Distribution of sex disease cure leaflet shocks mosque-goers

Devotees at the Abu Daud mosque in Sharjah were shocked when they were handed out leaflets promising treatment of sexual diseases and weaknesses recently while coming out after evening prayers.

Distributed on behalf of Taj Hamdard company soon after the Isha prayers and Taraweeh, the leaflet talks about the virtues of natural herbs and how they can help cure sexual diseases and other ailments.

Inside is a centrespread on Ramadan timings while the back page contains claims about the efficacy of Indian Unani (herbal) medicines in the Urdu language.

The bit on treatment for sexual disorders has also been highlighted in English, presumably to get the message across to a larger audience.

Devotees at the mosque on King Faisal Street, including women and children, are infuriated.

"This is outrageous. How can they use the mosque to peddle such things. This amounts to sacrilege," said 35-year-old Zubair Ahmad, who is from India.

Others said that the holy ground is being exploited for commercial gain. "As if that was not bad enough, now people are using mosques to advertise wonder cures for sexual disorders, that too in Ramadan," said Latif N, an Egyptian.

However, Hakeem Mohammad Umar Khan, who represents Taj Hamdard, denied any wrongdoing. "This is an age of marketing and the mosque is one place where you find a large number of possible clients," he said.

The company's advertisement manager Mo'en Al Deen said he was not aware if "the unintentional act" had hurt the sentiments of people as his company has not received any complaints.

Instances of mosques being used for commercial gain are not new, but it is during Ramadan that promotional activities reach new heights, people said.