Ramadan is a month-long festival of fasting, eating and worship. Large crowds gather daily to eat together at the beginning and end of the daily fast, and to offer extra prayers together in mosques. Attendance at the five-times-daily and Friday prayers rockets throughout Ramadan. There is also a special practice of spiritual seclusion or retreat in mosques (i'tikaf), when millions of men, and occasionally women, remain confined to the mosque in close company with others during its last 10 days.
This carries many public health risks during the Covid-19 pandemic, especially in developing countries where many poor people rely on the Ramadan charitable practice of feeding people to eat two meals per day. Governments of countries with large Muslim populations face a crisis of decision-making and social acceptance around Covid-19 policy.
Already in Pakistan, leading clerics defied the government lockdown last week and announced that daily, nightly and Friday prayers would resume for Ramadan. This led to negotiations resulting in a 20-point plan agreed between the government and the dissenting clerics for a managed opening of Pakistan's mosques in time for Ramadan and Eid. In contrast, senior Saudi and UAE clerics maintain that mosques must remain closed in countries where the government enforces a lockdown to preserve public health.
But the problems do not end there. Within two months of the end of Ramadan, Saudi Arabia is due to host the Hajj, or annual pilgrimage to Makkah, an essential pillar of Islamic practice. Every healthy Muslim who can afford it is expected to perform the Hajj at least once in their lifetime.
Ramadan and Hajj are related: the two Eid festivals are associated with these two periods of worship, and Ramadan is seen as preparation for those intending to embark on the Hajj. The week of Hajj, spanning the end of July and beginning of August, overlaps with the original dates for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics that have already been postponed for a year.
The Hajj is usually attended by about 2.5 million people, three-quarters of whom (almost two million) are foreign visitors. Pilgrims come from every country in the world, and the Saudis solve a large and complex logistical problem every year in accommodating them. For countries with large Muslim populations, the Saudis impose a quota of 0.1 per cent or one pilgrim per 1,000 Muslims in that country.
The dilemma that Saudi authorities face is one which many religious leaders – Islamic and otherwise – are grappling with: how to strike a balance between fulfilling their obligations to their faith and their communities while acting responsibly in the battle to contain the spread of the coronavirus
For an entire week, huge crowds crisscross Makkah and its surrounding plains daily in observance of complicated Hajj rituals. Most of them also spend a week or two in Madinah, the city of the Prophet. During a pandemic, it will be very difficult to see how this could be kept up safely. Makkah and Madinah are already under strict lockdown and curfew measures that have been ongoing for weeks.
To give a sense of the enormity of this decision affecting the journey of millions to their spiritual home and holiest sanctuary, the Hajj has been cancelled or become very difficult to attend many times in Islamic history due to war, natural disasters and plagues. But it has never, during the century-long Saudi rule over Makkah, been cancelled. Though there has been speculation in western media that it could be cancelled this year, the Saudis will be reluctant to cancel the Hajj completely, just as they have exempted the Holy Mosques of Makkah and Madinah from the nationwide closure of mosques due to Covid-19: small prayer services are still held daily at the two Holy Mosques.
Given this, the Hajj might happen this year, but with a vastly reduced number of pilgrims, stripped back to allow only a small number of Saudis who have tested negative for the coronavirus, including royalty and senior clerics. The Saudis have reduced pilgrim numbers before: the number of Hajis in 2013 was almost 40 per cent down on the previous year, due to restrictions imposed because of a large-scale construction project at the Sacred Mosque in Makkah. This week, the Saudis have installed scanners to monitor people’s body temperatures at the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah as part of the fight against coronavirus.
The dilemma that Saudi authorities face is one which many religious leaders – Islamic and otherwise – are grappling with: how to strike a balance between fulfilling their obligations to their faith and their communities while acting responsibly in the battle to contain the spread of the coronavirus, a battle in which religious authorities can play a vital, and maybe even a decisive, role.
Indeed, imams, priests and rabbis around the world have urged their faith-communities to obey government and health agencies, as preservation of life is an essential religious principle. They have also helped to counter religion-based misinformation and misleading advice regarding the pandemic.
It is important for political leaders and health agencies to work with religious leaders on such matters. A case in point is the otherwise-excellent WHO guidance on Ramadan that has a problematic line asking authorities to "provide alcohol-based hand-rub (at least 70 per cent alcohol) at the entrance to and inside mosques". Given that hundreds of millions of Muslims believe that alcohol is impure (najas) and are prohibited to drink or even handle, this has the potential to undermine the guidance and even cause social unrest, because there will be loud and influential voices who will accuse the WHO of promoting physical impurity and uncleanliness inside mosques.
To mitigate this concern, the WHO could refer to the many religious and fatwa-issuing authorities who have endorsed the use of alcohol-based hand-rubs in the Covid-19 situation as a case of dire necessity, due to the Quranic principle that necessity allows even what is usually prohibited. This would be a good example of governments, health agencies and religious leaders working together against a lethal threat to everyone.
Usama Hasan is a research consultant at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change
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Name: Lamsa
Founder: Badr Ward
Launched: 2014
Employees: 60
Based: Abu Dhabi
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Tips to stay safe during hot weather
- Stay hydrated: Drink plenty of fluids, especially water. Avoid alcohol and caffeine, which can increase dehydration.
- Seek cool environments: Use air conditioning, fans, or visit community spaces with climate control.
- Limit outdoor activities: Avoid strenuous activity during peak heat. If outside, seek shade and wear a wide-brimmed hat.
- Dress appropriately: Wear lightweight, loose and light-coloured clothing to facilitate heat loss.
- Check on vulnerable people: Regularly check in on elderly neighbours, young children and those with health conditions.
- Home adaptations: Use blinds or curtains to block sunlight, avoid using ovens or stoves, and ventilate living spaces during cooler hours.
- Recognise heat illness: Learn the signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke (dizziness, confusion, rapid pulse, nausea), and seek medical attention if symptoms occur.
In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
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- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
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Name: The Protein Bakeshop
Date of start: 2013
Founders: Rashi Chowdhary and Saad Umerani
Based: Dubai
Size, number of employees: 12
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How to improve Arabic reading in early years
One 45-minute class per week in Standard Arabic is not sufficient
The goal should be for grade 1 and 2 students to become fluent readers
Subjects like technology, social studies, science can be taught in later grades
Grade 1 curricula should include oral instruction in Standard Arabic
First graders must regularly practice individual letters and combinations
Time should be slotted in class to read longer passages in early grades
Improve the appearance of textbooks
Revision of curriculum should be undertaken as per research findings
Conjugations of most common verb forms should be taught
Systematic learning of Standard Arabic grammar
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Vaccine Progress in the Middle East
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
WWE TLC results
Asuka won the SmackDown Women's title in a TLC triple threat with Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair
Dean Ambrose won the Intercontinental title against Seth Rollins
Daniel Bryan retained the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against AJ Styles
Ronda Rousey retained the Raw Women's Championship against Nia Jax
Rey Mysterio beat Randy Orton in a chairs match
Finn Balor defeated Drew McIntyre
Natalya beat Ruby Riott in a tables match
Braun Strowman beat Baron Corbin in a TLC match
Sheamus and Cesaro retained the SmackDown Tag Titles against The Usos and New Day
R-Truth and Carmella won the Mixed Match Challenge by beating Jinder Mahal and Alicia Fox
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