On March 19, 2020, the ‘Islamic State’ (IS) had a lot to say in the opening editorial of its newsletter, El Naba’, on what it makes of the coronavirus. In a nutshell, IS made it very clear that the highest form of godly protection that the believers can acquire against the coronavirus is to fight the crusaders and unbelievers. IS pressed its followers that in striking during this season of a pandemic outbreak they must “have no pity for the disbelievers and the apostates even as they are at the height of their tribulation, and they must intensify the pressure on them so they become more reassured and incapable of harming the Muslims by the permission of God the Lord of the Worlds.”
In another editorial, IS dictates that all measures be taken to protect against infestation but yet it also claims that the ultimate immunity against the disease is achieved through a jihadist struggle against the disbelievers. Herein lies the paradox, for if its adherents die of coronavirus, they won’t be able to claim martyrdom for God because they were supposed to have been protected against the disease which according to IS is largely inflicted by God on the disbelievers.
The fact of the matter is that the contingencies of the coronavirus may dictate what happens to IS more than its leaders and followers can envisage or imagine. This is not a negation of IS’ intent on killing. On the 25 March, IS claimed responsibility for the bomb that killed at least 25 members of the Sikh-Hindu community in Kabul, Afghanistan. However, IS may be at the mercy of the coronavirus in unexpected ways: pandemics have a logic of their own.
The narrative of the coronavirus primarily striking the religious “other” is not specific to IS, many religious leaders and people across the world and faiths are claiming the same kind of religious immunity from the disease, one that will strike others but not themselves. But what happens when the coronavirus strikes at these followers in large numbers? What happens to the sectarian discourse of us vs. them when the reality bites back – and collaboration with those who do not share the same religion is absolutely essential for survival? Any group that claims to be the ultimate guardian of a faith and claims any kind of religious exclusivity or supremacy, or promises immunity against the coronavirus for its adherents, is at risk of losing to the pandemic. If the faithful are encouraged to continue in the exercise of acts of collective religious piety to protect against the disease, these gatherings can become the very medium through which the coronavirus is spread. Will this delegitimize the authority and power of the religious supremacists and exclusivists?
Amir A. Afkhami, associate professor of psychiatry, global health, and history at George Washington University, notes that in 1904 Iran suffered from a cholera pandemic that saw many deaths. There was a need to restrict religious pilgrimages in order to limit the spread of the disease, but the grand ayatollah refused, claiming that any such restrictions represent a conspiracy by the ‘western infidels’ against the faithful. The regime in place conceded. The end outcome when the faithful died in large numbers, was a popular uprising that introduced a parliamentary system that did not exist before. Afkhami warns that “Unless Iran’s leaders rapidly adopt a more transparent and robust approach to stopping the contagion, the full arc of history is likely to repeat itself, as a growing corona, virus outbreak will irreversibly erode the legitimacy of clerical rule.”
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Mariz Tadros | Radio Free (2020-03-31T00:00:00+00:00) Sectarianism will not defeat coronavirus: no one is immune. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2020/03/31/sectarianism-will-not-defeat-coronavirus-no-one-is-immune/
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