OWN CORRESPONDENTS, Johannesburg | Tuesday
RELIGIOUS groups in Nigeria and Zambia have blasted the spread of anti-Aids messages on the continent, saying a seminar on HIV/Aids and a safe sex campaign would encourage promiscuity and moral decay.
The council of Islamic clergy in Kano in northern Nigeria urged Muslims to boycott a US-backed seminar on HIV/Aids, which is being jointly organised by the US Agency for International Development and Johns Hopkins University.
The chairman of the Kano State Islamic Council of Ulama, Ibrahim Umar Kabo, Monday said the seminar would encourage sexual promiscuity and thus violate Islamic law, known as the Sharia.
”We are disturbed over the social consequences this seminar will bring. We are aware of similar seminars held in Kenya, Uganda and Senegal which resulted in high increase in promiscuity,” Kabo said.
”We totally condemn the seminar and call on all Muslims not to attend it because it is against the Sharia. We will not allow the West to use the Aids issue as a gimmick to spread immorality in our society,” he went on.
In Lusaka, church groups slammed a hard-hitting government safe sex advertising campaign urging Zambians to use condoms. The campaign aims to curb the spread of the disease, which infects one in five Zambians.
The advertising campaign drew opposition from the Catholic Church, which holds considerable influence over the daily lives of millions of Zambian Christians.
”The adverts are offensive and in bad taste. They suggest to children and the youth that sex is something nice to have, provided it is done with a condom,” said a spokesman at the Catholic secretariat. ”They encourage promiscuity, moral decay.”
Zambian Health Minister Enock Kavindele said the government was dealing with a grave situation that required shock therapy.
”I have told religious leaders that the prospect of preaching to empty churches are very high if we do not deal with Aids firmly. The adverts might be offensive, but we must face reality,” said Kavindele.
Health education programmes across large swathes of Africa designed to prevent the spread of HIV are often undermined by lack of funding or less than enthusiastic government backing.
The prevalance rates in Uganda and Senegal have fallen sharply in recent years after major government-backed awareness campaigns. – AFP/Reuters