Atheists & Agnostics

WARNING - repeat of old stuff for newer readers...

"Ask-an-Imam" TV/radio shows are incredibly popular all over the Middle East. The article calls him a "televangelist," which is probably the closest Western equivalent of what he does.

The idea is that anybody can call into the show and get an instant fatwa on a religious question.

When I lived in Egypt, the results of these quickie fatwas were sometimes hilarious:

1. A believer once asked if it was OK for married couples to be completely naked when they have sex. The imam said NO, it wasn't. He dug up some obscure hadith to prove that married couples should never see each other totally naked, even when boinking.

That got the attention of Souad Saleh, one of the very few women qualified as an expert in sharia law. (She's a professor of that subject at Cairo's al-Azhar University, the oldest Islamic university in the world.)

Saleh called into the show herself, and told the imam he was "crazy."

2. Another time, someone asked if it was OK for a devout Muslim woman to be escorted in public by a male household employee, instead of a relative. Like her chauffeur or servant.

The Ask-An-Imam said it would be legal if the woman "suckled" her male employee. That would make him a relative under Islamic law.

The phone lines immediately burned up with smart-asses calling in to volunteer for duty as drivers and household servants. Even members of the Muslim Brotherhood laughed at that one.