Wide mockery of “uniting the world’s peoples through Thursday prayers”
An Emirati newspaper wrote that the UAE “united the peoples of the world through Thursday prayers to overcome the Corona pandemic,” after the UAE-based “Higher Committee of Human Fraternity” called for a collective day to be devoted to praying in the shadow of the Coronavirus pandemic. Tweeters responded with sarcastic tweets.
Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed announced his solidarity with the call made by the committee to make Thursday 14 May a day of prayer and fasting and to ask God Almighty with one voice to preserve mankind, and to help it to overcome the pandemic, and restore security, stability, health and development to it.
The Emirates Today newspaper stated that the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity launched last Saturday the Thursday prayer initiative, in which it called on people all over the world to go to God by praying, fasting, supplication and good deeds, every individual in his place, according to his religion, belief or sect.
The newspaper sparked controversy and mockery among the tweeters who asked about the doctrine that legalized the “Thursday prayer”, asserting that it does not exist in anyone’s religion.
They said that the policies of the Emirates and Mohammed bin Zayed are more dangerous to the world than Coronavirus, while others said that “those who call on you (Muhammad bin Ayd) are more than they call against Coronavirus.” Tweeters questioned – ironically – about the direction of the qiblah in this collective prayer and how Ablution to her and whether it is sterilized “being Coronavirus prayer,” as others have stated that it is an innovation in religion, and that it is just “a failed propaganda”.
It is noteworthy that the Human Fraternity Committee is derived from the “Human Fraternity Document” for world peace and coexistence, which was signed in Abu Dhabi by Sheikh Al-Azhar, Dr. Ahmed Al-Tayeb, and Pope Francesco, the Pope of the Catholic Church.
And the honorable Al-Azhar account on Twitter quoted the Sheikh of Al-Azhar as saying, “I welcome the noble human call made by the Supreme Committee for Human Fraternity to invite people around the world to pray, pray and do good, in order for God to lift the pandemic of Corona from our human family.”
As Pope Francesco said in his Twitter account, “I accepted the proposal of the Supreme Committee for Human Fraternity that believers of all religions be spiritually united, on May 14, on the day of prayer and fasting in order to pray to God in order to help humanity overcome the Corona epidemic.”
