Tuesday, February 27, 2007

More polio cases if resistance continues

Daily Times (Pakistan) reported The clerics, including Tehreek Nifaz Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) leader Maulana Fazlullah and his supporters in the Malakand Agency, have been ‘warning’ people during sermons in mosques or through illegal FM radio stations not to administer polio drops to their children since it was against religious norms and brought infertility.

No evidence of that, but they just oppose the immunization which came from the West.
Maulana Fazlullah is the son-in-law of Maulana Sufi Muhammad, ex-chief of the TNSM. To complete the polio immunisation drive, the WHO and the Ministry of Health are contemplating enlisting the help of the district/tehsil and union council nazims, political and religious leaders, public representatives and tribal elders, sources said.

Some religious leaders in the Bajaur and Malakand agencies are telling the people not to get their children vaccinated since the practice is un-Islamic, and that those that die of polio would be considered martyrs.
And those that don't die of it, but are just paralized, will lead very painful lives.
.... “Some Taliban-backed clerics in the Bajaur Agency say they are opposing the anti-polio campaign to protest against the government over the US bombing in the tribal region,” an official of the WHO said.
So they put their children at risk as a protest.

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