Muslims and COVID-19: Everyday Impacts, Experiences and Responses

A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444). This special issue belongs to the section "Religions and Health/Psychology/Social Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 November 2021) | Viewed by 10712

Special Issue Editors

Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry University, Coventry CV1 5FB, UK
Interests: muslim women; british islam; digital religion; ‘non-religion’; children in care; minoritisation; methodology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Bradford Institute for Health Research, Bradford Royal Infirmary, Bradford BD9 6RJ, UK
Interests: health inequalities; ethnicity; religion; ethnography

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues, 

In the UK, we know that COVID-19 has had a disproportionate impact on Black and Asian Minority Ethnic group (BAME) communities (Public Health England, 2020). The world over it has posed different challenges, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of policy responses, and public health systems in both the Global North and South (Ekpenyong and Pacheco 2020). Sociological research around the impact of the pandemic on communities, economies, and policies is growing rapidly. However, these studies only offer a limited understanding of the particularity of experiences and how Covid experiences and responses have been shaped by the intersectional identities of communities and individuals.

This Special Issue of the journal Religions on “Muslims and COVID-19: Everyday Impacts, Experiences, and Responses” focusses on faith as an aspect of identity that has shaped people’s experiences of and responses to the pandemic. It addresses a gap in academic literature on Muslim experiences of COVID-19, its impacts, and the socioeconomic fallouts of lockdown. The phenomenon of health inequalities among Muslims is complex, and a pandemic such as COVID-19 only exacerbates and exposes their vulnerabilities, in the UK and beyond.

During the lockdown, we have witnessed unprecedented impacts on Muslims, including the closing of mosques and madrassas, cancellation of Friday congregational prayers, Ramadan in lockdown, and a significantly limited Hajj. Muslim faith and community leaders have played important roles in translating theological rulings into practical guidance, which have largely been adhered to within Muslim communities. Similarly, young Muslims, like all children and young people, have experienced the impact of COVID-19 in relation to their education (Children’s Commissioner, 2020). In Britain, high levels of socioeconomic disadvantage amongst Muslim households mean that we can expect a disproportionate effect of lockdown and COVID-19. In India, the religious minority status of Muslims under a nationalist majoritarian government means that Muslim rituals can be stigmatised as super-spreaders for the pandemic for political gains. In Saudi Arabia, locals and Muslims from across the world continue to be perplexed by the much reduced and socially distanced pandemic format for the annual Hajj pilgrimage. In Pakistan and across the world, transnational Muslim families will be reconciling with the short- and/or long-term separation from their loved ones because of global travel restrictions. In Bangladesh, working-class families will be facing uncertainties on production orders and about employment. These are only a few examples of how Muslim practice, concerns, livelihoods, and politics have been affected by the pandemic. We aim to capture these diverse experiences, impacts, and responses towards COVID-19 in this special issue.

The idea of this Special Issue was conceived in Muslims in Britain Research Network’s symposium held online in December 2020 in the UK. This Special Issue builds on those discussions about COVID-19 and Muslims in the UK to redress a gap of literature on Muslim lived experience of a global pandemic in Britain and beyond. Articles that use an intersectional perspective to capture the diverse layers of Muslim identity are particularly encouraged. As per MBRN’s ethos, we welcome paper submissions from both academics and practitioners working with diverse Muslim communities to examine how diverse Muslim communities have experienced the pandemic, how their lives have been impacted during and after lockdown, and how they responded.

By focusing on the experiences of Muslims, this Special Issue invites articles discussing the interplay of ethnicity, religion, and deprivation in negotiating the particular challenges of living through COVID-19. This Special Issue will include a range of epistemological positions and disciplinary standpoints and will explore dimensions of Muslim identity/lived experiences in relation to the pandemic, lockdown, and subsequent socioeconomic implications of COVID-19.

Dr. Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor
Dr. Sufyan Abid Dogra
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • COVID-19
  • British Muslims
  • Global Muslims
  • health inequalities
  • ethnicity
  • migration
  • mosques and madrassas
  • religion, Islam, and health

