The Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) made headlines after it said on Friday that the alleged use of pork-derived trypsin in the AstraZeneca-made COVID-19 vaccine made it haram for Muslims. While the MUI went on to state that the use of the vaccine would be permissible under Islamic law, their comments about the pork-content have prompted AstraZeneca to issue a denial.
AstraZeneca Indonesia spokesman Rizman Abudaeri said in a statement: "At all stages of the production process, this virus vector vaccine does not use nor come in contact with pork-derived products or other animal products."
On Friday, the MUI had posted on their website that the vaccine is "haram" because the manufacturing process uses "trypsin from the pork pancreas." While they said the use of the vaccine made by AstraZeneca was permissible for now, they said this permission would no longer be valid where there is a supply of clean and “halal” vaccines.
Indonesia, with a population of over 270 million, has had over 1.4 million cases of COVID-19 and nearly 40,000 deaths. Indonesia's Food and Drug Regulatory Agency (BPOM) has recommended the vaccine be distributed, a month after it suspended the same due to fears over the reports of blood clots in vaccine recipients in Europe.
“Right now, COVID-19 infection is still high globally, including in Indonesia. Therefore, despite the fact that the vaccination can lead to post-vaccination events, the risk of death due to COVID-19 is still higher. Therefore, citizens must receive COVID-19 vaccinations as scheduled,” the BPOM said,
The MUI is an influential body in Indonesia, which hosts the world’s largest Muslim population. In December, it was widely reported that they were expected to issue a “halal certificate” for the vaccine, after they completed a study of the vaccine.
In 2018, the MUI had issued a fatwa against the measles vaccine for allegedly containing pork-derived products including trypsin. Interestingly, their recommendation then was similar, that in the absence of an alternative, people should take the vaccine despite it being haram. Nonetheless, the result was that the measles immunisation rate in the country plummeted, according to a November 2018 study published in Science.
