Even as multiple courts across India are acquitting and quashing cases against them, after they were systematically demonised and falsely branded as spreaders of COVID-19, Tablighi Jamaat continues to be targeted.
In the latest attempt to tarnish the image of Tablighi Jamaat, the authors and publishers of a prominent medical reference book published earlier this year, have blamed the members of the Jamaat for the spread of COVID-19 in India, despite the Bombay High Court slamming the media propaganda against them.
“Subsequent to the Tablighi Jamaat (TJ) a religious congregation that took place in Delhi’s Nizamuddin Markaz Mosque in early March 2020, there was an explosive outbreak of COVID-19 occurred with > 4000 cases,” the authors of the book ‘Essentials of Medical Microbiology’ have alleged. The authors also blamed the rise of COVID cases in Maharashtra on “TJ clusters”. This is the reference book for the second year of the MBBS course.
Authors Apologise
Soon after screenshots of the book were widely shared on social media, and after the Students Islamic Organisation of India (SIO) highlighted the misrepresentation of the events in the authors of the book have apologised and assured changes in the reprint of their book.
In a statement, SIO said that their representatives spoke with Jaypee Publications, demanding the removal of the content. Following this, Dr Apurba Sastry and Dr Sandhya Bhat, the authors wrote a clarification.
SIO’s Secretary Raafid Shahab and Joint Secretary Musaddiq Ul Moid said the book’s suggestions that the Tablighi Jamaat cluster was an important causative factor for the spread of the Covid-19 scourge was ‘fake’ as “there has been no epidemiological study that corroborates such claim”. They also noted that there were many large socio-political events and gatherings at the said time period in India. But the Tablighi Jamaat was vilified and demonized by various media outlets and groups.
They further observed that this claim was published “despite several local, high court and Supreme Court judgements which have categorically ruled out the role of Tablighis in the spread of Covid-19 in the country last year.”
In August last year, in a scathing rebuke of media, government and the police, the Bombay High Court had slammed propaganda against them, calling it as ‘persecution’. The court also came down heavily against the government for making the Tablighi Jamaat attendees a scapegoat to serve their political interests. “A political government tries to find the scapegoat when there is a pandemic or calamity and the circumstances show that there is a probability that these foreigners were chosen to make them scapegoats…”
The third edition of the book contains a chapter about how COVID-19 spread in India wherein the authors state that the TJ cluster was an important causative factor for the spread of COVID-19.
“The publishers and authors are responsible for their action. They should do their work with honesty and research. We should also think about how easily fake news can brainwash our society,” Raafid said.
However, one doctor, who had highlighted the issue on social media says the apology is not enough, as the authors continue to hold the position that what they have written is an “epidemiological fact but since it hurt sentiments they will remove it from re-prints”.
“The book mentioned update as on Aug 2020 and hence I would have given benefit of doubt since then the cases against Tablighi Jamaat were subjudice. But it is rubbing salt on the wound by the authors to hold that position in March 2021 when the Courts have not just acquitted all the accused but even remarked that they were made a scapegoat by the Govt,” Dr Aqsa Shaikh, Associate Professor of Community Medicine at Hamdard Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, wrote on her Facebook page.
“Promising that the reprints will delete the mention of Tablighi Jamaat is not sufficient. Till that happens the misinformation will keep circulating. The publisher has not even cared to respond. Why should the Publisher and Author be not sued? Why should they not issue an apology to Tablighi Jamaat? Why should they not accept that indeed Tablighi Jamaat didn’t spread the disease?”
