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Nigerian Muslims Refusing Polio Drops for their Children
An emergency drive to vaccinate Nigerians against polio as a spreading outbreak threatens worldwide efforts to eradicate the disease faces suspicions among Muslim fundamentalists.Muslim fundamentalists, again. Three predominantly Muslim states in northern Nigeria â Kano, Kaduna and Zamfara â have either delayed or refused permission for the vaccination drive, with Zamfara demanding proof the vaccine is safe, something U.N. officials say has been repeatedly supplied. "The Western world has never wished Muslims well," said Yakubu Husseini, a 20-year-old teacher coming out of Friday prayers in Kano. "Why should they expect us to believe that vaccines they make these days are not another frontier to wage war against Muslims?" Notice the occupation of the wacko muslimâa teacher. What do you think heâs teaching his students? International immunization campaigns have slashed the number of countries where poliovirus is still breeding to seven â Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Afghanistan, Niger and Somalia. Ninety-nine percent of all new polio cases in the world are in Nigeria, Pakistan and India. What do those seven countries have in common? Poverty? Rivers and heat? Sure, something else as well: they all have large muslim populations. Nigerian Muslims have become increasingly suspicious of vaccine initiatives since 1996, when families in Kano accused New York-based Pfizer Inc. of using an experimental meningitis drug on patients without fully informing them of the risks. Note to Pfizer: donât ever give them another life-saving medicine. You save their children, they seek to destroy you. "Allah knows better than all Western powers combined," said Yau Kabir, a 26-year-old Muslim theology student. "He has guided the Muslim community since the time of old. This he did without immunization. We do not need it." "Ignorance now, igonorance ever, ignorance forever."
Posted by: Sorge 2003-10-25 |
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