June 15, 2007--Fanaticism LXXIX: The House of Fatwa
Bear with me as this will take some explaining.
Among other puzzlements, I grew up attempting to understand how a very ancient religion, Judaism, my faith, with seemingly thousands of teachings, read rules, managed to reconcile itself to life in the modern world. When it came to food, for example, very dear to me at the time, where there were dozens of prohibitions, what doctrine or interpretation of the Book of Deuteronomy could speak to us in the 20th century when the first pizzeria opened in the neighborhood or when my father drove us to Coney Island where among other things we bolted down a could of Nathan’s hot dogs and a quick Coke. Neither these nor my first pepperoni pie, I was certain, were listed in either the Kosher or non-Kosher column in the Old Testament.
But somewhere, sometime the rabbis of Babylon or Brooklyn sat together and issued rulings about soft drinks, Nathan’s Famous, and pepperoni—yes to Coke but a resounding no to Italian sausages. Thus, if one were inclined, there was guidance about what to do. I, as you might imagine, feasted on all, transgressively especially liking anything labeled traif—forbidden: shrimp, bacon, lobster, and pepperoni.
So it is no surprise that another great Religion of the Book, Islam, has its own texts and methods to guide behavior more than 1,400 years after the Prophet died and left us the Koran and the hadiths, thousands of his sayings. We Jews have rabbinical decisions, Islamic folks have fatwas.
Most famous to non-Moslems is the fatwa pronounced against Salmon Rushdie after he published Satanic Verses, considered blasphemous by the ayatollahs in Iran. But most include resolutions to questions such as—should women be allowed to drive, can girls and boys go to school together, can one wear jewelry that includes a cross in its design. Like Judaism, but unlike Catholicism, Islam does not have one centralized center of authority and so one finds women driving in Egypt but not in Saudi Arabia, just as Orthodox Jews must wear yarmulkes while Reform Jews do not.
But the situation with fatwas appears to be getting out of hand. Not only is there an exploding number of sources issuing them, including on the Internet, and this is leaving Moslems either confused about what to do—wear a head scarf or not—but also shopping around among them for the best rulings. (Jews, by the way, have been known to do this too—not all rabbis of even the same denomination have the same views.)
And, according to the NY Times (article linked below), the situation with fatwas has gotten to the point where some feel there is now chaos. To illustrate—one esteemed source for them, Egypt’s Dar al-Ifta, or House of Fatwa, recently issued a ruling about a perplexing subject: in a place of business where men and women are allowed to work together, what to do about women who recently had babies and need to nurse them? Since it is forbidden for a woman "to reveal herself” to a man who is not her husband, this presents complications. Of course to accommodate working nursing mothers the place of coed employment could provide a private place for that; but in case that facility is not available, a woman, it was ruled, can nurse her child if and only if she also nursed her male co-workers. Not once, but five times. You heard me.
Let me tell you that things never got that raunchy in Brooklyn.
Among other puzzlements, I grew up attempting to understand how a very ancient religion, Judaism, my faith, with seemingly thousands of teachings, read rules, managed to reconcile itself to life in the modern world. When it came to food, for example, very dear to me at the time, where there were dozens of prohibitions, what doctrine or interpretation of the Book of Deuteronomy could speak to us in the 20th century when the first pizzeria opened in the neighborhood or when my father drove us to Coney Island where among other things we bolted down a could of Nathan’s hot dogs and a quick Coke. Neither these nor my first pepperoni pie, I was certain, were listed in either the Kosher or non-Kosher column in the Old Testament.
But somewhere, sometime the rabbis of Babylon or Brooklyn sat together and issued rulings about soft drinks, Nathan’s Famous, and pepperoni—yes to Coke but a resounding no to Italian sausages. Thus, if one were inclined, there was guidance about what to do. I, as you might imagine, feasted on all, transgressively especially liking anything labeled traif—forbidden: shrimp, bacon, lobster, and pepperoni.
So it is no surprise that another great Religion of the Book, Islam, has its own texts and methods to guide behavior more than 1,400 years after the Prophet died and left us the Koran and the hadiths, thousands of his sayings. We Jews have rabbinical decisions, Islamic folks have fatwas.
Most famous to non-Moslems is the fatwa pronounced against Salmon Rushdie after he published Satanic Verses, considered blasphemous by the ayatollahs in Iran. But most include resolutions to questions such as—should women be allowed to drive, can girls and boys go to school together, can one wear jewelry that includes a cross in its design. Like Judaism, but unlike Catholicism, Islam does not have one centralized center of authority and so one finds women driving in Egypt but not in Saudi Arabia, just as Orthodox Jews must wear yarmulkes while Reform Jews do not.
But the situation with fatwas appears to be getting out of hand. Not only is there an exploding number of sources issuing them, including on the Internet, and this is leaving Moslems either confused about what to do—wear a head scarf or not—but also shopping around among them for the best rulings. (Jews, by the way, have been known to do this too—not all rabbis of even the same denomination have the same views.)
And, according to the NY Times (article linked below), the situation with fatwas has gotten to the point where some feel there is now chaos. To illustrate—one esteemed source for them, Egypt’s Dar al-Ifta, or House of Fatwa, recently issued a ruling about a perplexing subject: in a place of business where men and women are allowed to work together, what to do about women who recently had babies and need to nurse them? Since it is forbidden for a woman "to reveal herself” to a man who is not her husband, this presents complications. Of course to accommodate working nursing mothers the place of coed employment could provide a private place for that; but in case that facility is not available, a woman, it was ruled, can nurse her child if and only if she also nursed her male co-workers. Not once, but five times. You heard me.
Let me tell you that things never got that raunchy in Brooklyn.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
11:52 AM
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