Muslims Urge Followers to Reject Common Childhood Vaccines

Muslims in Britain are being urged to keep their children from childhood vaccination, saying they are unIslamic. . .

Measles, mumps, smallpox, polio. . . these are the things parents feared for their children prior to the 1960's. Measles contracted by a pregnant woman could render the fetus deaf, deformed, or DOA. Mumps turned into Scartlet Fever. Smallpox left many a pretty face scarred for life. Polio left many in leg braces, or dead. These diseases were KILLERS. Modern vaccination changed all that. The past two generations have not had to fear these diseases . . . the World Health Organization recently reported that measles worldwide is down 60% and nearing eradication. But now enter Islam. In Britain recently, a Muslim "doctor" with limited credentials and a book to sell, alerted the Muslim community that childhood innoculation is un-Islamic. More dangerous, he also insists they are unnecessary. I know vaccines - it's part of my education. I've spent the past few days reading this man's diatribes and other articles written by those who believe and support him. It is truly frightening because it's based not on real science but on half-truths and superstition. If this bit of idiocy catches on, it will mean deaths and disfigurement amongst children in the Muslim community in Britain. Worse, it could mean danger to the non-Muslim community. Without vaccination, some people would become carriers of viruses that could infect young babies, the elderly, people with immuno-compromised health due to other conditions, and pregant women. The legal authorities in Britain will step in if this gets any bigger. The same argument will pop up in the U.S. It could get ugly. It is one more example of the inability/unwillingness of some in the Mulsim communities to adapt to the countries who host them. It is unlike any population in the past. . . Like Muslim cab drivers refusing to transport the blind, health workers refusing to use antibacterial soap in hospitals to wash their hands, it is amazing, dangerous and arrogant. Worse, it isn't based in real science. (NOTE: vaccines do not contain "monkey parts" and "human parts" - they contain small pieces of cells or proteins extracted from tissue, which are then manipulated and incubated to the desired effect in a labratory.) In the veterinary world, it is a constant struggle to educate people about the consequence of not vaccinating their animals. There is currently a societal suspicion of the medical industry (mostly unwarranted) and that is combined with the issue of "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing". People know a little - usually what they pick up on the internet - and they don't have the foundational knowledge to do the math, so they come to bizarre conclusions which they will fight tooth and nail to hold onto, regardless of being confronted with evidence to the contrary. I fear this thing with Muslims and vaccines could take on the the same fever and spread superstitions to the larger population...