Confronting a silent crisis

The country’s Muslim leaders resolved two years ago to make HIV issues a religious agenda amid global strides in getting to zero new infections. But Qadria Muslim Association of Malawi (QMAM) is confronting a contentious information gap that most opinion leaders do not know or have ignored. It involves widespread opposition to HIV messages and condom use creating a fatal rift among the faithful. JAMES CHAVULA writes.

On March 12 2011, leaders of Muslim associations in the country met in Lilongwe to brainstorm on family planning, HIV and Aids and Islam. Among the landmark resolutions, the sheikhs, imams and muftis arrived at the certainty that although Islam views the pandemic as a punishment, it recognises the significance of protecting the health of men and women, children, the entire community and nations.

The landmark meeting might have permitted the dissemination of correct HIV messages and lifted the lid on taboos surrounding condom use, but myths and resistance remain deep-rooted because information is scanty in communities where the majority of Malawians live.

For sheikh Abdul Hamid Shaibu of Chibwana Liwonde Village in Machinga, it is not easy to talk about the pandemic during religious gatherings because many still consider it a worldly thing—strictly a job for health workers and non-governmental organisations.

For about 10 years, Shaibu has visited several mosques in his locality and beyond. However, he says his travels usually transport him into silent opposition to a national consensus that religious leaders of all manner must take the leading role in preventing new infections, stigma and Aids-related deaths.

“Religious leaders ought to harness their sway and teachings to influence behavioural change, but experience has shown that the faithful will walk out of the mosque, start dozing and stop paying attention as soon as we start talking about HIV and Aids,” laments the sheikh.

This may not be strange in a country where issues related to sex are overshadowed by secrecy, often brushed off as bedroom matters. However, Shaibu reckons that religious leaders should learn from their traditional counterparts by promoting dialogue on HIV issues because the pandemic has spared no society or religion.

While agreeing that no part of the Islamic faith has been spared by the virus which causes Aids, Mufti Jafali Salimu of Liwonde insisted it can be freely discussed in mosques to uphold teachings of the Quran, the religion’s holy book, which requires Muslims to keep away from sexual immorality.

“Working together with traditional leaders to spread the message about HIV and Aids would help save lives as well as advance Islamic teachings which make promiscuity punishable right here on earth,” he said.

When asked how best to approach prevention measures, the custodian of Islamic doctrine affirmed the National Aids Policy’s call to abstinence and faithfulness.

This approach leaves out regular and effective use of condoms which forms a key part of the ABC approach spelled out in the national policy as well as the HIV prevention strategy. In fact, Salimu likened condom use to “killing a baby or dumping it in a pit latrine.”

The catastrophe of terming HIV and Aids as a punishment is that it increases stigma at a time figures from the National Aids Commission (NAC) confirm that unprotected sexual encounters account for over nine in every 10 new infections.

However, it mirrors a widespread feeling in the Eastern Region district of Machinga which is considered a stronghold of Islam.

To most people, condoms, like abortion, are akin to murder. In their words, visualisations of the judgement day raptures with wrath: The dead rising, standing before their killers and asking: “Why did you kill us?”

Similar reasoning is common among Christian denominations which outlaw condom use for family planning and prevention of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.

Yet the yawning gaps and myths signal a call to action for religious leaders, faith-based organisations and non-governmental organisations. With such religious elders as muftis in the dark at a time the world is vying for no more infections, stigma and Aids-related deaths, the actors face the race against time to translate the Lilongwe Resolution into action.

Among other things, the resolutions endorsed by the Qadria Muslim Association of Malawi (QMAM) and Muslim Association of Malawi (MAM) do not just recognise the significance of religious and community leaders working together with organisations “towards the betterment of humanity.”

It also permits the use of condoms for family planning and medical reasons only in marriage; HIV testing, accurate information and access to treatment.

It reads: “Islam encourages both men and women to play an active role in issues of prevention, care and support and mitigation in cases of pandemics, including HIV and Aids.”

Signatories to the resolutions include Ulama Council of Malawi’s Mufti Abbas Qassam, QMAM chair Alhajji Alidi Likonde and Mufti Abdul Majid as well as MAM chairperson Yusuf Muhammad Kanyamula on March 12.

QMAM development programme manager Ousmane Chunga said there is need to close the gap to save the lives of people contracting HIV due to rampant ignorance of the determination Islamic leaders and scholars made at the high-level conference.

Since 2009, NAC has been working with the Islamic grouping to sensitise village heads, religious leaders, the brains behind initiation rites and other people in 11 districts how to tackle harmful tendencies that fuel the spread of HIV.

“There was no HIV and Aids at the onset of Islam, but it is a reality that it affects all levels of our society, including religious leaders and the congregants. This compelled religious leaders to search for more knowledge and they discovered that in the beginning, our Muslims were relying on withdrawal method which more or less like condom use in marriage,” said Chunga.

He reckoned that chiefs and other agents need religious evidence and supporting documents to successfully influence the desired change of mindset.

During recent training workshops in Liwonde and Ntaja, this perspective was perfectly reflected by village heads Mtila and Magaluka: It is time scholars and leaders opened up on life-saving teachings of Islam and national phenomena, including HIV and Aids.

Group Village Magaluka argued: “Like condoms, HIV and Aids might be a contentious issue in Islam, Christianity and other religions, but there is need to encourage debate and sensitisation to ensure people make informed decisions.”

And wondered Mtila: “If you are living with the virus and end up infecting your partner, are you not killing?”

To them, knowledge is nothing if those in the know will not help people who don’t know to see the writing on the wall—Aids is real not only because one in 10 Malawians is infected but everybody is affected.