A fatwa a day keeps the doctor away-

November 15, 2007 at 11:46 pm · Filed under Arabisms, Seriously

- so how about a 1000? Including ones that not only keep the doctor away, but actually put you in the grave forever.

CAIRO, Nov 8 (Reuters) – Egypt’s highest authority on Islamic law said on Thursday that drivers cannot be blamed for killing people who stand in front of their vehicles, just days after a police van ran over a woman who tried to stop it. Dar al-Iftaa, the government agency which issues around 1,000 fatwas a day, denies its rulings are influenced by politics but opponents said the statement could have been issued to defuse criticism of the government linked to Sunday’s death. Human rights groups say that in northeast Cairo on Sunday a police minibus ran over Reda Shehata when the driver tried to dislodge her from the front of the vehicle. She was clinging to the minibus to plead for the release of her sister-in-law, who had just been detained, they said. Police officials said the woman threw herself in front of the vehicle. “Murder resulting from the intention of the murdered to commit suicide (by) standing in front of cars so that the driver cannot avoid him is not manslaughter,” Dar al-Iftaa said in a statement sent to Reuters.

[Source Reuters via emoodz]

Welcome to the day and age of fatwa vending machines.




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  • http://www.thescatterload.com Hamzeh N.

    “Murder resulting from the intention of the murdered to commit suicide (by) standing in front of cars so that the driver cannot avoid him is not manslaughter,”

    I think the law in Jordan says that the driver is always at fault regardless of how the accident happened.

    I think that’s not the same in other countries though. I’m pretty sure if a court in the US determined that the victim of a run-over had the intention of committing suicide, the driver would be found innocent of manslaughter, assuming the driver wasn’t speeding or driving recklessly.

    In any case, it doesn’t sound like this fatwa applies to the story about the Egyptian woman and the police, as it is obvious from the story that her intention was not to commit suicide.

  • iMaD

    One more reason to avoid egypt :)

  • ordoni 6afshan

    “Murder resulting from the intention of the murdered to commit suicide (by) standing in front of cars so that the driver cannot avoid him is not manslaughter,”

    it sounds very reasonable to me. as a statement. i dont know why its not to you. like Hamzeh said before, even in a real courl of law, US or not, this can exanorate the driver if proven that the intention was cuicide with lack of mistakes from driver side, dont you think?

    alazhar though, is never my cup of tea:D i suspect every word coming out of that place. and its not a secret at all, its an official well known fact that the head of ifta2 is appointed by mubarak, enough said. (head of azhar? head of da2irat il ifta2? mufti ma9r? i dont quite remmeber).

    i dont deny at all that fatawi il azhar can be influinced by politics, at least thats what it appears to observers like us sometimes, Allaho 2a3lam about how it goes inside.

    nevertheless, its interesting hwo you always seem to notice and post about negative remarks related to religion in a way or another, some fatwa mashbooha, somethign ikhwan muslimeen did, mo9alleeen parking cars in a way that annoys you, (not that i am with ikhwan, or ilazhar, or paking the wrong way at all) it seems that any time you mention religion its about a negative observation you came up with. why is that roba? no positive observation at all deserve mentioning in your blog? since you take the trouble of noticing the negative things?

    1000 fatwa a day are all bad to you because one fatwa that sounds good can be related to a case of “7aq yorado bihi ba6il”if used by the government? you do realize that these 1000 fatwa solve 1000 problems regarding zawaj and 6alaq and 7alal and 7aram and commercial and industry and whatnot a day no?

    thats hardly in the same zip code of basic logic of 7iyad.

  • http://www.american-in-jordan.com Dave

    1,000 fatwas a day? Who can keep up with that? And who do these guys think they are?

  • http://hareega.blogspot.com Hareega

    Hamzeh, the woman here was protesting, the policemen should have removed her from the front of the vehicle (even if they had to use force), but just to run over her is MURDER.
    Even if she was depreesed and schizophrenic and bipolar -and i’m pretty sure they’ll come up with something to “prove that- that doesn’t mean that she wanted to kill herself.

