In 2007 Parents of some 24,000 children in Pakistan refused to give their children the polio vaccine because of a campaign by radical Muslim clergy.
Also in 2007, a Pakistani health official in charge of the campaign to inoculate children against polio was killed in a bomb blast, following rumors the vaccination was a US plot to sterilize them.(AFP/File/Ali Arif)
Thanks to regional paranoia to vaccinations, each year 400,000 new cases of TB are reported in Pakistan.
Now this…
A Muslim cleric in Punjab Province launched a jihad against polio vaccinations.
IBN Live reported, via ROP:
A cleric in Pakistan’s Punjab province has warned that a jihad would be launched against polio vaccination teams at a time when the World Health Organisation has expressed concern at the emergence of new cases of the disease across the country.
Maulvi Ibrahim Chisti of Muzaffargarh district declared the anti-polio campaign as “un-Islamic” and announced at the local mosque that jihad(holy war) should be carried out against the polio vaccination team.
Chisti made the remarks after finding out that a vaccination team had entered Khan Pur Bagga Sher area of Muzaffargarh and asked families to cooperate with the campaign.
It should be noted – clerics broadcast the polio vaccine rumors from loud speakers at the local mosques in Pakistan.