As reported in USA Today:
Airport body scanners violate Islamic law, Muslims say
By Niraj Warikoo, Detroit Free Press
Saying that body scanners violate Islamic law, Muslim-American groups are supporting a “fatwa” — a religious ruling — that forbids Muslims from going through the scanners at airports.
The Fiqh Council of North America — a body of Islamic scholars — issued a fatwa this week that says going through the airport scanners would violate Islamic rules on modesty.
“It is a violation of clear Islamic teachings that men or women be seen naked by other men and women,” reads the fatwa issued Tuesday. “Islam highly emphasizes haya (modesty) and considers it part of faith. The Quran has commanded the believers, both men and women, to cover their private parts.”
The decision could complicate efforts to intensify screening of potential terrorists who are Muslim. After the Christmas Day bombing attempt in Detroit by a Muslim suspect from Nigeria, some have called for the use of body scanners at airports to find explosives and other dangerous materials carried by terrorists. Some airports are now in the process of buying and using the body scanners, which show in graphic detail the outlines of a person’s body.
But Muslim groups say the scanners go against their religion. One option offered to passengers who don’t want to use the scanners would be a pat down by a security guard. The Muslim groups are urging members to undergo those instead.
Two members of the Fiqh Council are from Michigan, Imam Hassan Qazwini of the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn and Imam Ali Suleiman Ali of the Canton Mosque. “Fiqh” means Islamic jurisprudence.
The full article can be found here.
h/t RedState
See also: “Public Protests as TSA Torpedos Constitution,” RedState
Arlen: So, let me get this straight… a strict, traditional Muslim man brings his wife to an American airport in a gown, perhaps even a burkha. He (and she) are now expected to offer every nook and cranny of her body to the hands of whatever TSA inspector is available, man or woman…? Do they reach through the gown? Up and under?
And, of course… what about the rest of us? Who came up with this Fourth Amendment violation? What’s being done about it? (More on that, tomorrow.)
Gulag Editor: See “Airline Flight Still a Theater of War; Who is the Terrorist Now?” November 16, 2010 by Arlen Williams & Janet Smiles.
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