Frozen Fatwa
The Times published one of the best stories of the week with a report on a religious leader in Saudi Arabia who has issued a 'fatwa' against snowmen which some citizens have responded to with good humour by building 'snowwomen' wearing burkhas.
Now that is funny and if you ask me, the world would be a much better place if this story and the 'graven' images involved were front page news.
The fatwa is being ignored by many
By Tom Coghlan - The Times
A prominent Saudi Arabian cleric has put a freeze on winter fun in his homeland with a fatwa stating that snowmen were against the teachings of Islam.
The religious scholar issued the ban after an exceptionally rare fall of snow in Tabuk province, in the northwest.
“It is not permitted to make a statue out of snow, even by way of play and fun,” said Sheikh Saleh al-Munajjid, 55, on his website yesterday.
Saudi Arabia practises the Salafi school of Islam, which enforces a literal interpretation of Sharia, including public beheading, flogging and social edicts such as a ban on women drivers. In the ruling, Sheikh Munajjid stated that snow could only legitimately be shaped in ways that did not depict either humanity or animals. His edict was not officially recognised by the council that monitors fatwas.
“God has given people space to make whatever they want which does not have a soul, including trees, ships, fruits, buildings and so on,” he wrote. Some Saudi Arabians ventured to disagree and posted images on the internet of snowmen and in some cases burkha clad snowwomen.
One wrote that the country was overrun by two types of people: “A people looking for a fatwa for everything in their lives, and a cleric who wants to interfere in everything in the lives of others through a fatwa.” Others agreed with the ruling: “It [building snowmen] is imitating the infidels, it promotes lustiness and eroticism,” wrote one. “May God preserve the scholars, for they enjoy sharp vision and recognise matters that even Satan does not think about,” wrote another.
In 2009 Sheikh Munajjid issued a fatwa against Mickey Mouse. He also condemned the Beijing Olympics as the “bikini Olympics”.