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 656 KiB  
Article
“You Are All Soldiers in the Battle against the Corona Virus and Your Commander Is the Prophet Muḥammad”: The Fatwās of Sheikh Rāʾid Badīr Regarding COVID-19
by Nesya Rubinstein-Shemer
Religions 2023, 14(1), 98; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rel14010098 - 10 Jan 2023
Viewed by 1316
Abstract
This article deals with the rulings of Sheikh Rāʾid Badīr, who served as a mediator between the Israeli government and the Muslim community over the course of the pandemic. As a senior leader and scholar of the southern branch of the Islamic Movement [...] Read more.
This article deals with the rulings of Sheikh Rāʾid Badīr, who served as a mediator between the Israeli government and the Muslim community over the course of the pandemic. As a senior leader and scholar of the southern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, Sheikh Rāʾid Badīr’s fatwās have historically addressed the unique circumstances and situational difficulties faced by Muslims living in Israel. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Muslims and COVID-19: Everyday Impacts, Experiences and Responses)
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19 pages, 940 KiB  
Article
The Muslim Gaze and the COVID-19 Syndemic
by Hina Javaid Shahid and Sufyan Abid Dogra
Religions 2022, 13(9), 780; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rel13090780 - 25 Aug 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2264
Abstract
COVID-19 has replicated and intensified pre-existing health inequities by creating a vicious syndemic that brings together concurrent biological, psychosocial and structural epidemics with synergistic interactions that reinforce unequal outcomes. In the UK, the Muslim community has been disproportionately impacted by excess morbidity and [...] Read more.
COVID-19 has replicated and intensified pre-existing health inequities by creating a vicious syndemic that brings together concurrent biological, psychosocial and structural epidemics with synergistic interactions that reinforce unequal outcomes. In the UK, the Muslim community has been disproportionately impacted by excess morbidity and mortality from COVID-19. This article uses a transdisplinary lens in the context of COVID-19 to analyse the role of Islamophobia as a fundamental driver of health inequities in Britain’s Muslim community. It highlights multilevel policy reforms and recommendations that centre community empowerment, social justice and cultural humility to close the gap and achieve justice and good health for all. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Muslims and COVID-19: Everyday Impacts, Experiences and Responses)
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14 pages, 878 KiB  
Article
Relegitimizing Religious Authority: Indonesian Gender-Just ʿUlamāʾ Amid COVID-19
by Eva F. Nisa and Farid F. Saenong
Religions 2022, 13(6), 485; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rel13060485 - 27 May 2022
Viewed by 1934
Abstract
Studies have highlighted the increased vulnerability of women during and after disasters. Thus, there has been a call for gender-aware disaster management—an approach which is certainly needed, especially when a patriarchal culture is embedded in a society. Unfortunately, studies on women as vulnerable [...] Read more.
Studies have highlighted the increased vulnerability of women during and after disasters. Thus, there has been a call for gender-aware disaster management—an approach which is certainly needed, especially when a patriarchal culture is embedded in a society. Unfortunately, studies on women as vulnerable agents are often not balanced against careful examinations of instances where women help women. Drawing on (digital) ethnography conducted between 2020 and 2022, this article focuses on analysing the voices and activities of gender-just ʿulamāʾ (Muslim scholars) in Indonesia during the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic, which has affected traditional religious gathering practices, has led to creative solutions to social proximity restrictions. Many ʿulamāʾ have been “forced” by the situation to adjust to digital religion. This article analyses how female religious authorities who colour the daily daʿwa (proselytization) landscape in Indonesia deal with the uncertainties brought on by the pandemic. The daʿwa scene in Indonesia has long been the site of contention among various competing ideological understandings. The pandemic and the proliferation of digital religion has led gender-just ʿulamāʾ to relegitimize their authority through an online presence so they can compete and counter the narratives of tech-savvy conservative Muslims. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Muslims and COVID-19: Everyday Impacts, Experiences and Responses)
17 pages, 4832 KiB  
Article
Isolation, Community and Spirituality: British Muslim Experiences of Ramadan in Lockdown
by Laura Jones-Ahmed
Religions 2022, 13(1), 74; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rel13010074 - 13 Jan 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2880
Abstract
Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting, is typically a time associated with individual worship and communal gatherings as Muslims meet, eat and pray together. In 2020 especially, COVID-19 had a significant impact on the observation of the holy month. With lockdown measures in [...] Read more.
Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting, is typically a time associated with individual worship and communal gatherings as Muslims meet, eat and pray together. In 2020 especially, COVID-19 had a significant impact on the observation of the holy month. With lockdown measures in place, mosques were closed and there were prohibitions on visiting family and friends, making the month an unusual occasion. This paper draws upon qualitative PhD research on Ramadan 2020 in Britain comprising more than 50 Ramadan photo diaries from diverse Muslim participants and follow-up interviews. The findings highlight how participants experienced the benefits of isolation by being able to reflect and connect more with God and via the establishment of “Ramadan corners” in homes, while at the same time missing the mosque and the Muslim community. I further highlight how communal aspects of the holy month were maintained and transformed to suit lockdown conditions, including the use of online activities, praying in congregation at home and sharing food. Emerging from these two facets of Ramadan, I explore ideas of socially dependent spirituality and how participants negotiated communal and individual elements of their spiritual lives. Through the diverse examples discussed, I argue that material, embodied, aesthetic and emotive practices were emphasised in 2020 to recreate a ‘feeling’ of Ramadan when typical expressions of the month were unavailable. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Muslims and COVID-19: Everyday Impacts, Experiences and Responses)
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