First, I would like to confess to ignorance.
I must admit that I did not know that it snows in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Perhaps I could be forgiven given that it is, according to various sources, the second hottest country in the world; like, I mean, the emblem of their country is a palm tree.
Anywhats, I guess a scholar in Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Mohammed Saleh al-Munajjid, has circulated a fatw
against snowmen and now everyone is reporting that Saudis hate snowfun.
It has since sparked debate on social media between some Muslims, both those who agree and those who do not, exploring their varying opinions on recreating the likeness of a human being.
Elsewhere, the current conversation concerning depictions of Muhammad continues.
According to Gulf News reasons for the ruling were “that building snowmen or any replica of an animal, even if it is for fun or recreation, could not be condoned. Only lifeless things, such as ships, fruit and buildings could be imitated.”
A ‘blogger’ commented on social media saying they believed their country to be plagued by two types of people: “people looking for a fatwa for everything in their lives, and a cleric who wants to interfere in everything in the lives of others through a fatwa.”
At this point it must be said that the most senior religious body in Saudi Arabia, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Council of Senior Ulema, have not reiterated the fatw
. (They have, just fyi, repeatedly condemned terrorism and terror financing).
Also, this seems like as good a time as any to keep in mind that there are people all over the world who crave religious guidance (as I was reminded last night after finally getting around to watching the terrifying ‘Jesus Camp’ documentary ) and there are a whole lot of people out there willing to provide it (some of them just so happen to be extreme in their views). And then there are those who will write multiple paragraphs just to get to make a shoddy Frozen reference.
