Covid-19: Restrictions for Selangor mosques, surau to remain - sultan
Selangor ruler Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah has decreed that all religious activities in mosques and surau remain restricted to ensure the safety of all Muslims in the state due to the current Covid-19 situation.
The sultan expresses his disappointment over two issues following the dangerous spread of Covid-19 which has plagued the country since last year...
Selangor ruler Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah has decreed that all religious activities in mosques and surau remain restricted to ensure the safety of all Muslims in the state due to the current Covid-19 situation.
The sultan expresses his disappointment over two issues following the dangerous spread of Covid-19 which has plagued the country since last year.
“First, His Royal Highness is sad and disappointed that he is forced to decide to continue to limit the functions of mosques and surau in all of Selangor.
“Secondly, His Royal Highness is sad and disappointed when he sees the rise in deaths due to Covid-19 throughout all corners of Selangor,” read a statement issued by the Istana Alam Shah today.
Sultan Sharafuddin also stressed that mosques have never been closed in Selangor and that it is not an easy thing for him to decree restrictions on mosques for the attendance of its congregation for normal and Friday prayers.
The Istana Negara’s statement cited the example of loosening restrictions on mosques a few weeks before the Ramadan month, following which the infection continued to spread and caused several new mosque clusters in Selangor.
The ruler only made this decision after a careful and thorough review of detailed data on the spread of Covid-19 in Selangor, the statement read.
As of July 9, Selangor had recorded a cumulative total of 1,933 deaths, with 28 deaths on July 9 itself. The state also recorded 4,400 new cases on July 9, which accounted for more than half of the nation’s new cases that day.
“What worries His Royal Highness, even more, is that at the end of June 2021, data shows that deaths among Malays in Selangor reached 855 people, which was more than half of the total 1,571 deaths at that time.
“His Royal Highness himself can no longer bear to look at the heart-wrenching visuals showing the sadness of the next-of-kin because they could not visit (their relatives in) the hospital or send the deceased’s body to the cemetery.
“Because of this, until today, even though he is unwilling, His Royal Highness is still of the opinion that religious activities in mosques and surau must be restricted, specifically the congregational prayers, for the safety of all Muslims in Selangor whom the sultan cares about,” the statement read.
Sultan Sharafuddin stressed that the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic are different for every state and as such, rough comparisons cannot be made.
What more, he said, Selangor remains the state with the highest number of new cases and deaths since a few months ago.
“However, His Royal Highness decreed, if the number of new cases goes down and the percentage of those vaccinated compared to the population continues to rise, then insyaAllah, the mosques and surau will be reopened as usual.
“Until then, His Royal Highness would like all Muslims in Selangor to continue to fulfil their prayers at home and continue praying for this dangerous pandemic to be wiped out,” the statement read.
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