Thousands from Muslim group ignore risk to gather in Indonesia

JAKARTA/KUALA LUMPUR • Thousands of Muslims from the Tabligh missionary group from across Asia have gathered in Indonesia despite fears that their meeting could fuel the spread of the coronavirus, just over two weeks after a similar event in Malaysia saw more than 500 infections.

Organisers and regional officials said the event in the world's fourth most populous nation had begun, although the regional police chief said he was making a last-ditch effort to persuade organisers to call it off.

"We are more afraid of God," one of the organisers Mustari Bahranuddin told Reuters yesterday, when asked about the risk of participants spreading the virus at the event in Gowa, in South Sulawesi.

"Because everyone is human, we fear illnesses, death," he said.

"But there is something more to the body, which is our soul."

Organisers had rejected a formal request from the authorities to postpone the gathering, said regional official Arifuddin Saeni.

He estimated that 8,695 people had already assembled in Gowa, near the provincial city of Makassar, adding that the numbers would make it hard to put a halt to the proceedings.

"They are still coming," he said. "There are people from Thailand, Arabia, India and the Philippines."

The Malaysian event, held from Feb 27 to March 1, drew 16,000 followers.

Both gatherings in Indonesia and Malaysia were organised by members of Tabligh, formally known as Tablighi Jama'at, a global movement of Muslims that promotes proselytising known as dakwah.

About two-thirds of Malaysia's 790 infections announced yesterday have been traced to the meeting at the Masjid Jamek Sri Petaling complex on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur.

Brunei has confirmed 50 infections linked to that meeting. Cambodia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam have also said their citizens were infected there.

On Tuesday, Malaysia announced its first two deaths from the coronavirus, including a 34-year-old man who attended the Kuala Lumpur meeting.

Organisers in Indonesia were checking the pilgrims' temperatures as a precaution, Mr Bahra-nuddin said.

Mr Saeni said health officials had visited the site and asked to monitor participants.

Yesterday, Indonesia's tally of infections stood at 227, with 19 deaths.

The nation of 260 million had run just 1,255 tests by Tuesday.

By contrast, South Korea, whose population is a fifth of Indonesia's, is doing over 15,000 tests a day.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) called for aggressive action in South-east Asia, warning on Tuesday that some countries were heading towards community transmission of the deadly disease.

"We need to immediately scale up all efforts to prevent the virus from infecting more people," said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, WHO's regional director. "More clusters of virus transmission are being confirmed... it... puts the spotlight on the need for more aggressive and whole of society efforts to prevent further spread of Covid-19," she said.

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE