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Egypt Suffers From a Fatwa Free-for-All

Urine-drinking, breastfeeding edicts jeopardize religious authority

By Jonas Oransky,  Newser Staff

Posted Jun 12, 2007 3:08 PM CDT

(Newser) – The credibility of fatwas, the religious rulings that guide daily life for Muslims, is being strained in Egypt, the New York Times reports.  A flap ensued recently when one authority ruled in favor of  drinking the Prophet Mohammed’s urine and another approved co-ed workplaces if the women breast-fed male colleagues to make them "family."

“These two fatwas are harming our Islamic religion” more than last year’s infamous Danish cartoons, said a prominent Egyptian professor. Fatwa-giving, a role the Times calls a combination of “social worker, therapist, lawyer and religious adviser,” has mushroomed as websites and television shows weigh in with advice. Ironically, it was authorized sources who issued the recent embarrassments.

WORLD NEWS MIDEAST-VEILS 6 MCT
WORLD NEWS MIDEAST-VEILS 6 MCT   (KRT Photos)
An Afghan man, right, holds a veil for selling as women buy packed clothes at a market in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, May 5, 2007. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)
An Afghan man, right, holds a veil for selling as women buy packed clothes at a market in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, May 5, 2007. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)   (Associated Press)
A Muslim man kisses the door to the shrine of Imam Hussein, the grandson of Islam's prophet Muhammad and one of Shiism's most beloved saints, left, as another prays, right, before the arrival of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, unseen, inside the Imam Hussein mosque in Cairo, Egypt Monday, April...
A Muslim man kisses the door to the shrine of Imam Hussein, the grandson of Islam's prophet Muhammad and one of Shiism's most beloved saints, left, as another prays, right, before the arrival of Iraqi...   (Associated Press)
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