There is devilishness in the coronavirus. This is obvious, at least for religious fundamentalists under all skies. From the United States to Pakistan, from Sri Lanka to Israel via India and Brazil - the list is far from exhaustive - containment measures to fight the Covid-19 virus often meet with intransigence (or misunderstanding) of certain Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist etc. leaders
Vade retro coronavirus! The Brazilian Edir Macedo Bezerra, founder of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, a powerful evangelical organization, attributes the pandemic to an alliance between "Satan, the media and economic interests". His colleague Silas Malafaia, leader of the Association of God Victory in Christ - also an evangelist and a great friend of President Jair Bolsonaro - said during one of his sermons before a crowd of faithful in Rio: “We believe in power of prayer. It is our weapon ”. In the meantime, he had equipped his temple with a machine supposed to purify the air of the coronavirus ... No question for these evangelical leaders to close their places of worship. Supported by President Bolsonaro, they are nevertheless more and more confronted in this federal country with the governors of the States.
Churches and synagogues, essential activities in Florida
In Florida, pastor Rodney Howard-Browne, a big supporter of Donald Trump, was briefly arrested a week ago because he also refused to close the doors to the faithful of his mega-church. Republican Governor of Florida Ron Desantis has come to his rescue by including churches and synagogues among the "essential activities" that may remain open during the epidemic ...
"Some evangelical leaders, particularly the Pentecostals and the neocharismatics, claim that the coronavirus is a judgment of God against immorality, gay marriage or abortion. Others claim that it is the devil who sends the pandemic to thwart God's plans, "says Canadian academic André Gagné. For this specialist of religious fundamentalists in North America, “the churches of the evangelical and Pentecostal current operate like businesses which need to continue their activity to assure their resources. But they are also based on an ideology, based on a wrong interpretation of the Bible, according to which believers are protected by God. "
In the United States, a dozen states led by conservatives still authorize religious gatherings. According to the CNBC channel, there are among them at least 11 of the 15 states with the highest rate of people at risk (Editor's note: over 65 or having medical problems) . In particular Florida where there are many retirees.
100,000 faithful gathered in Pakistan
In Israel, the ultra-Orthodox first opposed the containment measures decided by the government of Benjamin Netanyahu. Refusing to listen to radio and television, many were simply unaware of the presence of the virus, much less of its dangerousness. "They mostly turned against the government," says an Israeli official. It was more a political and sociological question than a religious one because one of the principles of Judaism is that when a religious practice endangers lives it must be suspended. After ten days they understood and closed the synagogues but it was too late, the virus had already spread. The authorities had to seal off the ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak, on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, where the number of sick people is soaring.
Same resistance to confinement in India on the part of some Buddhists. Among them, the fundamentalists of All India Hindu Mahasabha think they have found the miracle cure. "Anyone who drinks cow urine (note: sacred animal for Indians) will be treated and protected," said one of his devotees. Their leader, Chakrapani Maharaj, offered a glass of urine to a demonic representation of the virus in order to "soothe" it ... In Colombo, Sri Lanka, a Buddhist temple tested another method by spraying the city with water blessed from helicopters. The results are not yet known.
Authorities in Muslim countries are also trying to impose protective measures. But Pakistan could not prevent recently near Lahore a large gathering of 100,000 faithful (Editor's note: from 70 countries) of the tablighi movement. The virus has obviously spread like wildfire and the police are now trying to find the contaminated pilgrims ... Furious, the Pakistani Minister of Health denounced "the stubbornness of the clergy", in particular tablighi.
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Conversely, Senegalese President Macky Sall and King Mohamed VI of Morocco were able to convince upstream the leaders of the powerful Muslim brotherhoods in their countries of the need to temporarily close the mosques. The gendarmerie was nevertheless dispatched to Touba, the holy city of the Mourides, to dissuade the faithful from coming on pilgrimage. But the message eventually got through. "Allah is in all our homes," even said an imam to justify prayer at home.
Very advanced in the fight against the pandemic, the Senegalese Minister of Health, Abdulaye Diouf Sarr did not hesitate, a month ago, to threaten to bring to justice the preachers who then ventured to encourage the faithful to come Whatever the cost, praying in the mosque to protect oneself from the virus presented as "a punishment from God". The threat has proven to be effective.
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