Saudi Fatwa re non-Muslims

Construction of Churches in Muslim Countries Forbidden

MEMRI, March 24, 2006

The website www.kalemat.org posted a fatwa issued on July 3, 2000 by The Permanent Council for Scholarly Research and Religious Legal Judgment, an organ of the Saudi Ministry of Religious Endowments, forbidding the construction of non-Muslim houses of worship in Muslim countries. The fatwa stated that it is forbidden to allow non-Muslims to establish a foothold in the Arabian Peninsula, to receive Saudi citizenship, or to buy property there. In addition the Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyassa reported that Kuwaiti MP Walid Al-Tabatabai announced in statements earlier this winter that he was opposed to the establishment of houses of worship for non-Muslims in Muslim countries.

The following are excerpts from both sources:

All Religions Other Than Islam are Heresy

The Saudi fatwa reads as follows: "The Permanent Council for Scholarly Research and Religious Legal Judgment has studied the queries some individuals brought before the Chief Mufti… concerning the topic of the construction of houses of worship for unbelievers in the Arabian Peninsula, such as the construction of churches for Christians and houses of worship for Jews and for other unbelievers and [the question of] the owners of companies or organizations allotting a fixed place for their unbelieving workers to perform the rites of unbelief.

"After considering the queries the Council answered as follows:

"All religions other than Islam are heresy and error. Any place designated for worship other than [that of] Islam is a place of heresy and error, for it is forbidden to worship Allah in any way other than the way that Allah has prescribed in Islam. The law of Islam (shari'a) is the final and definitive religious law. It applies to all men and jinns and abrogates all that came before it. This is a matter about which there is consensus...."

At: http://www.memri.org/bin/opener_latest.cgi?ID=SD112306

Thanks, Philo.

Now I guess what you have to prove is that 100% of Muslims regard Saudi Arabia's officially-sanctioned wahhabi interpretation of Islam as authoritative and binding on them. Including the Shia Muslims who tend to regard wahhabism as outside the pale of Islam.

Once you have done this, I'll then start posting excerpts from the Book of Mormon and attribute them to all Christians. Won't that be fun ...

H.Rezaei: Interesting post, and I agree with much of it. Regarding al-Shatibi - how can you expect a medieval scholar to understand the concept "freedom of religion" as we do today when every single medieval society (including Christiendom etc.) were based on shared religion and ethnic culture? I don't know of anywhere in his time period where the concept was defined as we have today - the process behind it is a product of the last few centuries thought and European/Western experience.

But his Maqasid al-Shariah is a very important concept for use in Islamic law. We take its theories and can use them for new situations, such as the ones we are currently facing. Many of those who seek literalist interpretations deny the applicability of the Maqasid, but I am convinced that al-Muwafaqat is one of the most important works of Islamic law, especially for today.

This is how Taqlid traditionally works in the Islamic legal field - building on the strong foundations of juristic precedent established before by these great scholars.

I enjoyed reading your post!

Irfan,the lunatic Mormans number in the thousands world wide and are not violent,yet the facist Muslims number in the millions and have a great propensity to be violent.

Arjay, can you provide me with at least 3 demographic studies that show that at least 15% of the 1.2 billion Muslims across the plant have a propensity for violence? That shouldn't be all that difficult, should it?

Irfan

Among other religious and ethnic groups visiting the parks. We'd often have groups of Mormons coming down for picnics.

Never saw a Mormon with a pension card.

Lost count on my first day

They always paid for their tickets without being asked to do so.

Mossies didn't

They never lit fires on fire ban days.

Mossies were often the only ones lighting them on such days.

They never blocked emergency access gates or parked in 'No Stopping' areas.

Mossies do, often.

Were clean and picked up their rubbish.

Have picked up many soiled disposable nappies of Allah's newest chosen ones after their family gatherings, lovely!

Mormons were never abusive.

Seems to be default attitude of your average aussie mossie, young and old.

Yes other groups did behave as they do. However, I often looked at the infringement records, full of Mohammads, Abduls, Fatimas etc. Despite being a small part of the population, their footprint was huge.

I don't know why you bother with sharia, no one seems to know what's going on with it and the whole system seems open to abuse (look at Pakistan) more so even than ours.

Scap it and start again.