Afghanistan was once a peaceful Buddhist nation.They came and killed all the monks, destroyed all the temples, leveled giant 50 foot Buddha statues. Look at Afghanistan now...sad. Religion of peace my ass. A giant middle finger to all you lefty appeasers !
Perhaps the only interesting aspect of the OP was the equivalence established between the head of the tea party and this mullah.
...yeah, before the Arab invasion of Persia, they were just getting invaded by Alexander, the Mauryan Empire, and the White Huns. Curse you Ghaznavids, and your pre-Renaissance brethren.
And I don't want to continue with this back-and-forth sparring either. On basketball topics, I tend to agree with your posts.
And Saudi-Arabia is where Mecca is and they finance like 90 % of all Islamic literature and fund a lot of schools. While he is not the equivalent of the Pope, he isn't some local pastor from some village in Florida, either.
The invective in this thread is wholeheartedly disappointing - somewhere a fat man sheds a tear and kids in a norwegian summer camp aren't dead.
You're disputing something you have no clue about, and is basic knowledge. There is pretty much unanimous agreement among Muslims and people who have studied Islam. Muftis are selected in each region, and one mufti manages all the muftis in that country. The grand mufti in Saudi is in charge of the registered muftis in Saudi. For what you're saying to be remotely true, the muftis which he manages should have some control over the things you mentioned: 1) Saudi Arabia and Mecca are in the same place now, but Mecca has been Mecca for almost 1.5 centuries. The birth of Saudi Arabia coincides with the emergence of the Al Saud family - which is why the country is named after the family. FYI Mecca is not the equiovalent of the Vatican. Mecca and the Kaaba play a far more prominent form in Islam than the Vatican does in Christianity. Correct me if I'm wrong, the Vatican didn't exist at the time of Jesus or at the time the bible was compiled. 2) Those muftis are not necessary involved in the literature. Muftis are like shariah legislators. Like lawyers for Shariah. There is no reason to believe there is any material involvement from muftis into the printing of copies of literature. Also, I don't see the mere printing of literature as a threat, it is much more complex than that obviously. (I'll add one more just to seal it off) 3) The muftis under the grand mufti do not have any authority outside their jurisdiction. For what you're saying to have any importance, this organ of governance must have authority outside Saudi, and they do not. To be clear, muftis have shariah authority, not legal or political authority. Even the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia can not alter the Laws in Saudi Arabia or Mecca without the permission of others. They can just state their "legal" shariah opinions. The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia is not like the Pope unless the Pope is selected by the Italian president and the Pope only has authority in Italy. No one is bound to what he says, except arguably the residents of Mecca. I believe even residents of Mecca dispute his authority. Even then, fatwas are not binding if you don't agree with them, the Prophet is quoted as saying this word for word even in competing sets of Islamic scripture. There is no equivalent to the Pope in Islam. No Islamic sheikh with authority is as rich, dresses as extravagant, has as large a domain, and behaves kind of like a link between God and humans. You would have to go back centuries to find an equivalent figure in Islam. The Grand Mufti is citing a quote from the Prophet and analysis from those who lived at the time of Prophet. The Pope goes way way beyond that in his role. Whether in theory or in practice, the Grand Mufti is nowhere near equivalent to the Pope.
