LUCKNOW: An Islamic court in India has issued a fatwa, or religious decree, condemning to death the 12 artists who drew the controversial caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad (“Death is the only penalty for the cartoonists who had drawn sacrilegious cartoons of the Prophet (PBUH),” Maulana Mufti Abul Irfan, the religious head of the court, said on Monday. The court’s ruling is binding on Muslims, but can be challenged under Indian law. Irfan said it was clearly written in the holy Quran, that anyone who insulted the prophet deserved to be punished. He said the fatwa was applicable wherever Muslims live. Jaffaryab Zilany, a member of the authoritative national body of Muslim clerics, the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board, said however that although the fatwa was legitimate under Islamic law, it had no legal binding in India.
| I think Mohammad reaching the funny papers has been the tipping point, where Islamism finally thinks it's strong enough to impose itself on the rest of the world. I don't think the Bush administration has realized this, though the Euros occasionally seem to have an actual handle on it. A predatory religion whose first recourse is to pronounce death sentences on anyone in sight is not one that the rest of the world can live with, unless the rest of the world surrenders. Personally, I'm against that. |