Hudda Ibrahim

St. Cloud

Mosques and religious centers in Central Minnesota suspended their mass prayers, services, meetings and other weekend education classes in mosques until the risk of the coronavirus outbreak passes.

Friday congregational prayers normally attract hundreds of Muslim worshipers standing and sitting shoulder-to-shoulder while praying in a group. But the move to limit religious gatherings came on the heels of the governor’s declaration of a state of emergency where schools, sporting events, conferences and other meetings were cancelled until further notice.

Muslim religious scholars and imams interviewed mentioned they’d act to protect the public health of their congregants and prevent the spread of COVID-19. When called, Mohayadin Mohamed, president of the Islamic Center of St. Cloud, said in his statement that:

ICSC administration has thoughtfully evaluated the situation in our community and taken recommendations of the Minnesota Department of Health/CDC. ICSC strongly urge to take the following: Islamic Center of Saint Cloud suspends all Friday prayers, and regular prayers. ICSC also suspends all the educational classes and activities until ... further notice.

Amid the national and global paralyzing fear on the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, members of the Muslim community are getting ready to start fasting in the month of Ramadan between April 23 to May 23.

One of the apparent concerns we often hear are ways the coronavirus outbreak will be highly likely to impact Ramadan and the subsequent festive Muslim holiday that marks the end of the month-long known as Eid-ul-Fitr (possibly on May 24).

In Ramadan, Muslim followers fast during daylight hours, share a communal evening meal, Iftar, at the mosques and perform long congregational prayers known as a Tarawih at night. During the religious holiday, thousands of Muslims pray in a large group.

Because of this crippling fear, many Muslim congregants in our area are not really sure how long this pandemic is going to last, whether or not mosque administrators will possibly reassess Ramadan plans and other prayer gatherings.

When contacted over the phone, some of the local mosque imams stressed that they’d continually monitor the situation in the future, but they couldn’t rule out the possibility of Ramadan mosque closures. Even though this current pandemic spurred a frenzy within the faith communities for unprecedented measures, all imams pointed out they would follow prospective public health guidelines.

Mohayadin concludes that “we have to take preventive measures to help contain this situation.”

“If the virus persists, we’ll announce drastic measures in attempts to protect ourselves and our mosque attendees,” one local religious scholar said.

Like business and school closures, mosques and Islamic centers are no different to abide by and take heed of sanitation safety measures prescribed by the Minnesota Department of Health at https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/coronavirus/index.html (in English) and https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/coronavirus/materials/somali.html (in Somali).

Hudda Ibrahim is a local author, St. Cloud Technical and Community College instructor and business owner.