- Sheikh Omar said conditional reopening of mosques was akin to giving a wrapped sweet to a child to eat.
- However, Kenya Muslim National Advisory Council chair Sheikh Juma Ngao asked the council to ignore Omar, saying the guidelines for Mombasa were achievable.
Image: JOHN CHESOLI
Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya treasurer Sheikh Hassan Omar has asked the newly appointed Inter-Religious Faith Council to review the guidelines for reopening mosques in Mombasa.
The guidelines were developed by the county’s health department.
However, Sheikh Omar said they were too hard to achieve and instead called for the unconditional reopening of mosques.
“We all want the mosques to be reopened. But the conditions are too hard to achieve,” Sheikh Omar told the Star on phone.
The Inter-Religious Faith Council chaired by Nyeri Catholic Archbishop Anthony Muheria was appointed on Friday by Interior CS Fred Matiang’i and his Health counterpart Mutahi Kagwe.
The council is mandated to guide the government on development of stringent protocols for phased reopening of places of worship under the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, Kenya Muslim National Advisory Council chair Sheikh Juma Ngao asked the council to ignore Sheikh Omar, saying the guidelines for Mombasa were easily achievable.
“I don’t understand why some people find it hard to maintain social distancing in a mosque,” said Ngao, who spoke to the Star on phone on Saturday.
Ngao said Sheikh Omar does not speak for the more than 500,000 Muslims in Mombasa.
“He should maintain his personal opinion. If he does not want his mosque to be reopened let it remain closed. All Imams in the county want their mosques reopened.”
Image: JOHN CHESOLI
On Thursday, Sheikh Omar said the conditional reopening of mosques was akin to giving a wrapped sweet to a child to eat.
“If you want a child to enjoy a sweet, unwrap the sweet first. If you just want to please the child and make them stop crying give them the sweet but do not unwrap it. The child will only hold it,” Sheikh Omar said.
But Ngao said Omar was using his position to try and gain fame by making statements that would provoke emotions from Muslims and thereby get recognition in the process.
He said the controversial CIPK treasurer does not speak for imams.
Among the conditions proposed for reopening of mosques are observation of the 1.5-metre social distancing, provision of hand washing facilities at the entrance, closure of the mosque doors once full so that other worshippers worship outside and taking charge of the cleanliness of the toilets and places where Muslims perform Wudu.
Wudu is the process of washing the hands, mouth, nostrils, arms, head and feet with water before any of the five formal prayers and before handling the Quran.
Other conditions including having faithful carry their own prayer mats to the mosque and carrying their own Qurans.
Normally, mosques have carpets where the faithful worship on.
But this will force mosques to remove the carpets and sanitize them every time prayers are conducted hence the proposed use of own prayer mats.
Also, Qurans are usually provided in mosques and faithful pick them for use in the mosque and return them after use.
The requirement to have each believer carry their own Quran is to help avoid many hands touching the same Quran.
Sheikh Omar however said the 1.5-metre social distancing rule would mean some mosques house very few people, which he said would be akin to having the mosque closed.
“Some of our mosques are too small. If we say we put social distancing we would end up having only five people pray in the mosque. We might as well remain closed,” Sheikh Omar said.
He also said the requirement to have all faithful registered before entering a mosque was time wasting and tiresome.
“If we closed our mosques when we had less than 100 cases, why would we open them now when we have over 3,000 cases with very difficult conditions?” the CIPK treasurer posed.
On Thursday, Sheikh Ngao said no one in their right minds would oppose reopening of mosques.
“WHO experts have said the coronavirus is here to stay and if we want things to get back to normal we have to adhere to certain guidelines,” Ngao said.
Supkem national vice chair Sheikh Muhdhar khitamy on Wednesday said Sheikh Omar does not have any authority to speak on behalf of Imams in the country.
“He should speak for himself and not incite Imams in the country,” Khitamy said.
Edited by Henry Makori