Egyptian Dial-A-Fatwa

Jack Kemp

Here's a bit of news for you about assimilating Muslims into American values. Read the whole thing, but here's just a taste:

http://www.asianews.it/index.php?1=en&art=7143&dos=73size=A

In Egypt – home to the most imaginative and prolific muftis – all newspapers, radio and television stations have a segment dedicated to fatwas. Two or three times a week, people call in their questions and a mufti supplies answers. There are even call-centres in Cairo that can give you a fatwa on the spot. It is lucrative business: on one side there are the fatwa specialists on the other the people that call.

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In recent months, I had fun listening to the strangest fatwas: "should or should not a launderer (laundry shops are everywhere in Egypt) handle the clothes of a woman who normally does not wear an Islamic veil?" "If a woman gets out of the bath naked and there is a dog in the apartment, has she done something forbidden? Answer: "It depends on the dog. If the dog is male, the woman has done something which is forbidden."

Another very amusing fatwa, reported by newspapers: "While I pray a woman goes by. Is my prayer valid or not?" Answer: "If a donkey, a woman, or a black dog goes by, the prayer must be repeated." The explanation is incredible: "The donkey is an impure animal; the black dog could be Satan in disguise; women are impure regardless."