The Stupidest Fatwas of 2011

Here's something for a good laugh: a list of the weirdest Islamic fatwas issued in 2011 courtesy of al Arabiya news.  Some I had heard of, like the banana fatwa whereby women are prohibited from eating any kind of phallic-looking fruits or veggies, because a cucumber is just so sexy. Of course, no melon fatwas for men.

But some of the others mentioned in this article must have somehow slipped by me, like the fatwa that says that necrophilia is cool, for men that is, because hey, it's not mentioned in the Quran so it must be okay. As long as they're not too dead.

In Morocco, the head of the Moroccan Association for Jurisprudence Research stirred both outrage and controversy when he issued a fatwa allowing Muslim men to have sex with their just-deceased wives under the pretext that nothing in Islam prohibits sex with corpses. This fatwa followed a series of sex-related ones issued by the same cleric.

Then there's the one Mohamed al-Zoghbi from Egypt issued last June saying that eating Jinn meat is perfectly acceptable in Islam, because of course those elusive creatures are edible, if you can find them.

Somalia's al-Shabaab, who have banned everything from women wearing bras to school bells, because they sound like church bells this year banned some little pastries (samosas) because they were too Christian looking.

In Somalia, the ultraconservative al-Shabaab al-Mujahedin Movement issued a fatwa during the holy month of Ramadan prohibiting the consumption of sambousak, a triangular pastry stuffed with meat, cheese, or vegetables. The popular snack, they explained, is a symbol of the Trinity in Christianity and is therefore not to be consumed by Muslims.

I couldn't make this up if  I wanted to. The rest aren't quite as interesting, but you can read them here, although I'm sure there were plenty more equally asinine fatwas this past year.

Can't wait for more laughs next year.

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