Muslims worldwide began Ramzan on Friday with dawn-to-dusk fasting, but many will have to forgo the communal prayers and family gatherings that make the holy month special, as authorities maintain lockdowns aimed at slowing the coronavirus pandemic.
“This is too sad to be remembered in history,” said Belm Febriansyah, a resident in the capital of Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation.
Jakarta is the epicentre of the outbreak in the country, which has reported more than 8,200 infections and 689 deaths. Passenger flights and rail services have been suspended, and private cars are banned from leaving the city.
Mosques in Indonesia’s deeply conservative Aceh province were packed, however, after its top clerical body ruled that it is not a “red zone” area and that prayers could continue. The province is governed by Islamic law under an autonomy agreement.
Muslim-majority countries began imposing widespread restrictions in mid-March, with many cancelling Friday prayers and shuttering holy sites. Saudi Arabia has largely locked down Mecca and Medina and halted the year-round umrah pilgrimage.
Muslim-majority Malaysia extended its own lockdown by two more weeks to May 12, although its daily virus cases have dropped significantly in the past week. The country now has 5,603 cases, including 95 deaths.
Malaysia, along with neighbouring Singapore and Brunei, has banned popular Ramzan bazaars, where food, drinks and clothing are sold in congested open-air markets or roadside stalls. The bazaars are a key source of income for many small traders, some of whom have shifted their businesses online.
In Pakistan, Prime Minister Imran Khan has bowed to pressure from the country’s powerful clerical establishment and allowed mosques to remain open, even as the number of new cases has recently doubled to between 600 and 700 every day.
Some clerics have ordered their followers to pack into mosques, saying their faith will protect them.
In Turkey, where cases have recently crossed 100,000, authorities have banned the tradition of setting up tents and outdoor tables to provide free meals to the poor.
Countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Libya, Tunisia and Algeria have partially eased the lockdown but Morocco has announced a night-time curfew for Ramzan as it steps up emergency measures to combat the virus.
The North African nation’s Council of Oulemas, the official religious body, called for confinement to be respected during Ramzan.
In Bangladesh, the fundamentalist Hefazat-e-Islam group criticised government moves to restrict access to more than 300,000 nationwide mosques and to ban iftar parties. “Quotas on prayer attendance are against Islam,” Mojibur Rahman Hamidi, a Hefazat official, said.
