We breathe the same air; we have the same blood because we are all human beings. We suffer from different diseases including HIV/AIDS so as Christians and Judas.
It is long time people have been discussing the issue of HIV/AIDS in Malawian Muslim Community and a tribute should be paid to the group which has just been formed, Muslim Sisters Aids Network (Musanet). This group has done a commendable job in Malawi and praises are still coming from abroad.
Their objective is quite short which says “breaking the silence among Muslim women on HIV/AIDS.” That’s all no any additional sentence. It has moved Malawian women from ignorance to intelligence and from misunderstanding to understanding.
They have done a lot of programs in Malawi but the interest of many Muslims is on the recent program about Condoms.
These women last week had their workshop in Blantyre, which was funded by UNFPA and facilitated by Sandra Mapempa, Condom programming coordinator including Blantyre District AIDS Coordinator Mr. Lothiar Ngulube.
The event was aimed at encouraging Muslim couples to use Condoms, family planning and marternal health issues. According to the local newspaper, The Daily Times. The paper also quoted the grouping’s chairlady, sister Jamila Lire who said they approached UNFPA when they saw that ‘there was need to do so’ because Muslims were quite on HIV/AIDS issue.
However, many people including Muslim scholars have had different views on the condom issue, with some saying it is not permissible while others say it is acceptable but on condition that it should not have effect on health and if there is really need to do so. That is to say for prevention of HIV/AIDS and other Sexual Transmitted Diseases.
Below are views of some Muslims on what they think about condoms.
“I will never sell condoms in my shop; it is like promoting adultery and operating a brothel,” Sharrif Mohamed, who owns a shop in Isiolo, Eastern Province, Kenya told IRIN/PlusNews.
Zamzam, a single mother of three in Garissa, a town North Eastern Province, dismissed condoms as “a thing for the prostitutes”, saying, “I use my brain and intelligence when I want to sleep with a man, and can tell who is sick [with HIV/AIDS]; I am not a prostitute to use it.”
“The HIV/AIDS pandemic is a curse and punishment because people have engaged in immoral acts and offended Allah [God],” Maalim Hussein Mohamud, a teacher at a ‘madrassa’, or Islamic school, in Mandera, near the Somali border, told IRIN/PlusNews. “They have to repent, observe religious teaching and not use condoms.”
Mohamud said the only way to prevent the viral infection was to observe religious teachings, abstain from ‘illegal’ sexual acts and avoid the use of condoms.
“Our position is very clear: we shall never support the use of condoms; Muslims must shun acts that will endanger their lives. To be safe [from HIV], youths must pray five times daily, fast, and refrain from looking at women; extramarital affairs must be avoided and women must dress decently,” he insisted.
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