  • طفيلي( ahmad)

    hahahahahahahaahahahh….I am very happy to disappoint you ‘secular people’ who are waiting to mock Islam.
    The first point is you are educated people and should not believe anything published by newspaper. The people who have got fair mind , they check the news from different sources.
    The second point is the elmofti did press conference to dismiss this allegation, he said , the fatwa was published to tell people , they are doing sin , he issued the fatwa last july where the accident was taken place two weeks ago.

    The tabload newspaper did this connection between the two story, the elmofti can not predic the future and made the fatwa in July for accident occurred in November.

    Next time , you must check the news many times before posting false news …do not be like Fox news .

  • طفيلي( ahmad)
  • http://www.thescatterload.com Hamzeh N.

    Hareega, I know that. That’s why I said:

    In any case, it doesn’t sound like this fatwa applies to the story about the Egyptian woman and the police, as it is obvious from the story that her intention was not to commit suicide.

  • Ahmad Al-Sholi

    Ahmad Al-Tafili,
    The mofti seems confident, and as he claims all can be proven by documents. However, I agree with the content of that fatwa, a suicide is a suicide, and sometimes pedistrians make mistakes, not all can be drivers’ mistakes.
    The one thing I would like to add is that secularism is not to be attcked broadly. Digest secular as civil, secular system introduce laws that are tied with democracy. Laws that regulate people lives and not their beliefs. I am accountable infront my society based on laws that regulate our shared society. Beliefs and background vary, religions help many people be better people yet they can not be a ground for social agreed upon standards. Secularism is not as bad, Turkey is just a version of it.

  • http://moeys.net Moey

    fatwas crack me up

  • طفيلي( ahmad)

    Ahmad Al-Sholi

    I agree with you and am not saying that secularism is harem. I am also interested in Turkey and how government makes balance between the Islamic values and secular system. i wish we have system like that in Arab world where there is democracy and freedom of speech .
    I support freedom before support Islamic values to apply on my society. When there is freedom, i will enjoy more for being Muslim. And know my religion better. There are more than 20 million Muslims who live in secular systems and they haven’t got big problem for practicing their religion
    Our problem is old traditions which do not respect basic things for human.

  • Ahmad Al-Sholi

    Turkey definitely improved since the 1930s when secularism took over. The problem that it was not chosen by people as the military always backed it up. In fact, this was the first time that the army did not stretch their muscles!
    They used to coup any party or candidate that opposed them. Imagine an army being a guardian of a political system??? I would not consider as stable and democratic :)

  • http://hareega.blogspot.com Hareega

    Ahmed Al-Tafili,
    Thanks for the calrification you’ve mentioned. Just a quick comment on what you said about mocking Islam, criticizing a religous man is not mocking his religion- whatever it is-. I see some pastors or priests who are nutjobs even criminals and I don’t hesitate to criticize them, and I’m sure there are a few sheikhs who come up with crazy ideas and they should not get away with it just for being sheikhs. Sometimes the people who appear to be the most protective of a religion are the people hurting it the most.

  • طفيلي( ahmad)

    Hareega

    we need to distinguish between mocking and criticizing From what i have read in Roba blog, i found her she is kind of person who has got problem with Islam or conservative society .This is my opinion based on previous dissections about infidel street topic we r were called by Gorge Bush there.

    I am kind of person who believe in dialogues even if you do not agree with me or believe in devil religion. But if you hate, disrespect and mock other believe for personal reason, that is not acceptable and i have right to talk in the same language with them

  • طفيلي( ahmad)

    Ahmad Al-Sholi

    I am interested in the Turkey democracy sicne the new government got power. The army is scared of EU and they do not to interfere for that. However, the democracy system in Jordan is not bad. I think it is too early to have full democracy like in west.

  • http://bam.bam.was.here.com bambam

    ROFLMAO

    freedom of speech in turkey ? fatwas are supposed to be taken seriously ?
    and lets not get started on its my religion and i don’t take too well to ppl pointing out whats wrong with it ….

    you ppl crack me up :)
    thanks for lighthearted post and comments and certainly keep up the good work