Fatwa - What are they and boy are some of those religious leaders nutty

In a 2000 Fatwa titled “The Transmitted and Sensory Proofs of the Rotation of the Sun and Stillness of the Earth”, Saudi Arabian Grand Mufti Sheikh Ibn Baaz asserted that the earth was flat and disk-like and that the sun revolved around it. He had insisted that satellite images to the contrary were nothing but a Western conspiracy against the Islamic world.


Source: Al-Ahram Weekly Issue 477, 13-19 April, 2000.




In 1988, publication of Salman Rushdie’s novel “The Satanic Verses” led Iranian revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini to issue a fatwa against Rushdie, with a huge bounty for his death. This triggered several attacks on the novel’s translators, publishers and booksellers, including the murder of Japanese translator Hitoshi Igarashi. Millions of Muslims around the world who had never read a single line of the book, and who had never even met Rushdie before, wanted him dead. Interesting fact, 24% of Iranians at the time couldn’t even read.

Source: “The West Is Choked by Fear”, Der Speigel Jan 4, 2010, Henryk Broder


 
 

"Fatwa: Emoticons are Un-Islamic," from the Jawa Report, November 12, 2008:

"Emoticons are forbidden because of its imitation to Allah’s creatures whether it is original or mixture or even deformed one and since the picture is the face and the face is what makes the real picture then emoticons which represent faces that express emotions then all that add up to make them Haram."

Another fatwa states the following:

"A woman should not use these images when speaking to a man who is not her mahram, because these faces are used to express how she is feeling, so it is as if she is smiling, laughing, acting shy and so on, and a woman should not do that with a non-mahram man.

It is only permissible for a woman to speak to men in cases of necessity, so long as that is in a public chat room and not in private correspondence."


 

Polio is actually increasing in India, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Why? Because an anti-polio fatwa by anti-Western clerics forbid Pakistani children from immunizations, because the clerics are saying the vaccine is a conspiracy to make Muslims sterile. Ironically, it’s the clerics’ plans that would produce this result, as dead/paralytic kids don’t breed all that much.


Source: “POLIO ERADICATION: Looking for a Little Luck”, Roberts Science 6 February 2009






In 2007, the former dean of Islamic law at al-Azhar University in Cairo issued a fatwa that nudity during sexual intercourse invalidates a marriage between husband and wife. Debate was immediate. Suad Saleh, head of the women’s department of Al-Azhar’s Islamic studies, pleaded for “anything that can bring spouses closer to each other” and Islamic scholar Abdel Muti concurred, saying “Nothing is prohibited during marital sex, except of course sodomy.”


For his part, Al-Azhar’s fatwa committee chairman Abdullah Megawar backpedaled and said that married couples could see each other naked but should really cover up with a blanket during sex.







 
 
 
 
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Hair Color: Un-Islamic

Colouring the hair black un-Islamic, says Sunni forum

Dec 31, 2008 (IANS) A supreme forum of the Sunnis here has issued a fatwa (religious decree) that colouring the hair black is un-Islamic.The Darul Ifta of Deoband issued the fatwa saying, “Applying black colour in hair is unlawful.” The fatwa was issued in response to a question posted at its official website.

The question read: “My brother is 26-year-old. His hair are turning white due to natural factors, please tell whether applying black colour in hair is permissible or not.”

Replying to the question, the Muftis said: “We have been sternly prohibited in Hadith (Prophet’s saying) from doing so (colouring hair). Therefore, it is unlawful.”

A prominent Sunni cleric, Maulana Khalid Rasheed, said: “As colouring of hair amounts to deception, the fatwa has been issued against using the colour.” Rasheed heads Lucknow’s oldest Islamic seminary.

However, Shia clerics have voiced their objections against the fatwa.

Maulana Yasoob Abbas, spokesperson for the All India Shia Personal Law Board, said: “Fatwas must be issued in religious matters and not social.”






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