PORTLAND, MAINE -- Islamic leaders are using social media, virtual town halls and face-to-face discussions to spread the word that it's acceptable to be vaccinated for the coronavirus during daily fasting that happens during Ramadan, the most sacred month of the year for Muslims.
During the holy month which begins next week, Muslims across the world abstain from all food and drink from sunrise to sunset before typically congregating for evening prayers and iftar meals. The vaccine discussion centres on whether an inoculation amounts to the prohibited act of ingesting something while fasting.
It doesn't, said Mohamud Mohamed, imam of the Maine Muslim Community Center, who is working to assure Muslims at his Portland mosque that getting the vaccine is perfectly fine but finds that some people are clinging to misperceptions.
鈥淭here is a lot of bad information going around,鈥 said Mohamed, who devoted his address during recent Friday prayers to promoting the vaccine. A vaccine clinic is being held at the mosque on Saturday.
He and others seeking to reassure the faithful have the theological backing of top Islamic authorities. Saudi Arabia's highest cleric, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al Sheikh, and Sunni Islam's top religious leader in Lebanon, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul-Latif Derian, have both said that getting the coronavirus vaccine does not constitute breaking one's fast.
Still, Safiya Khalid, a city council member in Lewiston, about 30 miles north of Portland, sparked a lively conversation among fellow Muslims when she raised the issue on social media. Others questioned whether the vaccine violated fasting - until an imam weighed in.
鈥淲e need more communication,鈥 said Khalid, who has already had her first vaccine dose and will get her second shot during Ramadan. 鈥淵ou can do this and protect your community and your family.鈥
On New York's Staten Island, imam and NYPD chaplain Tahir Kukaj, whose mosque was administering 1,000 vaccines on Thursday and Friday, said he has heard all sorts of misconceptions about vaccines, and some 鈥減eople tend to believe nonsense rather than facts.鈥
But protecting others is a core teaching of Islam, and Kukaj said Muslims are taught to do whatever they can to save lives. Getting vaccinated is a way to do that: 鈥淥f course, we have to save our own life first.鈥
Out west, the Utah Muslim Civic League has partnered with the Salt Lake County Health Department to put on two vaccination clinics including a drive-through one at a mosque that was held before Ramadan. The group also organized a virtual town hall Thursday night featuring imams and health professionals to discuss issues surrounding vaccination and fasting.
The goal is raising awareness and 鈥渕yth-busting,鈥 said the league's executive director, Luna Banuri, who found that many community members had wanted to avoid getting vaccinated during Ramadan.
鈥淲hen you are starting the month of fasting, there's a sense of resolve. ... So a lot of folks are trying to make sure that there are no disruptions during that period,鈥 she said. 鈥淓ven if they believe that they can take the vaccine and it doesn't affect their fast ... (what) they're not wanting to do is to get sick.鈥
Medicine and fasting is nothing new. Muslims may forgo fasting if they fall ill and make up for 鈥渕issed鈥 days at a later time, after Ramadan.
鈥淚f you miss a day because of the effects of the vaccine, then that is not a sinful act,鈥 said Ahmed Abdirahman, a respiratory therapist at a Portland hospital and community service co-ordinator at the Maine Muslim Community Center. 鈥淧rotecting lives is the ultimate goal in Islam.鈥
Dr. Hasan Shanawani, president of the American Muslim Health Association, said he's encouraging everyone to be vaccinated even if that means getting the jab during Ramadan.
A lung specialist, he said he has treated dozens if not hundreds of people with COVID-19 and seen firsthand the horrific toll the disease can take.
鈥淭his is not just a decision that weighs on you,鈥 Shanawani said from his office in Michigan. 鈥淚t weighs on everybody.鈥
Similar conversations have played out in other countries.
The British Islamic Medical Association circulated a WhatsApp message reassuring people that 鈥渢aking the Covid-19 vaccines currently licensed in UK does not invalidate the fast during Ramadan as per the opinion of the majority of Islamic scholars.鈥
Association vice-president Dr. Wajid Akhter said there is a growing understanding among Muslims in his community of the importance of not delaying vaccinations due to Ramadan. But for any who may be wavering, he emphasized that COVID-19 represents a threat that cannot be ignored.
鈥淗ow many fasts are you going to miss if you catch COVID? How many fasts are you going to lose if you get long COVID? ... And how many fasts will you lose if you die from COVID?鈥 Akhter said. 鈥淵ou're never going to fast again.鈥
Fam reported from Cairo.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support from the Lilly Endowment through The Conversation U.S. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
