Indonesia’s Islamic authority has forbidden the employment of a leading meningitis vaccine, claiming it violates the laws of halal, or food permissible to Muslims. The Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) states that GlaxoSmithKline, the company responsible for the controversial vaccine, uses porcine enzyme, or pork protein in the processing of the vaccine. Traditionally, pork has been considered haram, a forbidden food item to religious followers.
However, the MUI’s announcement comes at an inopportune time— on the brink of hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. In recent years, meningitis has become a serious safety risk to all Muslims embarking on the religious expedition. Meningitis, which can spread easily through the air, results in fatalities in almost 10 percent of victims. To combat this lethal disease, since 2006 the Saudi Arabian government has required all pilgrims to receive the meningitis vaccination before entering the holy sites of Mecca.
Indonesian Muslims now face a serious obstacle in gaining entrance into Saudi Arabia. Currently, there are only two meningitis vaccines on the market, which are permissible under the country’s religious law. Indonesians will either have to pay the price of the costly alternatives, or sacrifice their chance to participate in one of the five pillars of Islamic faith. To paraphrase Qanta Ahmed, featured in WPJ’s summer issue, this is yet another example of Islamic extremism battling modern medicine—and to the detriment of human health and safety.
—Yaffa Fredrick