June 7, 2007:
Peacekeeping in areas cursed with the
presence of Islamic militants is complicated by frequent intolerance for
foreign medical assistance. Islamic radicals like to insist that Western
medicines are actually poisons, usually intended to make Moslems sterile. A
recent example of this is being encountered in Afghanistan, where the Taliban
are spreading the rumor that government attempts to vaccinate women and
children against tetanus and measles are actually efforts to poison the
recipients of these medicines. Further complicating the situation are Islamic
militants, inflamed by these Taliban accusations, who have been kidnapping or
attacking health workers (assigned to deliver the vaccinations). As a result of
intense Taliban pressure, the southern Afghanistan province of Helmand half the
women, and about 15 percent of the children, could not be vaccinated. The
higher proportion of unvaccinated women resulted from Taliban insistence that
it was un-Islamic for a woman to receive a vaccination from a male medical
technician. It was also considered immoral, by the Taliban, for female medical
technicians to operate in the area.
Many Moslems in areas like Helmand, understand the
importance of the vaccinations. But the Taliban have guns, and are prone to get
violent with anyone who opposes them. This particular aspect of Islamic
fundamentalism is having widespread repercussions. African Islamic radicals
halted a vaccination campaign that was about to wipe out polio. This has
enabled the dreaded disease to hang on, and be spread again to areas where it
has been eliminated, by infected African Moslems who travel to Mecca for the
annual pilgrimage. Millions of Moslems from other parts of the world are also in
Mecca, and some get infected with the Polio and carry it back to their
homelands.
Actually, the Taliban does not have an official
policy of opposing these vaccinations. But the Taliban is cursed with a lot of
ignorant and impulsive followers, and Taliban PR specialists have to work
overtime to placate the mass media about these medical misadventures.