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View all search resultsSilent fortress puts religious teachings to test
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F
ewer activities at a neighborhood mosque over the past three months have not only further signified the urgency to fight the COVID-19 outbreak but have also highlighted different perspectives on how Muslims should approach religious teachings.
Calls to prayer are amplified through loudspeakers but people are not heading to the mosque in droves.
The mosque remains open but a meager number of congregants pray inside, lining up around half a meter apart from each other and some wearing masks. Prayer rugs are piled up in a corner behind them.
“We still allow people to pray but we do not hold mass gatherings, as instructed,” mosque head Sofwan told The Jakarta Post.
“When the municipal administration issued a decree against holding congregational prayers in mosques and the Indonesian Ulema Council supported it with a fatwa, we discussed the matter and consulted the religious elders in the district before deciding to impose a lockdown,” he said.
The ban has also forced the mosque management to either cancel or adjust other religious activities.
“We canceled a number of activities but some were held online,” Sofwan said.
