Religious people have nothing better to do with their lives. Again. So some of them cause a stir, and others follow like sheep. In the end, there is problems between real people over non-real topics. Good job, guys.
So there is a big debate going on in Kuwaiti parliament about what to do and the situation is divided on denominational lines.
Here is an article from Arab Times today. Not good news in a country that seems to be slowly moving towards more conservatism.
What did this Yasser Al Habib say that has caused such a stir? [For background, Aisha is one of the Prophet Muhammad’s wives, and has a very special place in Islamic history.] Here is an example from his blog. Personally, I find it almost charming that this agitation is from a “blogger”– a term that is not generally associated with radical religionists! Anyway, so this guy has said for example that
Aisha is certainly the enemy of Allah and His messenger (peace be upon him and his pure family). He said that she had committed uncountable heinous crimes against the religion of Islam and the Muslim people among which were: assassination of the holy Prophet (peace be upon him and his pure family) and rebellion against Imam Ali (peace be upon him).
In addition to her being happy after she was told of the martyrdom of Lady Fatima and Imam Ali (peace be upon them both). She continuously abused the mistress of all women, Lady Fatima al-Zahra (peace be upon her) until she caused her to cry, fired arrows at the coffin of Imam al-Hassan (peace be upon him), caused the killing of thirty-thousand of Muslims, fabricated Hadiths and accused the pure lady Maria the Coptic (peace be upon her) of lies and adultery, let alone the shameful practice of adult nursing which has blackened the history of Islam.
and further that based on several “proofs,” she is currently “now in hellfire, hanging by her legs and eating her own flesh.”
WOW. While not a huge religious scholar, years of religious study and I have never come across anything this crazy. I feel that if this were a generally held view at all, even in Shia circles, I would have heard SOMETHING of this. So, I’m going to go ahead and file this under “crazy.”
In the end, I can understand sidelining the idiots of the world, or the divisive of the world, but following them and allowing ourselves to be divided along lines of religious and ethnic contexts… well, it’s just typical of organizations which urge you to have “faith” and “believe” and “follow” as if these were all virtuous things.
Cheers to the awesomeness of religion.
-r-
PS. Also predictably, there is a Boycott Yasir Al-Habib Facebook group!
Dee Dee Dee!
What is the “shameful practice of adult nursing”?
Apparently there’s been some talk of “adult nursing” aka “erotic lactation” being allowed in Islam. The idea seems to come from two things: 1. A woman does not have to cover (“hijab”) in front of men who are “illegal” to her (“mahrim”– meaning ather, brother, son etc.) 2. That once someone is suckled by a woman, he becomes mahrim.
So, basically this sounds like trying WAY too hard to catch God on a technicality so that she doesn’t have to cover in front of someone– if you’re trying that hard, why even bother, I don’t get it!
Anyway, so here are two people yelling at each other from either side of the fence about this topic.
http://www.bismikaallahuma.org/archives/2005/perverted-missionary-mentality-and-the-nursing-of-adults/
http://www.answering-islam.org/Shamoun/nursing_of_adults.htm
So, yeah. As much of a non-supporter of religious crock I am, I can’t believe any of this to actually be sanctioned by the religion.