London ‘Major Incident’ Declaration: More Dark Days Ahead

London ‘Major Incident’ Declaration: More Dark Days Ahead

Harun Khan, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain, said, “The Mayor of London’s announcement this week, made in discussion with NHS London, local councils, Public Health England and the Metropolitan Police, that 1 in 30 Londoners now has COVID19 and declaring a ‘Major Incident’ is a harsh reminder for us all.

This weekend the British Islamic Medical Association (BIMA) has written to mosques and Muslim community leaders (click here to read), urging them to urgently engage with their local Directors of Public Health to fully understand the risks from the new variant which is up to 70% more transmissible and to take whatever steps are necessary to protect their communities. We are also re-iterating our call to re-assess mosque safety measures in consultation with local Public Health officials and if mosque trustees are not confident in ensuring congregants’ safety given the very high number of cases, to temporarily suspend congregational activities as soon as possible.

Many of London’s major mosques have already made the difficult decision to voluntarily suspend congregational activities, and urge their communities to stay at home in order to stay safe.

Outside London, while cases may not be as high, we must be ahead of the curve and anticipate the impact of hospitalisation and death that sadly will likely rapidly increase over the next few days and weeks. Unfortunately these already appear likely to be far worse than the first wave.

Although these are difficult decisions, we must remain steadfast in these dark days and be heartened by reminders in the Holy Quran, including that ‘…whoever saves a life, it will be as if they saved all of humanity‘ (5:32)”

ENDS

Latest COVID19 guidance for Muslim communities at: www.mcb.org.uk/coronavirus

Photo credit: EDDIE

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