How The Tablig Spread The Virus So Quickly

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Well it looks like 79 Cambodians attended that Tablig gathering in Sri Petaling.  They went home to Cambodia and now 12 of them have tested positive for the Corona Virus. Here is the news :




Ministry of Health confirmed 12 new Covid-19 positive cases have been identified.
2 in Banteay Meanchey, 2 in Phnom Penh, 2 in Kampong Chhnang, 4 in Battambang, 1 each in Kampot and Tboung Khmum provinces, the Ministry said.
“Of the 12 infected, 11 are Khmer Muslims and were among 79 who returned from a Muslim religious event near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
“Our emergency team are searching for those who had contacts with them, especially those who attended the event in Malaysia,” the press release said.
The kingdom had previously recorded 12 cases, most of which involved foreigners.
Here is the same news in Malay :Phnom Penh: Kemboja merekodkan 12 kes baharu jangkitan Covid-19.Kementerian Kesihatan negara itu melaporkan 11 daripadanya jemaah yang menyertai perhimpunan jemaah tabligh di Malaysia. Ia menjadikan kes positif Covid-19 di negara itu meningkat kepada 24 kes.

My comments : 

I have personal knowledge of the tablig because in my school days in Penang I used to attend the tablig with my father. The tablig is a 100% Indian Muslim invention - being founded by "maulana" Khandlavi in Delhi. 

The Indian Muslims brought it to Malaysia and in the 1980s "Tablig India" caught on among the Malays.  In the old days almost every Indian Muslim household (in Malaysia) would participate in the tablig. It was also a social gathering where people could meet each other. 

On a sadder note my father who was a strong adherent of the tablig, died of a heart attack in 1985 while travelling on a tablig mission in Lahore, Pakistan. He is buried in Lahore.

In Kuala Lumpur for a very long time the Masjid India in Jalan Masjid India was the center of the Tablig gatherings. However disagreements arose because the crowds became too huge and the Masjid India became swamped. The masjid committee raised the issue with the Tablig people. So in the early 1990s the Tablig people collected their own funds and built that huge Tablig mosque in Sri Petaling. They literally built it with their own hands.

In the 1990s I did attend that tablig mosque in Sri Petaling a few times (after I had seen the light)  to observe their goings on.  I can say with personal knowledge that their practises are unhygienic. 

For example here are two short videos which show the Tablig people eating food in groups  from a common  talam or tray. You can see that they eat with their fingers. In the first video that one guy moves from one tray or talam to another talam. He uses his "eating hand" to dish out food into the trays. Yukky !!

This is a 100% certain method of spreading his saliva all over the food. 
To be shared by everyone else eating from that tray.




In this next short video here you can see the numbers of people who can engage in this communal eating at the Tablig gatherings. There is no doubt, from these videos, that the Corona Virus spread very quickly because of this type of 'communal eating; using their fingers.



There are other reasons for the rapid spread of the virus among the tablig. The mosque is not a hotel. Yet 16,000 people stayed there and slept there for three nights. They had no choice but to sleep on the floor, close up against each other. Such close proximity would have certainly spread the virus as well.
This picture below (from another mosque) gives an idea of what it looks like when hundreds or thousands of people end up sleeping on the floor next to each other.


The Tablig people are also constantly washing - at least five times a day. What they do not do is completely dry off each time after they wash. Not only their clothes can be damp but since many of them have beards and sport long hair their hair and beards are frequently damp.  Instead of being clean and dry they are frequently damp or wet.
Someone commented that there will be another large tablig gathering in Makassar in Sulawesi, Indonesia soon. I hope the authorities will take note of this. 
There will also be the annual very large tablig ijtima or gathering in Lahore in Pakistan soon. At the Markaz Tablig in Raiwing near Lahore. Tablig adherents will gather from all over the world at this event. 
Posted by Syed Akbar Ali 

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