Al-Abbas Islamic Centre converted into a temporary vaccination centre in Birmingham, central England. [Darren Staples/AFP]
Award winning Huffington Post journalist Tasnim Nazeer says places of worship being converted into temporary clinics for the COVID-19 vaccination rollout was a calculated and intelligent move to get people on board and inoculated.
Nazeer was speaking to Radio Islam on Monday about vaccination centres that have been set up in pharmacies, cinemas, a London football ground and other places of worship among other venues.
The UK has won praise for its vaccination roll-out, having already administered a first dose to about 10 percent of the population, or more than 12 million people.
Nazeer says the decision to use different venues was to quell speculation about the Coronavirus vaccine.
“There’s been a lot of speculations about the vaccine within the Muslim community. I’ve been investigating this issue myself and have found that there’s various targeted campaigns specifically targeting the Muslim community not to get the vaccine which is very disturbing and worrying.”
Nazeer says the masaajid are educating the Muslim community about preserving human life.
“So what mosques are trying to do, are trying to really inculcate the Islamic etiquette of caring about other people as well as yourself and taking that responsibility to get protected from this pandemic.”
Nazeer whose husband is also a doctor and taken the vaccine says there has been a good response from the Muslim community in being inoculated with the COVID-19 vaccine.
“More of our community and the Muslim ummah are actually coming out to take the vaccine. Many of them are aware of the misconception, but there are a minority of the community that are sceptical whether the vaccine is for example halaal. There’s also rumours that the vaccine can cause infertility which has stopped many young couples from actually taking the vaccine. All of these are just myths, completely untrue.”
Nazeer says some of the people she spoke to during her investigation said that while they were initially reluctant to take the vaccine, there was a lot of persuasion from the masaajid, Imams and Muslim community leaders to take the vaccine assuring them that it was completely safe.
Listen to the interview with Tasnim Nazeer
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