Latest Updates: fatwas RSS

  • johnpi 11:48 pm on February 11, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , fatwas,

    Airport body scanners violate Islamic law, Muslims say.

    Saying that body scanners violate Islamic law, Muslim-American groups are supporting a “fatwa” – a religious ruling – that forbids Muslims from going through the scanners at airports.

    The Fiqh Council of North America – a body of Islamic scholars that includes some from Michigan – issued a fatwa this week that says going through the airport scanners would violate Islamic rules on modesty.

    “It is a violation of clear Islamic teachings that men or women be seen naked by other men and women,” reads the fatwa issued Tuesday. “Islam highly emphasizes haya (modesty) and considers it part of faith. The Quran has commanded the believers, both men and women, to cover their private parts.”
    ….

    Muslim groups say the scanners go against their religion. One option offered to passengers who don’t want to use the scanners would be a pat down by a security guard. The Muslim groups are urging members to undergo those instead.

    The council website doesn’t list any new fatwas, but CAIR put out a press release.

     

  • johnpi 12:34 pm on January 22, 2010 | 6 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: fatwas, funky hairstyles, hair, hair styles,

    Muslim clerics seek ban on ‘funky hairstyles’ in Indonesia.

    Muslim clerics in Indonesia have demanded a ban on women having perms or straightening their hair, which they described as ‘inviting moral danger’.

    An Islamic body which has issued fatwas on inappropriate behaviour from practising yoga to failing to vote in elections said it is now considering a request to tackle the craze among pupils in religious boarding schools.

    Clerics from East Java have also requested a fatwa banning dreadlocks, punk haircuts and “funky hairstyles”.

     

  • johnpi 9:48 pm on January 12, 2010 | 12 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , fatwas

    Saudi cleric bans Muslims from joining al-Qaeda.

    A prominent Saudi scholar has issued a fatwa banning Muslims from joining al-Qaeda and labeled it a violation of Islam’s teachings, press reports said on Tuesday, amid concerns about the growing strength of operatives in Yemen.

    Sheikh Abdul Mohsen al-Obeikan, a top religious scholar and an advisor in the court of King Abdullah, said Muslims who join the militant group and engage in terrorist operations are deviating from the right path of Islam, Saudi newspaper Okaz quoted him as saying.

    “Affiliation with the so-called al-Qaeda group is haram,” meaning banned in Islam, al-Obeikan told the paper, adding “It is strictly prohibited to legitimatize the shedding of blood of other Muslims without having the right to do so.”

     

  • johnpi 1:17 pm on January 10, 2010 | 37 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , fatwas, ,

    Imams in US and Canada jointly declare in new fatwa that an attack on either country constitutes an attack on all 10 million Muslims living in North America.

    A group of Canadian and U.S. Islamic leaders on Friday issued a fatwa, or religious edict, declaring that an attack by extremists on the two countries would constitute an attack on the 10 million Muslims living in North America.

    The 20 imams associated with the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada said this marked the first fatwa by the Muslim clergy declaring attacks on Canada and the U.S. to be attacks on Muslims.

    “In our view, these attacks are evil, and Islam requires Muslims to stand up against this evil,” the imams said in their fatwa.

     

  • johnpi 11:13 pm on November 11, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , fatwas,

    The history of dueling fatwas may be coming to an end.

    Nearly a year after Saudi King Abdullah warned religious scholars that issuing careless fatwas gives extremists credibility as religious experts, the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Call, Guidance and Endowment has finally said enough is enough.

    Recently the Ministry issued a memo that fatwas were not to be issued to just anybody asking for one. The Ministry has ordered that Saudi imams refer people seeking fatwas to the Senior Board of Ulema. Apparently the Ulema got tired of having their own fatwas contradicted by some obscure rural cleric who thinks of himself as a religious scholar.

    This new rule, although long overdue, thrills me to no end. If ever there was an aspect of Islam that has been so thoroughly abused by people who have no idea what they’re doing it’s the fatwa.

     

  • buzz 11:27 pm on November 4, 2009 | 8 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: fatwas, , ,

    Emmerich reveals fear of fatwa axed 2012 scene

    Roland Emmerich, the director of the ‘end of days’ disaster movie, had wanted to depict the destruction of Islam’s holiest site, but was persuaded not to.

    He blew up the Empire State Building and the White House in Independence Day, sent a giant monster careering through the heart of Manhattan in Godzilla and destroyed the famous Hollywood sign in The Day After Tomorrow. But it seems there are places even Roland Emmerich will not go – the German film-maker has revealed he abandoned plans to obliterate Islam’s holiest site on the big screen for fear of attracting a fatwa.

    more

     

  • johnpi 9:15 pm on September 25, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , fatwas, , ,

    Pick a scholar, any scholar…

    Saudiwoman lists the four arguments heard in online Saudi forums for why women should not be allowed to drive. Reason #2 struck me, as it reminds me of one of the issues that has prompted huge frustration in conversion – that anything can be argued to be permissible – or forbidden – if a scholar said it some time, some where, or is willing to say it now. This is also known as fatwa shopping:

    2- That women driving is prohibited in Islam. This has been refuted by the majority of living Saudi sheikhs. However the people who use this argument keep going back to fatwas written by two dead sheikhs who were the inspiration for today’s Taliban lifestyle in Afghanistan.

    From the ‘fatwa shopping’ link above:

    To me, the fatwa phenomenon underscores a key problem in trying to foment any lasting change or reform in the Middle East. There are so many competing voices, all claiming legitimacy and competing for authority. The cacophony hampers singling out any one ruling as authentic. Who can sort out the contradictions, when fatwas issued on exactly the same question — like whether the sexes can share a car to Mecca, or whether women can run in elections — wind up promoting opinions that are polar opposites? Critics say too many fatwas are rooted in decidedly worldly objectives, such as a desire to push a particular policy, far more often than in weighty religious wisdom. The fact that some governments keep senior clerics on the payroll obviously casts doubt on their rulings. It is difficult for anyone to separate fatwas rooted in a genuine desire to interpret the faith from those formulated to achieve political goals.

