Religious leader forbids building of anti-Islamic idols that might resemble human beings, after winter storm in north of country<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n
A prominent Saudi Arabian cleric has whipped up controversy by issuing a religious edict forbidding the building of snowmen, describing them as anti-Islamic.<\/i><\/p>\n
Asked on a religious website if it was permissible for fathers to build snowmen for their children after a snowstorm in the country\u2019s north, Sheikh Mohammed Saleh al-Munajjid replied: \u201cIt is not permitted to make a statue out of snow, even by way of play and fun.\u201d
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Quoting from Muslim scholars, Munajjid argued that to build a snowman was to create an image of a human being, an action considered sinful under the kingdom\u2019s strict interpretation of Sunni Islam.
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\u201cGod has given people space to make whatever they want which does not have a soul, including trees, ships, fruits, buildings and so on,\u201d he wrote in his ruling.
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That provoked swift responses from Twitter users writing in Arabic and identifying themselves with Arab names.
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\u201cThey are afraid for their faith of everything … sick minds,\u201d one Twitter user wrote.
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Another posted a photo of a man in formal Arab garb holding the arm of a \u201csnow bride\u201d wearing a bra and lipstick. \u201cThe reason for the ban is fear of sedition,\u201d he wrote.
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A third said the country was plagued by two types of people: \u201cA people looking for a fatwa [religious ruling] for everything in their lives, and a cleric who wants to interfere in everything in the lives of others through a fatwa.\u201d
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Munajjid had some supporters however. \u201cIt (building snowmen) is imitating the infidels, it promotes lustiness and eroticism,\u201d one wrote. \u201cMay God preserve the scholars, for they enjoy sharp vision and recognise matters that even Satan does not think about.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Religious leader forbids building of anti-Islamic idols that might resemble human beings, after winter storm in north of country A prominent Saudi Arabian cleric has whipped up controversy by issuing a religious edict forbidding the building of snowmen, describing them as anti-Islamic. Asked on a religious website if it was permissible for fathers to build […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10908,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-union-territory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}