The chief of Tablighi Jamaat, Maulana Saad, on Thursday morning, in an audio message, appealed to his followers to follow the guidelines set by the government to fight Coronavirus, stay at home, avoid crowds, follow lockdown rules and listen to doctors’ advice.

In his audio message, the Maulana has said that he was presently in self-imposed quarantine. The Jamaat chief had gone underground since last three days. I thank him for his appeal. He should however appeal to his followers to inform authorities about their whereabouts, get their health screened and refrain from misbehaving with doctors and nurses.

There have been reports of stone pelting at doctors, nurses and policemen in Ahmedabad, Indore and Bihar, when they had gone there to trace the persons whom the Tablighi followers had contacted. This is condemnable and the Jamaat chief should appeal to people to practise restraint.

On the Coronavirus front, the worst fear was proved right on Thursday. Pandemic updates in India shot up steeply, nullifying the gains that were recorded during the nationwide lockdown. The government wanted to break the virus chain, but with 6,000 Tablighi Jamaat followers spreading across India, the pandemic has now struck more people. In Tamil Nadu alone, all the 110 cases reported on Thursday related to Jamaat followers.

Hundreds of Tablighi followers are presently hiding inside mosques in Delhi and other states. Tablighi Jamaat followers who were taken into quarantine in Delhi, started spitting on hospital floors and nursing staff and misbehaved with doctors.

All in all, a sorry state of affairs. Several leading Muslim citizens rang me up on Thursday to convince me that the Tablighi Jamaat was completely apolitical, and its only work was to propagate Islam. They said, Jamaat followers are not bad and they always steer away from politics and protests.

I told them, propagating Islam was alright, but putting the lives of thousands of people at risk was unpardonable. After all, people from Muslim community will suffer from this deadly disease, because these Jamaat followers mostly mix with Muslims. Their chief Maulana Saad lied several times and openly defied guidelines for social distancing. They misled the government by obtaining tourist visas for foreigners, whereas they had come to India as missionaries.

I told the Muslim citizens the advice that Maulana Saad had given to his followers. He had told them not to follow doctors’ advice. God forbid, if somebody is struck with cancer or a heart attack, will the patient be taken to a mosque or a hospital? A hospital is a place for treating patients and a mosque is the place to pray for the patient.

My Muslim friends agreed that the Maulana and his followers have greatly embarrassed the community as a whole, at a time when Muslims and Hindus were jointly enforcing the lockdown heeding to the call of our Prime Minister.

The Maulana and his followers must realize that they have deliberately foiled the well-laid out government plan of 21 days’ lockdown by spreading the virus. The sooner the Maulana comes out of hiding and cooperates with the government, the better it will be. The Muslim community, as a whole, will heave a sigh of relief, because the entire community is being blamed for the mistakes of a few.

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