Coordinating Human Development and Culture Minister Muhadjir Effendy said on Monday that based on the halal requirement, the Indonesian Ulema (MUI) had finished its study on the Sinovac vaccine and would issue a fatwa soon, antaranews.com reported.

Muhadjir, who is also a leading figure in the country's second-largest Islamic organization Muhammadiyah, called the global COVID-19 pandemic a life-threatening health crisis. Therefore, drugs or vaccines without halal certifications can be used to avoid deaths when halal vaccines or drugs have yet to be found.

He explained that according to fiqh (Islamic regulation), COVID-19 vaccines fell into the emergency category, meaning that all non-halal vaccines could be used in a crisis as it aimed to manage an emergency situation.

The halal status of potential COVID-19 vaccines has been a major concern for many. 

Vice President and senior Muslim cleric Ma’ruf Amin offered a similar statement in October, saying that the vaccine being prepared by the government did not have to be halal.

Vice presidential spokesperson Masduki Baidowi said Maruf’s statement came during a meeting with Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan about the progress of the vaccine being developed by Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac in partnership with state-owned pharmaceutical firm PT Bio Farma.

“The vice president explained an important thing: If the vaccine is halal, then that’s good, there’s no problem. But if it is not halal, that’s also not a problem,” Masduki said in a statement on Oct. 2.

“Because this is an emergency situation, it’s okay to use [a non-halal vaccine].”

Read also: First batch of COVID-19 vaccine lands in Indonesia

In October, Coordinating Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto, who also helms the national economic recovery and COVID-19 response team, ensured that the COVID-19 vaccine would have halal certification.

Airlangga explained that the government had consulted with the MUI to ensure the vaccine would receive a halal certification.

“[We have discussed it] with the MUI and insya Allah [God Willing] the vaccine will be halal,” he said.

In response to the issue, the government has cooperated with various Islamic organizations to support the upcoming nationwide COVID-19 vaccination program amid uncertainty over the vaccine's halal status.

A leading expert at the Executive Office of the President (KSP), Rumadi Ahmad, has urged Muslims not to get easily provoked by antivaccine movements claiming that the vaccine currently being developed is non-halal.

"Don't be easily provoked by such claims before related bodies have made official statements [on the vaccine's halal status]. The government has cooperated with various [Islamic] organizations to ensure there is enough information on COVID-19 vaccines," Rumadi said in a statement last month.

He explained that the vaccination program was in line with Islamic teachings, so it should be supported.

"Vaccination is an effort to prevent or even cure a disease [...] Prophet Muhammad said every ailment has its remedy, but we need to actively search for the cure; it will not come to us by itself," he said. (jes) 

 

Editor’s note: This article is part of a public campaign by the COVID-19 task force to raise people’s awareness about the pandemic.