We are getting a glimpse of what is in store for Europe and North America if we do not smarten up.

So, they're diluting the brand? Is that what you're saying?
Because, I've got to tell you, Sheikh-baby: I LOVE that stuff!

These fatwas are nutbar barometers, actually.

How do you 'tarnish the image' of a bunch of fig farming goat feltching moon worshippers? Gah!

Good to see that they are on the numbers with Yoga and Facebook though...

It's interesting to compare Catholicism and Islam. It's easy for people to point at the pope - and say "his decisions make the Catholic church unappealing". With Islam, there is no supreme voice - leading to a variety of contradictory and location specific rulings on Islamic law. What I wrote was poorly stated, but I hope you get the gist.

Erik,

I think you are saying there are too many cooks in Islam and they even contradict each other?

That is what happens when people think tribally (if that is even a word) but act globally...

anyone taking side bets on where the next polio outbreak will be?

Friend of USA - yes, that's it - but my underlying point which I didn't say clearly is that if there is a fatwa that seems odd - people can say "that's not my Islam" - whereas if the pope says something that seems odd - the whole Catholic church has to stay behind that statement or proclamation.

This is how infallibility works:

In general, exemption or immunity from liability to error or failure; in particular in theological usage, the supernatural prerogative by which the Church of Christ is, by a special Divine assistance, preserved from liability to error in her definitive dogmatic teaching regarding matters of faith and morals....

It is only in connection with doctrinal authority as such that, practically speaking, this question of infallibility arises; that is to say, when we speak of the Church's infallibility we mean, at least primarily and principally, what is sometimes called active as distinguished from passive infallibility. We mean in other words that the Church is infallible in her objective definitive teaching regarding faith and morals, not that believers are infallible in their subjective interpretation of her teaching. This is obvious in the case of individuals, any one of whom may err in his understanding of the Church's teaching; nor is the general or even unanimous consent of the faithful in believing a distinct and independent organ of infallibility. Such consent indeed, when it can be verified as apart, is of the highest value as a proof of what has been, or may be, defined by the teaching authority, but, except in so far as it is thus the subjective counterpart and complement of objective authoritative teaching, it cannot be said to possess an absolutely decisive dogmatic value. It will be best therefore to confine our attention to active infallibility as such, as by so doing we shall avoid the confusion which is the sole basis of many of the objections that are most persistently and most plausibly urged against the doctrine of ecclesiastical infallibility.

( http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07790a.htm )

if there is a fatwa that seems odd - people can say "that's not my Islam"

Yes that is very convenient for Muslims...probably a feature more than bug as some would say...

and it is an important difference between the two religions.

good point Erik.

When the Europeans figure out that under Islam there won't be any more soccer, they'll send all the Muslim immigrants back on the next plane to Whereveristan.

Five sips of her breast milk? Something tells me these clowns secretly wish they could star in b-grade porn films.

What is so special about 5 sips? What would happen if only 4 were given or worse six. I do not think there has been a organization ever and that is a long time that attracts so many loonies as Islam. Notice I did not say Islam is loonie just that it attracts them so park your Neo Commie responses. Yes I know the much hated Catholic Church attracts them to but pound for pound Islam tips the scale.

The five sips of breast milk have to be witnessed by an Imam and three friends in loose gowns.

Probably in the back of a dark theatre....

Heh. Some of you miss the point.

Islam is, in theory, a totally libertarian religion. There is no justification in the Koran for anything resembling a religious hierarchy of any kind, let alone a Pope/Bishop structure. Sunni sneer at Shi'ia over this, saying that ayatollahs, etc. are just pretentious buttheads. Shi'ia reply, hotly, that they're just teachers isolated from the mainstream of life so they can learn and ponder, and how can you learn if you're interrupted all the time? Sufi criticize both of them for self-importance, and they rag the Sufi for slipshod theology. So it goes...

Under it all, all of them accept the basic premise, though with modifications: the only real rank in Islam is "imam", teacher, and the way you get to be a teacher is by studying the subject. Say the prayer (as Obama has done) and you're a Muslim; study the Koran, the hadith, and the Sunnah, write up your thesis -- with footnotes; oh, decidedly with footnotes -- and submit it to the review board; if they accept it you get your teaching credentials, and can establish a mosque and start gathering followers. Note that you won't get much credibility if you don't write in Arabic, but, then, European scholars had to write in Latin to be accepted for a long time.

This decentralized system has many of the virtues and vices of academia -- uniformity is enforced by a community, not an Authority, and you get a wide range of opinions, many of which will from nutcases; but you have to wince and support the nutcases, or the system breaks down and you lose credibility. Perhaps subtly, this is another Internet effect. Prior to fast and easy world communications, those fatwas wouldn't have existed because the nutcase country imams writing them wouldn't have heard of the issue -- and if they did, they wouldn't have the facilities to get them noticed.

Regards,
Ric

I also like your remark Eric.
I have to wonder though on the "five sips" would that not be "5 sucks"? Just askin'.

Warning: Do not feed or pet the Muslims HERE'S WHY

I completed the fatwah, albeit unwittingly, at a strip bar in Montreal, with a lactating dancer.....

Keep in mind that Islam is a totalitarian concept with little metaphysical but heavy on political and social constructs. Disobediance of rulers is considered a sin for example.....handy if you are a sultan/shiek.
These concept incited the Christian reformaton.
It is no accident that islam succeeded in despotic nations whereas despotism fails to gain traction in Christian nations....
It seems ethnicity has a profound effect on these matters.
This explains why the Persian Empire, and Islam foundered in the Balkans and bogged down in the Iberian Peninsula.
Much like Protestism prospered in Northern Europe but didn't sell well in nations bordering the Mediteranean.
This could explain the ultimate rejection of Shaka's despotism by the Zulu. The egalitarian plains indians versus the despotic Aztecs/Toltecs/Mayans/Incas in the Americas.
Then there was the failure of totalitarian communism in Northern Eurasia.
Then the muslim Uigyrs versus the rejection of Islam by the Mongolians and Han.
Temperate regions seem to breed an anti-despotic mentality.

Sasquatch

I would not say that Han rejected Islam because they have "anti-despotic mentality" I believe they rejected Islam because they were convinced their culture was superior to Islam. Islamic conquerors believed otherwise. Islamic conquerors lost.

As it happens I just read an interesting piece on this very point. See if this works:

http://www.getreligion.org/?p=41247

If you just want to take kicks at the muslims, hey, I'm actually quite cool with that, so pay me no mind; but if you're actually interested, this piece is informative.

And now that you mention it, during the Irish potato famine, breast milk was widely available, as there were so many lack-taters...