Tuesday, December 23, 2003
Religion and AIDS
First it was the pope and his cronies who talked down the threat of AIDS, claimed that usage of condoms didn't make a difference and that abstinence was the best way to prevent AIDS from spreading. Then came some of the defenders of Indian virtue and culture in the national government. Now, it's the turn of some crazy mullah in Somalia, who has decided to outlaw the use of condoms by invoking sharia law. The punishment for selling condoms will include flogging, according to this report.
Sheikh Nur Barud, the chairman of the Ulema Council, told a public meeting that the use of condoms will increase adultery and those promoting its use deserve punishment. The council is responding to a United Nations-funded campaign to raise awareness about Aids being aired by a local radio station.
It's one thing for religious institutions and personalities to not understand the divide between church and state. It's another thing altogether to butt their noses into a public health disaster, the complexity of which they are completely ignorant of. And if they insist on intervening, I believe they should be held as accessories to genocide because that's truly what the AIDS epidemic is turning out to be.
Sheikh Nur Barud, the chairman of the Ulema Council, told a public meeting that the use of condoms will increase adultery and those promoting its use deserve punishment. The council is responding to a United Nations-funded campaign to raise awareness about Aids being aired by a local radio station.
It's one thing for religious institutions and personalities to not understand the divide between church and state. It's another thing altogether to butt their noses into a public health disaster, the complexity of which they are completely ignorant of. And if they insist on intervening, I believe they should be held as accessories to genocide because that's truly what the AIDS epidemic is turning out to be.
