I don't know anything about islamic law. I just said that if you want to subscribe to one school of extremist thinking, as the statue thing apparently is, according to some in the article that I posted way back on the first page, and you could easily extrapolate along those lines to prohibit any number of activities, unless you want to construct a bunch of loopholes that can just as easily be constructed to justify the building of a statue. If you believe in the kind of God who doesn't want to see a statue of you, I don't think it's a huge leap of logic to say that that same God doesn't want to see a poster of you up on somebody's wall either. Do with that opinion what you will, but that's my opinion, from the outside looking in. I'm sure I will be blasted, and probably shouldn't have even responded any more to this thread, for being ignorant and intolerant, (probably for not reading the Qu'ran LITERALLY enough--the irony), which is the furthest thing from the truth.
Why don't we just honor the whole team and be done with it. One statue for each year. with all the players holding up the two trophies like the Iwa Jima memorial. You can be olajuwon will be in front so everyone will see him.
saddam being muslim and having statues is like bush being a devout christian and wanting war. *turns cheek for ensuing attacks from pro-war people*
he's self centered because he DOESNT want a statue of him in front of the arena?? am i the only one confused by that one? as for some of the other issues i want to clear a few things up: there is nothing in islam which says its prohibited to play basketball or make a lot of money. so please dont make assumptions without any basis. also, the reason that this whole statues/pictures thing is such a big deal is this: the main tenet of islam is to single out God alone for worship, without any partner. this means that all actions, all prayers, are devoted to Him alone, without any intermediary, or seeking the pleasure of anyone other than Him. statues have been something that people worship at the expense of worshipping god, or using statues as a means of coming closer to god - both of which are considered associating partners with God, and are the greatest sin in islam. so thats why statues are prohibited, and then pictures a natural extension of that (altho there is differences of opinion concerning photographs, etc) the best example i can give is the muslim conception of jesus, and that he was a prophet who also called to this worship of one God, but people began worshipping him instead, and the quran has a verse that says jesus will be asked about people worshipping him after his death, and he will respond that he called them to worship GOd, but he is not responsible for what they did after him.
Except for Richard Petruska. His statue will be of him staring at the trophy lying on the ground with a stunned look on his face...
Whats next? is he gonna shunn the Hall of fame as well? last time I was there they do honor the players. I can see it now......Spokesperson comes up and says "due to Hakeems beliefs he will not be able to attend the hall of fame honor that is bestowed upon the players who excel in the Nba". Now tell me whats the difference between a MVP trophy and Hall of fame honor and a statue........ If it is all about worshipping or honoring, then why is he making such an issue about it. I did not see him complain when he was honored as one of the 50 best players in the Nba.
1- mvp trophies are awards for the player to have, an award for his accomplishments. statues are not for the player to have but rather for society to remember this 'larger than life' character. 2- hakeem can humbly accept an mvp trophy and stash it in his basement if he wants to. however he can't hide a statue whose goal is to be seen by the whole city.
i agree with you that posters serve the same purpose as statues. however, someone mentioned that pics and even taping the game on video are 'loop-holes', and i disagree with that since it all goes back to the purpose of each action, and this is why there is a range of religious views on the permissibility of pics. a statue's main use is to admire and almost worship someone, while taking pics and getting videotaped is for entertainment mainly. i don't think there's any loop holes or that hakeem is a hypocrite at all. maybe instead of a statue honoring hakeem we can have a statue of the admiral receiving his mvp award that year. i think either statue will serve the same purpose
