SHARIA ON THE FIELD The page from the Web site of the Saudi newspaper Al Watan with the soccer fatwa.
Posted on 10/15/2005 11:55:21 PM PDT by neverdem
Fatwas, the legal opinions proclaimed by Islamic scholars, have proliferated in the Muslim world since the 1980's, driven by rising literacy rates and the Internet. The growth in fatwas - some of them contradictory - has led to a debate over who can legitimately issue them and has alarmed governments in the Middle East, since the decrees sometimes challenge state-sanctioned interpretations of Islam.
Yet criticizing fatwas about divisive issues like the propriety of killing civilians and Shiites can be dangerous for officials. So the Saudi government is trying a different tactic, zeroing in on what it considers frivolous fatwas in order to rally support for tougher measures on who can and who cannot issue opinions. Recently, Al Watan, a semiofficial Saudi daily newspaper, reported that a young athlete had joined the jihad in Iraq under the influence of a fatwa forbidding playing soccer by regular rules. The newspaper also republished the fatwa, said to have originally appeared on an Islamic Web site. Portions of the fatwa, which I translated from the Arabic, follow.
- GEOFF D. PORTER
IN the name of God the merciful and benevolent:
1. Play soccer without four lines because this is a fabrication of the heretics' international rules that stipulate using them and delineating them before playing.
2. International terminology that heretics and polytheists use, like "foul," "penalty," "corner," "goal," "out" and others, should be abandoned and not said. Whoever says them should be punished, reprimanded and ejected from the game. He should be publicly told, "You have imitated the heretics and polytheists and this is forbidden."
3. Do not call "foul" and stop the game if someone falls and sprains a hand or foot or the ball touches his hand, and do not give a yellow or red card to whoever was responsible for the...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Islamic soccer? Let me guess, the ball is an infidel head.
***God Is in the Rules...***
The slimes will call allah "God" in their paper - but they won't call the muslim fanatics "terrorists".
"IN the name of God the merciful and benevolent:"
Every time they translate the word "Allah" as God it drives me crazy.
Allah is the false moon rock god of subhuman butchers.
This article is so surreal that it sounds like satire.
> This article is so surreal that it sounds like satire.
Surreal all right. Moooslim religious decrees may carry authority in Saudi, but the Times implies a legal standing for Islam *here* when it talks about "the legal opinions proclaimed by Islamic scholars...in the name of God," and "a debate over who [ie, the need for someone who] can legitimately issue them." Do you see that hideous shadow around the corner? That's Sharia.
Old game/new rules?
“The game of Squamish is played on a 5-sided field known as a Flutney. The two teams line up at opposite sides of the Flutney and play seven Ogres of fifteen minutes each – unless it rains, in which case they play eight Ogres. “The defending right Outside Grouch signifies that he is ready to hurl the Pritz by shouting, ‘Mi Tio es infermo, pero la carretera es verde!’ – a wise old Chilean proverb that means,
Amateur Squamish players are strictly forbidden to accept subsidies, endorse products, make collect phone calls or eat garlic. Otherwise, they lose their amateur standing. A player may turn Pro, however, merely by throwing a game.
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