Posted on 06/12/2007 10:58:22 AM PDT by siunevada
CAIRO: First came the breast-feeding fatwa: It declared that the Islamic restriction on unmarried men and women being together could be lifted at work if the woman breast-fed her male colleagues five times. Then came the urine fatwa: It said that drinking the urine of the Prophet Muhammad was deemed a blessing.
For the past few weeks, the breast-feeding and urine fatwas have proved a source of national embarrassment in Egypt, not least because they were issued by representatives of the highest religious authorities in the land.
"We were very angered when we heard about the Danish cartoons concerning our Prophet," ..... "However, these two fatwas are harming our Islamic religion and our Prophet more than the cartoons."
For many Muslims, fatwas, or religious edicts, are the bridge between the principles of their faith and modern life. They are supposed to be issued by religious scholars who look to the Koran and teachings of the Prophet Muhammad for guidance.
While the more sensational pronouncements grab attention, the bulk of the fatwas involve the routine of daily life. In Egypt alone, thousands are issued every month.
The controversy in Cairo has been more than just embarrassing. It comes at a time when religious and political leaders say there is a crisis in Islam because too many fatwas are being issued and many rely on ideology more than learning.
****
Technically, the fatwa is nonbinding and recipients are free to shop around for a better ruling. In a faith with no central doctrinal authority, there has been an explosion of places offering fatwas, ....
"There is chaos now," Megawer said. "The problem created is confusion in thought, confusion about what is right and what is wrong religiously."
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
Yeh, that’s right. Cover your head for “modesty”, then go to work and rip off your blouse to breastfeed your co-workers. Works for me!
It’s loony for sure, but no loonier than some of the pronouncements by ultra-Orthodox Jewish rabbis. A few years back some rabbi representing the Cohanim (hereditary Jewish priesthood, i.e. “Cohen”) announced that it had been determined that the prohibition on Cohanim walking through graveyards meant they also couldn’t fly in an airplane that flew directly above a graveyard, and asked El Al to change its flight paths accordingly. El resisted, so some of the loony-bins went back to their scriptures and came to the brilliant conclusion that it would be permissible for them to fly in airplanes directly over graveyards if they were securedly zipped into body bags during that portion of the flight. So they informed El Al that at the appropriate times during flights, they would be getting out their body bags and climbing into them and zipping themselves in. El Al, to its credit, told them where they could stuff that idea (and some of the loony-bins found reasons why this plan wouldn’t satisfy their religious requirements anyway). Last I heard, El Al had caved, and re-routed some flight paths.
http://www.jewishmediaresources.com/ncarticle/247/
http://chareidi.shemayisrael.com/archives5762/vaera/VE62abengrion.htm
The cohanim also have issues with hospitals, roads, museums, and just about everything else, and have demanded accommodations including architectural changes and special signage. Muslims don’t have a corner on loonyism, especially in that part of the world.
http://chareidi.shemayisrael.com/archives5766/KRH66features.htm
And don’t miss this insightful explanation of the urgent need for pregnant women (not just of the cohanim families, but all followers of this particular brand of loonyism) not to come into contact with finger or toe nail clippings (excerpt: “Before Adam sinned, he was entirely covered by a protective nail-like substance. After sinning, he lost it and all that remained were the fingernails. Since Woman caused this loss of these “nails”, she is disposed to be punished through nails.”)
http://www.shemayisrael.com/pipermail/daf-discuss_shemayisrael.co.il/2007-January/001252.html
I'm having trouble grasping the practical implications of this one. I mean, he's dead, right? So where is anybody going to get the necessary substance for this "blessing"?
That’s a great idea!
Oh, good heavens. There’s nothing in the Hebrew scriptures that would support such lunacy.
A new poll of Palestinians revealed that 51% support the rocket attacks on Israel even though 66% say the attacks provide no real benefit to the Palestinians. “It’s a matter of pride,” explained poll respondent Yusef Ashat. “Pursuing benefits is the way of the Jew. We are not like that. It is better that no one benefits than that one Jew should enjoy a moment’s respite on the path to his extermination.”
read more...
http://www.azconservative.org/Semmens1.htm
I’m sure if you dig around the obscure depths of the Talmud and Kabbalah, you can find the scriptural “basis” for this lunacy. Whether it’s crazy Muslims or crazy Jews, it’s really the same bizarre ultra-literalism, with tortured interpretations and applications, that lead to patently absurd conclusions whose absurdity is simply dismissed as irrelevant. Another winner is that in the very Orthodox interpretations of Judaism, if your wife and mother of your children is raped, you have to throw her out of the house permanently. Lovely.
I’m not anti-Jewish, but don’t like the hypocrisy of pointing to outlandish beliefs and practices of certain segments of the Muslim population and asserting these as evidence that all Muslims are uncivilized lunatics, while giving ultra-Orthodox Jews a free pass by politely neglecting to mention their comparable beliefs and practices.
So it’s obvious you know nothing about Islam.
Anyone can chime in with the “brave” and “bold” “all religions are equally absurd” nonsense... but that just means you know equally nothing about any of them.
Thanks for playing.
Chaos within Islam? Whooda thunk it? < /sarcasm>
the infowarrior
I wouldn’t necessarily draw a parallel between a fatwa and an indulgence. An indulgence is more along the lines of a quid pro quo, and both parties are generally happy with the outcome.
Fatwas seem to be more along the lines of a “Dear Achmed” advice column or call in show. When anyone and everyone can be an authority, no one is an authority.
This decentralization of authority seems to spawn some very strange crackpot groups and ideas, which has probably contributed to the tribal “us vs. them” mentality you see all over the Middle East.
One can say “all religions are the same”...but one cannot say all adherents of all religions act the same.
Fact is, if someone blew up a bus today, the chance he/she was a Muslim is almost 100%.
And please don’t try to equivocate by telling me this or that abortion clinic bomber was a Christian, because no Christian leaders/movements/churches defend this type of behavior.
When a Muslim commits Jihad, all you hear from the Muslims is how he was either justified or framed (but either way, we “had it coming”).
There is a substantial difference here - I have never seen Orthodox Jews sawing someone's head off while chanting Yahweh is Great.
Muslims engage in fartwar world-wide!
No, they’re not the same, though the present-day violent tendencies of a big chunk of the Muslims world probably have more to do with politics than religion. And a few hundred years ago, a substantial of chunk of the Christian world was engaging in barbaric practices, both within its own societies and on “crusades” to non-Christian lands. Again, I don’t think the specifics of Christian theology are to blame. When people are inclined towards barbarism and live in a culture which claims any ancient scriptures as the ultimate truth and law, they’ll have no trouble finding justification for barbarism in their scriptures. But absurd religion-based beliefs and practices such as those cited in this article are certainly not unique to Islam (or to Islam and Judaism), and are therefore not valid evidence of Islam being somehow uniquely uncivilized. The breast-feeding thing is just a laughable indication of the subconscious yearnings of that particular fatwa-issuer.
Mohammed the Founder of Islam was involved in 22 battles.
Islam was spread by the sword from the very beginning, and never really ceased.
Peruse Jihadwatch.com, they document how Jihad is part of Muslim theology.
Politics and religion are one and the same in the "muslim world. No separation of church and state.
Are you standing in for US Admirer?
Which Star Wars?
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