Wednesday, January 14, 2015

"Saudi cleric issues fatwa on snowmen"

"Asked on a religious website if it was permissible for fathers to build snowmen for their children after a snowstorm in the country’s north, Sheikh Mohammed Saleh al-Munajjid replied: “It is not permitted to make a statue out of snow, even by way of play and fun.”"
“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 in his ruling.

That provoked swift responses from Twitter users writing in Arabic and identifying themselves with Arab names. 
Lego Snowman
“They are afraid for their faith of everything ... sick minds,” one Twitter user wrote.

Another posted a photo of a man in formal Arab garb holding the arm of a “snow bride” wearing a bra and lipstick. “The reason for the ban is fear of sedition,” he wrote.

9 comments:

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Looks like the Japanese are going to have to loosen up the old-timers like Sheikh Mohammed Saleh al-Munajjid if they're ever going to have a vast Islamic market for their sex robots.

Unknown said...

I say we bomb blast the Islamo-delicates with millions of hello kity paraphernalia.

Amartel said...

Good to see the derisive responses, apparently from Muslims.

bagoh20 said...

It's about time! I was hoping global warming would get them by now, but that crap is just not reliable - no matter how how hard leftists pray for it. Maybe the this will get them to hide their frozen asses so we can start up the jacuzzi again. I hate snowmen and everything they are made of.

Paddy O said...

Not that it matters, but this is pretty consistent, as far as I know, with Islamic rules against any human portrait.

It's silly because snowmen are silly, but seeing snow as yet another medium of art brings it into the customs of other artistic mediums. Create what you like, but don't portray people in any way.

There's no oil painting or marble sculptures allowed either. So, really, the Saudi cleric is making an official statement on a medium that wouldn't have really been an issue in previous centuries in most Islamic countries.

I'll admit to being a bit of an iconoclast myself in terms of religious art. And as a Southern California, I think people in colder climates need to check their snow privilege.

AllenS said...

I suppose that making a snow angel is out of the question.

ricpic said...

I can't get past the fact that it snowed in Saudi Arabia! I don't think Saudi Arabia has any mountains or even highlands. And at that longitude....

I wonder if it's ever snowed in Egypt?

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

I don't know about snow, but it once hailed in Egypt.

Hailed pretty hard they tell me.

But that was a while ago.

William said...

Suppose some abstract expressionist drew a straight line on a white canvas and called it a portrait of Mohammed. Would he be eligible for decapitation?.....Western writers used to envy Soviet writers because they were the only writers whose work was considered heroic and important by their readers.. Something like that is going on with the French cartoonists. Theyve achieved heroic martyrdom, but it seems to me that a cleric who considers a snowman Harum has done a much better job of satirizing the Islamic faith,