JAKARTA (AlArabiya.net, Agencies)
Indonesia's top Muslim body called on Saudi Arabia Monday to drop a mandatory meningitis vaccination for Hajj pilgrims on the basis that the injection contains an enzyme from pigs, an animal considered impure in Islam.
"We sent a letter to the Saudi government over the required meningitis vaccination for the pilgrims following our findings that it contains a pig substance," said the head of the Indonesian Council of Ulema Ma'ruf Amin.
Amin said the vaccine manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline had confirmed that a pig enzyme was used in the early stages of production of the vaccine, but was not in the final product.
" As the hajj pilgrimage is a religious obligation, we have asked the Saudi authorities not to insist on the meningitis vaccination requirement " Maruf Amin, head of Indonesian Council of Ulema "The manufacturing company said that using a porcine enzyme in the initial process of its production is unavoidable," he said.
"As the hajj pilgrimage is a religious obligation, we have asked the Saudi authorities not to insist on the meningitis vaccination requirement," Amin said, adding that if necessary, an alternative should be found.
According to an official at Indonesia's religious affairs ministry, Saudi Arabia has required pilgrims to have a meningitis vaccination for 10 years now, following an outbreak that originated with African pilgrims.
In 2006, the Britain-based Medical News Today magazine said meningitis outbreaks during the Muslim pilgrimage were serious.
"As a result of an outbreak of Meningococcal infection during Hajj there has been a tragic loss of over 20 innocent human lives amongst British Hajj pilgrims," the magazine quoted doctors as saying. "Meningitis is a real and very serious risk for Hajj pilgrims. They may also bring the meningitis germs back to their families, friends and community.”
The presence of pork substance in the vaccination is especially of concern when put in relation to the holy pilgrimage of Hajj as it requires Muslims to be in a state of “ihram,” or purity.
With nearly 90 percent of Indonesia's 234 million people Muslim, most of whom practice a moderate version of the religion, and the consumption of pork being off-limits by Islam, the matter is of upmost importance. |
