An interesting article published in Al-Watan newspaper last week mentioned a fatwa (religious edict) from a sheikh here that had been published on the Internet. It said that playing soccer was sinful in Islam if it did not abide by certain rules. The rules it specified were as follows:
1. That players should not wear T-shirts with numbers on them, trousers, or shorts, and only play with their sleeping clothes, as wearing the previously mentioned items would be copying the infidels.
2. That there be three periods instead of two, so that it would not comply with the international standards of soccer set by the infidels.
3. That players should spit in the face of the striker if he rejoices in scoring a goal in the opposing team’s net, as the purpose of the game is to be fit only, not for rejoicing in scoring.
4. The utterance of all words such as “foul”, “penalty”, “out”, and others is sinful since they are made up by the infidels who set soccer rules. There should also not be a crowd watching or cheering the game.
The fatwa goes on, but I think I will stop here. According to press reports, three Saudi players of a local football club in Taif named “Al-Rasheed” left their team because of the fatwa, and also left the country to join the jihadists in Iraq.
It is sad when a simple thing such as playing a soccer game that revives one’s soul and is good for the body and spirit becomes a tool of extremism used by some to spread their venom and message of hatred, radicalism, and intolerance.
Instead of those three Saudi players enjoying themselves and making use of their leisure time in something that would benefit them, they have now been brainwashed by a fatwa and have gone to the extreme. From being good citizens they have now become the worst of humanity: Sleeping suicide bombers.
Over the years, and since the Internet came to the Kingdom, fatwas by people who claim to be sheikhs have been published left and right, poisoning the minds of the younger generation and also taking people’s intelligence for granted. Last year, a colleague in Arab News told me of a fatwa by a unpopular sheikh on the Internet who said that it was sinful in Islam for a woman to log on the Internet on her own without a male guardian. Such a fatwa, in my opinion, is sickening. That a person who claims to be a student of Islam doubts the intentions of all Muslim females who log on to the Internet and judges them for misdeeds, is pure prejudice. The Internet, as any other tool, can be used for good or bad. Males are just as responsible as females are when they log on the net. Why should females be doubted only? This fatwa coincides with other nonsense we hear from sheikhs, some of them on our national radio and television, who say that “women are the core of all evil in the world. They should be subdued and looked after carefully.”
I wonder what would be allowable for us to do in Islam if we were to follow these fatwas? It is obvious the people issuing these fatwas got Islam figured out all wrong. The basic rule in Islam of everything being permissible unless it is proven harmful, has been turned upside down. These guys, it seems, have it that the basic ruling is that everything is sinful and not permissible, unless it is proved useful.
We all know about the fatwa that says that traveling to the land of the infidels is a grave sin in Islam except for medical treatment or studying. And what about the one that says that a woman would be sinning if she wore high heels, since the sound of it clicking on the floor would seduce men? Another one says that wearing jeans is sinful, since that is the dress of the infidel.
And let’s not forget about the fatwa against obtaining a satellite dish, the fatwa against using a mobile phone with a camera, the fatwa against greeting non-Muslims, etc.
I once had an American pen pal in the US who had recently embraced Islam. She was a single mother raising two children. One of her children was handicapped. The girl relied on a dog to be her eyes and ears wherever she went. In fact, she even had a court order by law that said the dog could even go with her to school and anywhere in public. When the lady embraced Islam, and because she was a frequent visitor to Islamic websites in English, she was getting tons of e-mails from extremists telling her to get rid of the dog since it was sinful to have one. They also were trying to encourage her to pull her two children out of the school band, since they told her that music, whether listening to it or playing it, was sinful in Islam.
She did not heed their calls. She insisted on keeping the dog and also kept her children in the band. “I do not think God is going to send my little girl to Hell for competing in the school band with other children,” she told me.
My American friend told me that the reason she embraced Islam was because of its simplicity. Besides believing in one God as the Creator, his angels and messengers, Islam basically encourages anything that is good for mankind and discourages anything that is not good for mankind. There are no complications, she told me.
If only other Muslims out there, particularly those who issue fatwas, knew that.
