MAPUTO, August 30, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Alarmed by the high HIV/AIDS infection in the southern African country, mosques in Mozambique are championing an undaunted campaign against the killer epidemic and managed to curb its spiraling rates in the predominantly Muslim north.

"Mosques have been playing a pivotal role in fighting AIDS through raising the awareness of Muslims about subsequent grave consequences on both individuals and families," Egyptian preacher Sheikh Mahmoud El-Sebai told IslamOnline.net.

Mozambique is the third world country with high HIV prevalence after neighboring Swaziland and South Africa.

Official estimates indicate that some 50 percent of Mozambique's 19 million people are HIV positive, while international figures put the percentage at only 16.

On Friday, Sebai delivered a fiery sermon on AIDS, exhorting Muslims to shield themselves against it through religion.

"Islam calls for modesty and chastity among all Muslims, married or unmarried, and strictly prohibited adultery," he told the faithful through an Arabic-Portuguese interpreter.

After the prayers, Muslim youths started handing out glossy anti-AIDS leaflets in Portuguese, Mozambique’s official language.

Muslims make up 50 per cent of Mozambique’s 17 million people in the former Portuguese colony.

A sample of the AIDS-combat leaflets distributed outside mosques.

Sebai said Muslim parents usually ask him to keep the burning issue alive by tackling it in Friday sermons.

"AIDS is one of the major challenges facing Muslims in Mozambique and we are keen on addressing the issue over and over again," he said.

Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, the highest seat of learning in the Sunni Muslim world, has 10 preachers in Mozambique in addition to two more dispatched by the Egyptian Minister of Waqfs (religious endowments).

There is no official estimates about the number of mosques in the country, but most of them are built by rich Muslims and are concentrated in the north.

The capital Maputo has some 60 mosques.

Abdalla Ferari, president of Moussa Bin Bek University in northern Mozambique, said the predominantly Muslim north has the lowest AIDS rates compared to the southern and central parts of the country.

"I can say, according to official statistics, that only five percent of people in northern Mozambique are HIV positive thanks to awareness-raising campaigns by Muslim preachers," he told IOL.

The Taqwa mosque in Maputo.

Already fighting a high HIV prevalence, Mozambique has moved in cooperation with world bodies to nip the deadly virus in the bud by trying to prevent its transmission from HIV-positive pregnant mothers to fetuses.

Africa has been hit harder by the HIV virus than any other continent.

More than 17 million Africans have died from AIDS and another 25 million are HIV positive, approximately 1.9 million of whom are children, according to the Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

Sub-Saharan Africa is home to more than 60% of people living with HIV worldwide.

HIV is transmitted through sexual intercourse, blood transfusion, the sharing of contaminated needles in health care settings and through drug injection, in addition to between mother and infant, during pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding.