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Hind Al Soulia – Riyadh – Iraqi populist cleric Muqtada Al Sadr said on Wednesday that his supporters must kneel and cry between carrying out “special prayers” on Friday to beg for God’s help in combating the coronavirus crisis.
The country, which suffers from a poor healthcare system, recorded a total of 1,202 confirmed cases on Wednesday and 69 deaths. Most are linked to neighbouring Iran, where the outbreak has killed nearly 4,000 people and infected more than 64,000.
“I will be holding a special prayer on Friday that will curb the pandemic,” the cleric said on Twitter.
Mr Al Sadr advised his followers to cry and remain prostrate on the ground for half an hour whilst asking God to annihilate the virus.
“This must be done after Friday prayers but before the afternoon prayers,” he said.
The cleric, who is an influential figure in Iraq’s political and social spheres, blamed the pandemic on the legalisation of same-sex marriage in a tweet last month.
Mr Al Sadr said the pandemic would not stop unless governments revoked laws legalising the unions.
Iraq’s response to the pandemic has been undermined by power struggles among the ruling Shiite elites to nominate a new prime minister after the resignation of Adel Abdul Mahdi last November.
Open borders with Iran, which supports armed Shiite militias in Iraq and across the region, has also limited the chances of overcoming the crisis.
Iraq is a transit hub for Iranian support to the Syrian regime.
There is also major concern that Iraq, shattered by decades of war and sanctions, cannot respond to a large number of cases.
The world Health Organisation said that Iraq’s medical infrastructure had “some significant gaps” that it was working to address.
There are also more than four million people, almost half of them children, in need of humanitarian assistance in Iraq.
Fear and lack of knowledge managing infected dead bodies is also a rising concern for authorities.
The health ministry said it would follow guidelines set out by the WHO, which says “safe burials are guaranteed in any cemetery as long as the precautions are taken.”
Last month, authorities introduced a curfew and restrictions on travel as part of measures to contain the infections.
But officials have raised concerns that the public is not abiding by these measures.
Mr Al Sadr urged his supporters to follow government guidelines, reversing earlier statements that encouraged his Shiite followers to mix and come together to mark religious occasions.
Updated: April 8, 2020 07:17 PM
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