csua.org/u/dqm -> www.nytimes.com/2005/10/16/opinion/16porter.html?ex=1287115200&en=864db4ca1f47440f&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Save Article By GEOFF D PORTER Published: October 16, 2005 Fatwas, the legal opinions proclaimed by Islamic scholars, have prolifera ted in the Muslim world since the 1980's, driven by rising literacy rate s and the Internet. The growth in fatwas - some of them contradictory - has led to a debate over who can legitimately issue them and has alarmed governments in the Middle East, since the decrees sometimes challenge s tate-sanctioned interpretations of Islam.
Enlarge This Image SHARIA ON THE FIELD The page from the Web site of the Saudi newspaper Al Watan with the soccer fatwa. Yet criticizing fatwas about divisive issues like the propriety of killin g civilians and Shiites can be dangerous for officials. So the Saudi gov ernment is trying a different tactic, zeroing in on what it considers fr ivolous fatwas in order to rally support for tougher measures on who can and who cannot issue opinions. Recently, Al Watan, a semiofficial Saudi daily newspaper, reported that a young athlete had joined the jihad in Iraq under the influence of a fatwa forbidding playing soccer by regular rules. The newspaper also republished the fatwa, said to have originall y appeared on an Islamic Web site. Portions of the fatwa, which I transl ated from the Arabic, follow. Whoever says them should be punished, reprimanded and eject ed from the game. He should be publicly told, "You have imitated the her etics and polytheists and this is forbidden." Instead, it s hould be adjudicated according to Sharia rulings concerning broken bones and injuries. The injured player should exercise his Sharia rights acco rding to the Koran and you must bear witness with him that so-and-so hur t him on purpose. Rather they are heretical and Western clothing , so beware of imitating their fashion. Soccer is not for passing time or the thrill of so-called victory. Thi s is the time used by teams that have strayed from the righteous path. Y ou are obliged to distinguish yourself from the heretics and the corrupt ed and must not resemble them in anything. Rather play in one half or three halves in order to completely differentiate yourselves from the heretics, the poly theists, the corrupted and the disobedient. No, instead leave the field, because winning with overtime and penalty kicks is the pinnacle of imitating heretics and in ternational rules. If you play soccer, do not appoint someone to follow you called a "re feree," since there is no need for him after doing away with internation al rules like "foul," "penalty," "corner" and others. His presence would be in imitation of the heretics, Jews and Christians and would follow i nternational rules. Young crowds should not gather to watch when you play because if you are there for the sake of sports and strengthening your bodies as you cl aimed, why would people watch you? You should make them join your physic al fitness and jihad preparation, or you should say: "Go proselytize and seek out morally reprehensible acts in the markets and the press and le ave us to our physical fitness." If you finish playing soccer, do not talk about your game and say, "W e were better than the opponent," or "So-and-so plays well" and so on. I nstead be concerned with your bodies and their strength and muscles, and say, "We played only to drill in running, attacking and retreating, and to prepare for jihad in the name of God on high." You should spit in the face of whoever puts the ball between the post s or uprights and then runs in order to get his friends to follow him an d hug him like players in America or France do, and you should punish an d reprimand him, for what is the relationship between celebrating, huggi ng and kissing and the sports that you are practicing? You should use two posts instead of three pieces of wood or steel tha t you erect in order to put the ball between them, meaning that you shou ld remove the crossbar in order not to imitate the heretics and in order to be entirely distinct from the soccer system's despotic international rules. Do not do what is called "substitution," that is, taking the place of someone who has fallen, because this is a practice of the heretics in A merica and elsewhere. These are some conditions and precepts so that morally aware youth do not inadvertently imitate heretics and polytheists when playing soccer ... Hell awaits those who die playing soccer according to rules established by heretical countries, at the head of which is America. Geoff D Porter directs Middle East and North Africa analysis at a politi cal risk consulting firm.
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