Ethics Vol 6 - No. 2 | December 2020 | www.jbima.com Vaccines: Religio-cultural arguments from an Islamic perspective Mufti Usman Maravia, ESRC Centre for Corpus Approaches to Social Science (CASS) Bailrigg House, Lancaster University Correspondence:
[email protected] Keywords: fatwas, gelatine, ingredients, Muslims, Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, vaccination, vaccines Abstract As of December 29, 2020, more than 70,750 deaths had been reported in the UK to have been caused by COVID-19. Although efforts are being made worldwide to develop a vaccine, the question British Muslims face is regarding the Islamic ruling on the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. For this purpose, this article provides an analysis of the research into the main arguments made from an Islamic perspective concerning vaccines. These arguments are extrapolated from the discourse on vaccination by examining key fatwas and events since the late 1980s. My research finds that the 57 member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) have been and continue to be strongly in favour of eradicating infectious diseases through the use of vaccines. The arguments made against vaccines are based on a) an interpretation of the Qur’an that the human immune system is not designed to be vaccinated through intramuscular (IM) or oral vaccines and b) that vaccines contain dangerous ingredients. Moreover, in war-ravaged Muslim countries, notions have emerged that vaccines are adulterated to sterilise Muslim women. This article is aimed to help British muftis, Muslim faith leaders, healthcare professionals in the UK, the NHS and PHE to help contextualise the arguments put forward against vaccines in the effort to overcome challenges in introducing the new Pfizer-BioNTech COVID- 19 vaccine.