Source doesn’t sound legit but still an entertaining read.
Muslim cleric: If women touch bananas they might get ideasA Muslim cleric has banned women from touching fruits and vegetables that may be too sexual.
An unidentified Muslim cleric in Europe reportedly issued a ban on women touching fruits and vegetables such as bananas, cucumbers, carrots and zucchinis because they “resemble the male penis.”
According to the Egyptian news website Bikya Masr, the cleric, whose diktat was featured in an article on a religion website, el-Senousa, said that “if women wish to eat these food items, a third party, preferably a male related to them such as their father or husband should cut the items into small pieces and serve” it to them.
According to the Times of India, liberal Muslims are fairly enraged and embarrassed. As TOI points out, “repression of women in ultra-conservative Islamic societies has been an intense subject of debate throughout the world.” The International Business Times reported that the sheikh’s comment has become a target of online mockery.
“Many of the commentators are Muslims themselves, who have expressed their anger against the cleric for making Islamic religious practices appear unreasonable,” the IBT reported.
However, some are now questioning whether this ever happened. A Canadian news site, Straight.com, questions if the story is legit.
According to the article in bikyamasr.com, the story originally appeared on something called “el-Senousa news”, but good luck finding it. In fact, a Google search for “el-Senousa news” only points back—many times over—to the article in bikyamasr.com.
The cleric’s alleged words come after a “scholarly” report by the Majlis al-Ifta al-Aala, Saudi Arabia’s highest Islamic council, warned that if women in Saudi Arabia were allowed to drive, there would be no more virgins in the country because driving may lead to a “surge in prostitution, pornography, homosexuality and divorce.”
Because it is related to islam/muslims, to show the world how dumb muslims are, so that more fun can be made and more jokes can be created and everyone (muslims and non muslims) will believe it right away so why not.
Because it is related to islam/muslims, to show the world how dumb muslims are, so that more fun can be made and more jokes can be created and everyone (muslims and non muslims) will believe it right away so why not.
Exactly!
Any Tahir, Daud or Hashim (See what I did!) can call himself a freaking cleric these days. And what with the internet, anyone can say anything they want. Why it makes news should be worrying than the content of the news. Goddamn media! Working for THE MAN!
The media doesn't have to try hard to ridicule Muslims when we do it just fine by ourselves. The sad thing is these fatwas don't usually come from no-name clerics. Remember that breast-feeding fatwa? It was issued by a professor at Al-Azhar University who happened to be head of the hadith department. Later it was re-issued in Saudi by an adviser to the royal court and consultant to the Ministry of Justice.
Media sensationalism and mindless journalism can't negate the fact that Islamic scholarship is in a sorry state.
Oh definitely, there's a lot of weird stuff that's thrown around but I'd rather read this from a renowned scholar rather than a filler story that makes it to the big leagues standing on the most unreliable of legs; an unnamed cleric.
Sidenote: Yes, the state of our more established clergy is definitely akin to something like Christian clergy in the Dark/Middle Ages. But there are some smart young fellows who are trying to knock some sense into the masses. But as it is with these things, the voice of reason is drowned amongst all the static.
Not to worry, you'll find more bizarre material from renowned scholars if you're interested. I don't know what's worse, when the author is Kook Anonymous, or the Custodians of the 2 Holy Mosques.
And yeah, it's no surprise these handful of scholars are cast aside as 'revisionists,' or worse, put on the receiving end of death threats. Try and quote their work and you get shut down. This forum is no exception. I guess the silent majority is what I find tragic. Everyone will agree we're in an abyss privately, but when it comes to fostering debate, it becomes a matter of 'defending the faith.' How can ideas evolve when you cut off the oxygen supply? Oh wells. Don't want to derail the OP's fun, please continue.
