London (AFP)

Imam in the north of England, Qari Asim assures that the anti-Covid-19 vaccines are "halal" and makes it known, like many dignitaries, doctors or influencers worried about the effects of disinformation in the British Muslim community.

This cleric from the Leeds Mosque chairs the National Advisory Council of Mosques and Imams (MINAB), which is leading a campaign to reassure the faithful, relayed by a hundred mosques, in particular during Friday prayers.

"We are confident that these vaccines are allowed by Islam and we urge people to be vaccinated, as soon as they have the opportunity," he told AFP.

Particularly affected by the virus, which has killed nearly 95,000 people, the United Kingdom is banking on vaccination to overcome the crisis and lift the containment in force.

But a report by the scientific committee advising the government revealed stronger mistrust among minorities than among the white population.

Among the most skeptical, 72% of blacks were reluctant to get the vaccine, followed by people from Pakistan or Bangladesh at 42%.

Some of the estimated 2.8 million Muslims in the UK fear that vaccines contain pork gelatin or alcohol, which is banned by Islam, which imams deny.

If some questions are "legitimate", Qari Asim regrets that many fears are fueled by "disinformation, conspiracy theories and rumors" which accuse the vaccine of modifying DNA, of making sterile, or even of inserting a chip in the body of the vaccinated person.

- Messages in Urdu -

This disinformation is all the more dangerous as minorities pay a particularly heavy price to the virus, according to several studies.

"These are the communities that we should precisely target," pleads Nighat Arif, a general practitioner based in Chesham, near London.

When she was vaccinated, this hijab-wearing caregiver posted a video in Urdu on social media for people from southern Asia.

"I hope that when they see a video of someone who looks like them, a practicing Muslim, who is Asian, who speaks their language, they identify themselves more than if it comes from the government," he explains. she told AFP.

She is surprised at the refusal of certain patients to be vaccinated: "When they make the Hajj (the great pilgrimage to Mecca) or go to Pakistan and India, they do several vaccines!"

Samara Afzal, a doctor in Dudley, in the West Midlands (center), also posted a video in Urdu to her 35,000 followers on Twitter to "debunk some myths".

Some people asked him to send the video directly to him to forward it to their relatives via WhatsApp.

In her medical center, the 34-year-old general practitioner estimates that around 40 out of a thousand people refused to be vaccinated when she expected "one or two".

"And these are only the elderly! I am sure that with the youngest, there will be many more refusals," she anticipates.

- Vaccinated at the mosque -

Nearly 5 million people, primarily the elderly and caregivers, have already received a first dose of vaccine in the UK, peaking in Europe.

As a sign of the authorities' concerns about minorities, the public health service, the NHS, is mobilizing "influencers" in the communities concerned to convince the skeptics.

"There is a lot of work going on translating information and making sure it reaches the people that matter," Dr Harpreet Sood, who is leading the anti-disinformation campaign for the NHS, told the BBC.

A vaccination center has even been set up by the NHS in a mosque in Birmingham, the second largest city in the United Kingdom.

His imam, Nuru Mohammed, told the Press Association agency that he wanted to send the faithful "a big no to fake news".

He shared the video of his own vaccination on social media.

For Imam Qari Asim in Leeds, the challenge is also to avoid lending a flank to the far right.

"If vaccination was lower in the Muslim community than in other communities, it could fan the flames of Islamophobia," he warns.

"In this pandemic, no one should be playing the scapegoat."

© 2021 AFP