Bangladeshi Woman Arrested In Muslim/Hindu "Lesbian" Case

This story out of Bangladesh couldn't be more bizarre. An inter-faith, underage, lesbian same-sex marriage, along with allegations- by the father of the Muslim 22-year-old Sanjida Akter- of  Jinn (evil spirit) possession.  According to her dad, she has eloped before, and he blames a Jinn for turning his daughter into a lesbian at age 9.

Apparently, Sanjida and the 16-year-old Hindu girl met 6 months ago when Sanjida was hired as a tutor. She was fired when the teen's dad noticed they were getting a tad too close:

"I did not like her attitude and told my wife not to allow her at home."

That's when his daughter disappeared.  However, he doesn't buy the homosexual angle, and is convinced his daughter was abducted.

"..[he] claims the relationship is not a homosexual one, but rather a ploy by the older woman to extort money from his family by seducing his daughter.
[snip]
"Suddenly I received a call demanding 300,000 taka ($38,530) as ransom. I informed the police and they finally located the girls."

The girls beg to differ. When they were arrested they told police they loved each other and that they were "married under Hindu traditions."

Sanjida was arrested on kidnapping charges, although she denies it.

"No one will ever lodge any complaint against me. Not even [this girl] as I did not abduct her. She went with me willingly," she told the newspaper before going to jail.

Islamic Exorcism of Christian Jinns- Video

Here's a little entertainment for your Saturday afternoon. An Islamic exorcism. Part of a 'reality show', at least so claims the Jinn 'exorcist', part Tunisian, part American Sheikh Ben Halima Abderraouf who lives in France but is currently in Tunisia doing his thing.

Jinn's are genies mentioned in the Quran, they can be Muslim, or Christian, good, evil or neutral, they have free will, live in a parallel universe, and they possess people. Naturally, the Christian ones are evil, and according to Abderraouf  must convert to Islam or be killed.

In this video, a Jinn catcher- someone who allows themselves to get possessed by the Jinn possessing another individual- is exorcised by converting to Islam. Other Christian Jinns are also summoned, as is a Shaytan (a devil) who, in this case, is Jewish, because "they are the worst."

All pretty darn bizarre, and very laughable, except when the woman screams.

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.

Photo source