Muhammad al-Arifi, a Wahhabi religious cleric, is being widely quoted on web sites like Salon as issuing a fatwa that allowed jihadists in Syria fighting the government to enter into “intercourse marriage” that has been taken as authorizing the rape of Syrian women. Al-Arifi is quoted as expressing concern that Saudis fighting with the opposition have not been with a woman in two years and must be allowed to take care of their “sexual problems.” [One supporter has insisted the fatwa was not issued].
He is further quoted as restricting the fatwa to Syrian females at least 14 years old, widowed or divorced. Al-Arifi is quoted as saying that such sexual assaults “boost[] the determination of the mujahideen in Syria and is considered a duty to enter paradise for those females who enter such marriages.”
He has been repeatedly quoted for extreme views such as instructing his followers on the proper way to beat their wives and the marriage of underaged girls.
Various groups have come forward to denounce the reported fatwa.
NickS,
The church was only paying for advertizing skills. You must know that.
Why don’t they send Kathy Griffin downtown over there?
I looked at the source and there’s nothing the guy says about rape. He’s simply saying it’s OK to have sex outside marriage (otherwise forbidden under Islam). I’m sure he’s a terrible person and all, but his enemies lose credibility by making false claims.
ID, The Catholic Church did support the Arts. It has raped, pillaged, murdered and molested..but it did support the arts.
Here comes Malisha while I am contemplating off line composing my comment.
She puts in a single chain in one context quite succinctly. Bravo.
One: Can we give any religion credit for social advancement or civilizational ones?
Two: This is the result in 3 instances of basing your beliefs and social norms on ancient scrifts from ca ?,000 BCE, ca 30 CE, and 639 CE.
Otherwise good ideas, Ralph Adamo’s excepted,
BTW, the fatwah is scriptually sanctioned even in the Bible, which is where most of Islam came from. So how many are the Christians and Muslims together? The sequel question is did they get married afterwards, and did he fulfill his other husbandly duties to a wife taken by raping? Doubt it.
But, WTF, our churches sanction useless cruel wars where we bleed and a military chaplain doesn’t go in the front lines anymore.
Vial=vile. If inappropriate? Who cares? It falls under the category´of human opinion, questionable but allowed anyway.
As long as countries allow Wahhabi (aka Kingdom) sponsored mosques and schools ( from Britain to Pakistan and now Zanzibar) these kind of people will go from strength to strength.
See, here’s an example of very old and very stable beliefs:
1. Men are entitled to do whatever they want to solve their “sexual problems”;
2. Women exist for the benefit of men and only BAD WOMEN fail to see this;
3. Bad women need to be disciplined by having men subdue them;
4. Do not subdue someone ELSE’s woman; that is, never rape a MARRIED woman because she is not “a woman” — she is “some other man’s woman”;
5. Religion exists for the purpose of controlling behavior. Where men are in charge of the religion, they are entitled to control the behavior of women.
raff, my first thought as well.
What Mike, Justice Holmes and W=^..^ said.
And junctionshaumus for good measure.
How is this any different than what christians have done in the past (e.g. condoning slavery, witch burnings, scarlet letters, etc.)?
All religions do the same things, inciting atrocities when they have the power to get away with them. The only difference is the point in history when they do them.
This is a bit similar to the mentality used to claim women’s bodies can shut down after being raped!
Fundamentalist? Not hardly necessary. It’s far more basic than that. As I’ve said before, wheverever there are Muslims in any concentration, there will be Murder, Madness, and Mayhem. It is the Muslim Mantra.
There is no other “politically correct” expression of this reality. Blaming the “fundamentalists” is simply Islamo-pandering that merely advances the expression of the Muslim Mantra.
Yes, I know, calling the Muslim Mantra what it really is makes you vulnerable to being labeled a “bigot” and/or an “Islamophobe,” especially by leftists. But you should recall that not too long ago, the leftists cheered on the cause of the “rebels” against Mubarak, for example, to allow Egypt to take on a more “democratic” form of government. Intelligent people knew better, and knew that history repeats itself (or at least “rhyms”), and that the leftists were merely setting Egypt to become another Iran. But the Muslim Mantra took hold of Egpyt, just as the anti-leftists said it would. It always does.
So, feel free to borrow my language of “murder and mayhem”–whether unconsciously or not–but do not distort reality. It is the Muslim Mantra, not the “Fundmentalist Muslim Mantra.”
Time to unleash our secret weapon; where is Lorena Bobbitt when you need her?
Sounds like this “reported” fundamentalism is an example of why Mayr called human intelligence a lethal mutation.
aaaaaaaaaand another dam good argument to enforce separation of Church and ‘State’…..
If he actually issued such a fatwa, would anyone be surprised? I certainly wouldn’t. It wouldn’t be out of step with the way the Saudis treat women or other humans for that matter. Ah, the allies we have.
When ones logic is clouded by any fundamentalist belief murder and mayhem are sure to follow. It seems from a cultural standpoint Islamic Fundamentalism has no conception of sexuality in the modern sense.
“Al-Arifi is quoted as expressing concern that Saudis fighting with the opposition have not been with a woman in two years and must be allowed to take care of their “sexual problems.””
Two thoughts: 1. Masturbation 2. I pity any woman this man has intimacy with.
I am issuing a Fatwa for this Islamic Cleric: cut his weenie off. Humpin a leg is one thing. But rape is an entirely different matter. Pirate Territory. Dont go there. Fly over if you must but flush while overhead if you do.