     

  • johnpi 5:06 pm on September 23, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , fatwas, , , , ,

    There are unconfirmed reports that Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi has issued a fatwa forbidding Iraqi and Afghan refugees “from acquiring US citizenship on the grounds that this is the nationality of an occupier nation.”

    Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed, the general manager at Al Arabiya TV, writes:

    Perhaps Sheikh al-Qaradawi would be right to resort to the dangerous weapon of fatwas if there were a large number of citizens being granted naturalization, or if there were forced relocations to America, or if the Iraqi nationality was being revoked, but none of this is happening. In fact, the opposite is true, for of the thousands of Iraqi citizens who queue up to apply for visas to Western countries, only a few are granted.

    Suspiciously, this fatwa report is being eagerly promoted by groups opposed to Muslim political power and Muslim immigration, such as MEMRI and “Refugee Resettlement Watch.”

    According to MEMRI, “the ruling was inspired by similar rulings issued by Muslim clerics during France’s occupation of Tunisia.” Over at RRW, where a gleeful response might have been expected, the writer casts a pall over her nativist readership instead with a slip of wisdom, “I don’t get the impression that most Iraqi immigrants are ruled by faraway Imams.“

     

  • johnpi 5:08 pm on August 31, 2009 | 4 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , fatwas, ,

    Egyptian scholar issues fatwa against listening to the Quran in public.

    Sheikh Gamal Qutb, former head of the Fatwa Committee at the world’s top Sunni institution al-Azhar, stated in an interview with a local paper that people should not listen to recitations of Islam’s holy book while at work, on public transport or in stores.

    “Listening to Quran in public and crowded places implies lack of respect,” he said. “People who do that deal with Quran with carelessness”

    Qutb argued that people who listen to the Quran while doing something else are not concentrating enough and may be distracted.

    The fatwa, or religious edict, stirred much controversy among al-Azhar scholars and Egypt’s Dar al-Iftaa, the government institution in charge of issuing fatwas, rebutted the fatwa.

     

  • buzz 4:19 am on August 20, 2009 | 18 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , fatwas, , ,

    sad bastard

    sad bastard

    Another scholar who, with apparently good intentions (?), is completely mixed up about Islam. American Journalist Robert Wright is on the circuit pimpin his scrawl, The Evolution of God like there is no Final Judgement.

    He seems to get Gabriel and God mixed up in his recap of Sura 53: An-Najm. Then he goes on to say that scholars generally agree the Qur’an has been corrupted. OK. Enter Ayatullah with the appropriate bounty and you, Robert, can see if Padma Lakshmi will marry another troll on the run. Good luck with that.

    The Koran describes the glorious being—the angel Gabriel, apparently—coming within “two bows’ length” of Muhammad, after which Gabriel “revealed unto His slave that which He revealed.” At this moment, the Koran tells us, Muhammad’s “heart lied not (in seeing) what it saw.” Maybe not, but this is not a question we are in a position to (More …)

     

  • Kawthar 2:15 am on August 4, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: fatwas, ,

    The Jordanian Committee of Religious Decrees and Islamic Studies issued a fatwa declaring that pre-marital virginity checks are haram

     

  • johnpi 12:46 am on May 30, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , fatwas, , mobile phones, ,

    Responses from the readership of the Jakarta Post to an Indonesian Ulema Council fatwa banning communication between the sexes on mobile phones and Facebook.

    It is just too bad that a lot of people are taking this seriously.

    It is a matter of content, not the platform: People on online networking sites are free to determine how to use them. Why not ban human interaction? That way no one will be tempted?

    Halim

    I believe Indonesian Muslims are individuals with common sense, who can think for themselves and choose if they want to avoid affairs or pornography, or whatever is not good for them.

    If that is how much trust the NU has in Muslims, what does it say about them?

    They need to catch up with technology before making any statements concerning these websites. This verges on “dictatorship”.

    Reni P.

    I wonder why my fellow Muslims in Indonesia keep quiet about these ulema trying to rule on every single aspect of our lives.

    Come on, speak out, do something. This country is moving backward into the Dark Ages.

    Diyan

     

  • johnpi 1:59 pm on May 18, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , fatwas

    Scholar who issued adult breastfeeding fatwa has been rehired at Al Azhar by court decree.

     

  • Kawthar 6:48 am on May 10, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , fatwas, , Pigs

    It’s permissible to slaughter pigs, because of they’re Jewish origins.

     

  • Kawthar 1:40 am on April 18, 2009 | 1 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: fatwas

    Fatwa Overload

     

  • johnpi 7:20 pm on January 22, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , fatwas, modernists,

    Conference of scholars in Saudi Arabia weigh in on the trouble with fatwas today: ‘It’s the modernists’

    Riyadh, 21 Jan. (AKI) – An international conference of ulema or religious scholars meeting in the Saudi holy city of Mecca has moved to stop what it calls ‘modernist’ fatwas or religious edicts, such as female imams or assisted reproductive technology for men. According to the Saudi daily, Arab news, around 170 scholars gathered at the International Conference on Fatwa and its Regulations and issued a ‘fatwa charter’ with guidelines on the issuing of the religious edicts.

    After the Mickey Mouse death fatwa, the tomboy fatwa and the fatwa decreeing that women need to cover one eye in public because two eyes are too seductive, the Ulema are finally tackling the problem head on: modernists.

     

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