TANZANIA: Muslims clerics decry AIDS without condoms

Officials leading the fight against HIV/AIDS on Tanzania's island of Zanzibar are looking at ways of engaging Muslim leaders, who are against the promotion of condom use.

Fadhil Soraga, a local Islamic scholar, said advocating the use of condoms was tantamount to encouraging pre-marital sex, and although Islam shared the burden of the pandemic, it could not support any "immoral action".

Halima Ali Mohammed, an official with the Zanzibar AIDS Commission, said seeking a balanced solution was a delicate issue.

"It requires a willingness ... to recognise that HIV/AIDS is a threat to our society," she noted.

In 2003, a UN-supported government survey on the main islands of Unguja and Pemba found HIV/AIDS prevalence in the general population to be 0.6 percent.

Theme (s): Care/Treatment - PlusNews,

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]