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HEALTH-AFRICA: Thou Shalt Not Condomise

Moyiga Nduru

JOHANNESBURG, Mar 31 2005 (IPS) - Muslims and Catholics do not see eye-to-eye on many issues. But when it comes to practices which they fear will allow the encroachment of unacceptable secular values – abortion, gay marriage and condom use – they quickly close ranks to form a united front against the threat.

This explains why South Africa’s Religious Leaders’ Forum, which includes members of the Catholic, Muslim and Hindu faiths, has disagreed with Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on the need to use condoms in fighting AIDS.

During a meeting held earlier this year in the commercial hub of Johannesburg, forum leader Ashwin Trikamjee said that for moral and religious reasons, the body placed “a greater emphasis on faithfulness and abstinence as opposed to the use of condoms”.

In an interview with IPS, Ahmad Kathrada of the Jamiatul Ulama – an Islamic group based in the coastal city of Durban – said his organisation had education initiatives to promote these two behaviours, and that there were no circumstances under which Muslims were allowed to use condoms.

“It is against the teachings of Islam (on) illicit relationships and fornication,” Kathrada noted.

These words were echoed by Ali Abdel-Nour, who teaches Somali refugee children in Johannesburg about Islam.

“Young people find it hard to adhere to the principles of abstinence and faithfulness. This is why young Muslims are encouraged to marry early to avoid indulging in illegal sexual habits,” he said.

Repeated efforts by IPS to get comment from the Catholic Church about its stance on condoms were unsuccessful.

However, Cardinal Wilfred Napier of the Southern African Catholic Bishop’s Conference is said to voiced fears that condoms were not an effective AIDS deterrent, during the February meeting of the Religious Leaders’ Forum.

In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation last year, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trulillo, in charge of family affairs at the Vatican, said the H.I. virus was “roughly 450 times smaller than the spermatozoon. The spermatozoon can easily pass through the net that is formed by the condom.”

His remarks were later condemned by the World Health Organisation, which said that correct condom use reduced the risk of HIV infection by 90 percent.

Such comments have resonance in Africa, where religion plays a significant role in many communities. According to the latest figures available from the Vatican, Africa registered a 4.5 percent increase in the number of baptised Catholics in 2003 – the highest such increase globally.

The continent is also the region most affected by HIV, being home to 70 percent of all people who have contracted the virus, according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). In South Africa alone, 5.3 million people are infected with HIV.

This has caused certain AIDS activists to despair about the role of religious institutions in fighting the pandemic.

Molefe Tsele, General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches, takes a more liberal stand in the condom debate, however – publicly criticising the claims of certain Religious Leaders’ Forum members that the prophylactics are not an effective way of preventing the spread of HIV.

“All credible scientific studies conclude that the virus that causes AIDS cannot pass through a latex condom. When used properly, condoms are effective in halting transmission of the virus,” he observed, in a statement put on the Council of Churches website.

Tsele has also expressed reservations about the effect that the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is having on condom use.

The 15-billion-dollar initiative places considerable emphasis on abstinence, saying a refusal to have sex before marriage constitutes the best way of avoiding AIDS.

Condom use is not forbidden. However under PEPFAR, distribution of the prophylactics is mostly aimed at the members of so-called “high risk” groups, such as sex workers. The ‘U.S. Five-Year Global HIV/AIDS Strategy Report’, issued in 2004, speaks of promoting condom distribution amongst “specific at-risk populations…These groups include prostitutes, sexually active discordant couples (where only one partner has HIV), substance abusers, and others.”

But, says Tsele, “This message creates the false impression that sex within marriage is not ‘risky’ unless the couple know that one partner is infected.”

“In fact,” he adds, “women are particularly vulnerable to infection, often by husbands whom they incorrectly presume to be faithful. Fidelity alone is not an adequate defence against HIV.”

The discord between Africa’s religious leaders concerning AIDS prevention may be viewed with interest in other parts of the world, such as Asia, where HIV is gaining momentum – and where faith is central fact of life for many.

Perhaps they might end up drawing their best lessons about the interplay between religion and AIDS from Senegal.

As IPS reported last year, government and religious leaders in this West African country have compromised on matters such as condom distribution, opening the way for Catholic and Islamic institutions to play a key role in fighting the pandemic.

The results have been impressive. According to UNAIDS, HIV prevalence in Senegal currently stands at less than one percent.