-says pandemic kills 700,000 Muslims in History

By Ibrahim Hassan

Sheikh Sidi Zakariya,an Islamic cleric has justified the closure of mosques as part of measures to curb the spread of covid-19,saying a similar incidence happened in Islamic history when about 700,000 faithful died from an epidemic.

The cleric was part of the meeting in Abuja with the authorities before it was officially announced that Muslim places of worship be closed for a while.

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According to him in an interview with the VOA Hausa service, such order to pray at home due to the pandemic,was acceptable because it wasn’t new in Islam.

” There was an epidemic in the Islamic era,in fact Muslim faithful were ordered to vacate their abodes and relocate to to the mountain  top.Before then,over 700,000 had died from the epidemic.So it’s not something new,” he said.She