
Moqtada Sadr gathered at a mosque in east Baghdad on Friday for the first
weekly prayers since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Iraq’s mosques have been closed to gatherings for close to six months, but
notoriously outspoken Sadr said on Wednesday that he would hold open-air
prayers in his stronghold.
In east Baghdad’s Sadr City on Friday, worshippers put on medical masks
and gloves and had their temperatures taken before being allowed into the
courtyard of the main mosque, where volunteers were spraying disinfectant.
“We urge everyone to abide by social distancing and protect themselves
against this virus,” the imam said in the opening to his brief sermon.
Sadr had issued a list of restrictions on Twitter this week, including
that worshippers must stand exactly 75 centimetres apart and sermons must
last only 15 minutes.
One worshipper, Qassem al-Mayahi, 40, said he was “happy to finally be
able to pray on Fridays, as this is one of the five pillars of Islam.”
“We need to figure out how to live” with the virus, he told AFP. “We may
as well pray.”
Other prayers at Sadrist mosques were expected in the Shiite holy city of
Najaf on Friday.
The coronavirus pandemic has hit Iraq hard, with nearly 280,000 confirmed
cases and more than 7,800 deaths.
In March, Iraqi authorities shut down airports and imposed total lockdowns
to halt the virus’s spread. Top Shiite authority Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani
halted his weekly sermons, and they have yet to resume.
But rules have generally been relaxed, with most airports reopening in
July and curfews now only in place overnight.
On Monday, the Iraqi government’s coronavirus crisis cell announced
restaurants could seat customers — rather than just providing takeaway
services — if they abide by health ministry protocols and that sports events
could resume, but in the absence of spectators.
The loosening of restrictions came just a few days after Iraq recorded its
highest daily caseload yet, with more than 5,000 new Covid-19 infections
recorded on September 4.
The health ministry attributed the spike to recent “large gatherings” that
took place without recommended safety measures, including mask wearing and
social distancing.
That included the marking on August 30 of Ashura, a Shiite day of mourning
that commemorates the killing of the Prophet Mohammed’s grandson Hussein in
Karbala in 680 AD.
Usually, millions of pilgrims from around the world travel to Karbala to
mark Ashura, but this year Iraq did not grant visas to religious tourists and
kept borders with neighbouring Shiite-majority Iran closed.
But concern is already building over Arbaeen, which comes 40 days after
Ashura — on October 8 — and typically sees even larger numbers converge at
Karbala.
Iraq’s interior ministry told AFP any foreign national without Iraqi
residency would not be granted entry until after Arbaeen.
Hospitals in Iraq have already been worn down by decades of conflict and
poor investment, with shortages in medicines, hospital beds and even
protective equipment for doctors.
BSS/AFP/BZC/1837HRS