Claims About the Coronavirus and the Prayer Bans
The "He Did Not Take the Epidemic Seriously and Spread a Conspiracy Theory" Claim
Partly true
Claim
Fact
The period under discussion is March-May 2020, that is, the first months of the epidemic. The claim has a side that is true, and we write it at the top of the page: in those months Kuytul openly said that he found the measures exaggerated and saw a plan behind them, and he relayed accounts from groups of doctors who held the same view. These are opinions of his own; they are conveyed here not as verified information but as what he said.
The side that is wrong is the summarising of these opinions as "not taking the epidemic seriously" and "calling people to abandon precautions". There is nothing in the recording that corresponds to that. He never at any time denied the existence of the virus:
"This is not my field of expertise, nor have I examined that virus; there may be a virus, I say nothing about that."
His sentence on the question of precautions is equally clear: "Let precautions be taken, let them not be exaggerated; this is what I am saying... Of course precautions are taken, it is a command of Islam as well." He ended his Eid address of 22 May 2020 by advising those listening to exchange Eid greetings at a distance and without contact.
The claim that he opposed the measures is dealt with under a separate heading: the "he opposed the coronavirus measures" claim.
Why this label, "Partly true"?
The part that is true: He found the measures exaggerated, thought there was a political and commercial plan behind them, and defended his view in public by relaying statements to that effect. We do not deny it; the recordings are there for all to see.
Why this is not a fault: The opinion a person holds and the conduct people are called to are not the same thing. Kuytul did not claim to be issuing a medical ruling, said again and again that the subject lay outside his own field, and asked neither for himself nor for those around him that the precautions be dropped. The error of the claim is to present an opinion as if it were a call.
Let us write the true part first
In the forum programme held on the evening of 29 May 2020, Kuytul read out a series of statements from the notes in his hand: the declaration of a group that he said more than a hundred doctors supported, the assessments of a German professor, the statement of a foundation, comparisons of the death statistics of various countries, and comments on the funding of the World Health Organization and on the vaccine agenda. The conclusion he drew from them was this: the measures were exaggerated and there was an economic and political plan behind them.
We are not hiding these views, nor softening them. They were said and they are on record.
The things he did not say
From this point on, the claim parts company with the recording. There are three things Kuytul did not say:
- He did not say "there is no such virus". On the contrary: "There may be a virus, I say nothing about that."
- He did not claim to be issuing a medical ruling. After every statement he relayed he added the same proviso: "It is not my field, I am saying what they say."
- He called no one to abandon precautions. "Let precautions be taken, let them not be exaggerated; this is what I am saying... Of course precautions are taken, it is a command of Islam as well."
This third point is the one most often skipped. The subject Kuytul regarded as his own field was not the course of the epidemic but the conditions under which an obligatory act of worship may be given up; the measuring of the virus's danger he referred, again and again, to the doctors. What he said on the jurisprudential side is dealt with under a separate heading: the objection over Friday prayer.
An opinion is one thing, conduct another
The measure of a view is what that view calls a person to. The call here is plain to see:
- The closing sentence of the Eid address of 22 May 2020 is the advice to exchange Eid greetings without contact and at a distance of one and a half metres.
- His suggestions as to how Friday prayer might be performed are masks, distance, temperature checks, a personal prayer rug and a shortened sermon.
- When the mosques opened on 29 May 2020, he performed the prayer in the courtyard of the mosque, at a distance.
An attitude that "does not take the epidemic seriously" cannot stand alongside these. The claim closes the gap by reading an opinion as if it were a call to conduct.
What does this page not verify?
The work of this site is to show whether a statement attributed to a person really was said, and in what context it was said. The accuracy of the medical and statistical claims Kuytul relayed in May 2020 is not the subject of this page; they can still be debated today, and can be refuted. The only thing said here is this: those claims are an opinion of his own, and they are not presented on this page as verified information.
A person holding an opinion that may later turn out to be wrong, and putting into that person's mouth a sentence they did not say, are two separate matters. The first happens to everyone; the second is a choice.
Why do we not say "unfounded"?
We could have. The sentence "he was not against the measures" could be built, and it could be defended with the recording too. But that would mean keeping something from the reader: in those days Kuytul found the measures exaggerated and said so out loud. Anyone who listens to the recording hears it.
To say "entirely unfounded" in a place like this would make everything else the site says doubtful as well. That is why the label is "Partly true": the part that is true is a view openly defended, and the part that is wrong is the conveying of that view as an attitude that calls people into danger.
Headings from the same period: the "he opposed the coronavirus measures" claim, the claim that the objection over Friday prayer was exploited for politics and the claim that he said "taking precautions is a betrayal of Islam".