Pakistani cleric renounces support for polio immunisation

July 20th, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

“The moral behind imposing a ban on the vaccination is not about whether
it is unIslamic or not, but the moral comes from the case of Shakil Afridi,”
said Mr Haq in an interview with The Daily Telegraph.

“The people who are involved in this campaign, many agencies are
involved, and they are using it for their other causes.”

Pakistan
is one of three countries where the disease remains endemic. Only 22 cases
have been reported this year – compared with 59 in the same period in 2011 –
and hopes were high that the country could soon be declared polio free.

However, hard-line clerics have long opposed what they suspect is a Western
conspiracy against Muslims.

Their opposition meant health workers carefully cultivated moderate leaders,
who issued fatwas – or religious rulings – declaring vaccination to be in
line with Islamic teaching.

Mr Haq himself said he had convened multiple conferences with scholars to
examine the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed and consider the question.

“Islam teaches that if you see anything harmful in society you should
help eliminate it,” he concluded.

His is a powerful voice.

The alumni of his madrassah, Darul Uloom Haqqania, include Mullah Omar, the
head of the Afghan Taliban, and the leaders of the Haqqani network, a deadly
insurgent group fighting international forces in Afghanistan.

Today a new generation of hardliners is being educated at his headquarters in
Akora Khattak, just outside the north-western city of Peshawar.

But he explained that while immunisation might be permitted by Islam, it made
no sense for foreign agencies to try to keep children free from disease
while at the same time bombing Pakistan.

“If you people are that much curious about the health of people living
over there, it means that you are keeping these people alive just to kill
them by drones,” he said.

The result is a reminder that Pakistan’s government has little control over
its mountainous, tribal regions and that hundreds of thousands of children
have been made pawns in a bigger geopolitical game.

Last month, Taliban commanders distributed leaflets in North and South
Waziristan banning immunisation teams from visiting.

That leaves 350,000 children beyond the reach of a nationwide immunisation
campaign launched this week and at risk of catching polio.