Jordanian Islamic scholar Ahmad al-Shahrouri has scolded people living in the West for their “lack of purity and cleanliness” in the age of coronavirus.
He says those living beyond the reach of Islam are more prone to diseases like the coronavirus because they do not wash their behinds with water after using the restroom like Muslims do.
“They have currently run out of toilet paper in their markets because they do not use water,” al-Shahrouri told Jordan’s Yarmouk TV on March 29, as translated by the Middle East Media Reserch Institute (MEMRI).
He added: “They are plagued by these diseases, these microbes and these viruses because they do not clean their filth enough.”
Recalling a time when his “head almost exploded” from the “stench” of two Westerners he sat between on a plane, Al-Shahrouri said Muslims should praise Allah for requiring them to perform ablution, according to MEMRI.
Furthermore, he said Westerners’ poor hygiene is why France is known for producing luxurious perfumes that mask people’s filth, foulness, and odors.
This is not the first time a Muslim scholar has equated a lack of Islamic belief with the deadly Chinese coronavirus, as Breitbart Jerusalem has reported.
Last month an Imam in Gaza said in a sermon broadcast on Hamas TV that coronavirus is a “soldier of Allah (God)” sent to harm Western countries while not affecting Palestinians and Muslims.
A clip published by MEMRI shows Gazan Imam Jamil Al-Mutawa saying the virus was part of God’s revenge for the U.S. peace plan for solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“Look how anyone who schemes against the Al-Aqsa Mosque is being shattered to smithereens,” he said. “This is the greatness of Allah!”
“They talk about 25 million infected people in just one of the 50 [U.S.] states. Allah be praised,” he said.
“Look how empty the Israeli streets are and look how croded this mosque is,” Mutawa said to a crowd of hundreds in Gaza’s White Mosque. “Unleash the coronavirus against the people behind the evil deal [of the century],” Mutawa said.
Two days after the clip was broadcast by the Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV, the first two cases were confirmed in the Gaza Strip.
Tunisian cleric Bechir Ben Hassen, who lives in France, is another who has left little doubt as to why the deadly virus has struck.
“The virus is a soldier in Allah’s army. Today, it’s toppling people as if they were insects,” he said.
Neither explained how it is people in Muslim countries from Iran to Malaysia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Egypt, Lebanon and of course the Palestinian Authority, are also being afflicted at alarming rates.