Saudi cleric Saleh al Fawzan has decided that all-you-can-eat buffets are against Sharia (Islamic) law, unappetizing news for Muslims devoted to bargain dining deals!

Last week there was a fatwa to ban the killing of wild animals. This week he issued a fatwa (a legal opinion concerning Islam) that bans bellying up to the salad bar and closes the kitchen on breakfast buffets too.

The cleric said that the value and quantity of what is sold should be predetermined before it is purchased.

“Whoever enters the buffet and eats after paying, but without first deciding the quantity they will eat, is violating Sharia law,” said Fawzan on the al-Atheer channel. His action would be better argued if he linked it with Saudi’s obsession with Western fast food and ballooning obesity problem; criticized all-you-can-eat behavior for it’s damaging impact to bodies rather than souls.

It seems for every fatwa with a powerful message about man’s relationship with the environment, there are a dozen that are delightfully dopey. One put a hit on Mickey Mouse, another made emoticons haram.  Women seem to get the brunt of these rulings – banning them from ocean swimming and prohibiting them from touching or eating phallic-shaped fruits (like this erotic eggplant) and vegetables like cucumbers and bananas.

With Saudis among the heaviest users of social media, it’s no surprise that the all-you-can-eat announcement fast earned its own hashtag (“prohibiting-open-buffet” in Arabic) and caused a Twitter buzz.

Al Arabiya reported a few of the tweets:

“Restaurants will be ruined if they didn’t quantify the food they sold. This negates the sheikh’s premise that the quantity is unknown,” said one Twitter user.

“This is not Qur’an, just a mere fatwa, if you want to follow it, you are a free man – but you cannot impose it on others,” wrote another.

Looking for a new hobby?  Why not follow fatwas? It promises to be increasingly farcical pastime as these Islamic religious edicts are landing all over the ethical map.

Image of buffet table from Shutterstock

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This fatwa (a world first!) was officially announced on March 12 at Jakarta’s Ragunan Zoo, inspired by a joint visit to Sumatra by clerics and conservationists last year.

Leaders had spoken with villagers about how they must coexist alongside elephants and tigers; they claimed endangered species are creations of Allah and it is forbidden (haram) to kill them.

The edict aims to encourage people to protect the environment, which includes endangered animals such as rhinos, orangutans and elephants.

Developed in consultation with environmental charities and academics from Jakarta’s National University, the fatwa also forbids commercial trading of rare species and urges government review all palm oil plantations.  (Those agricultural estates, which have been making headlines for their damage to natural orangutan habitat, require government licensure to operate.)

Indonesia is home to some of the world’s most threatened animals: in the last century, 93% of all Sumatran tigers (pictured above) have disappeared. Java rhinoceros are critically endangered and already extinct in China and India and Lar Gibbons are threatened by deforestation (not to mention an increased demand for their meat!). Rare and endangered species are also captured and sold as exotic pets.

The United Nations now classifies the illegal trafficking of exotic wildlife as second only in scale to the illegal drug trade, with Dubai emerging as a major smuggling center for the world’s most rarefied creatures.

The ICC isn’t the first religious body to embrace conservation: the Dalai Lama has called upon Buddhists to end trafficking and South Africa’s traditional Zulu Nazareth Baptist (Shembe) Church has begun to use fake leopard skins in its ceremonies to protect real leopards.

While council edicts carry no legal weight, this announcement shows the hive-up of  conservation and culture; endangering species is flatly considered immoral behavior. There’s hope that the message could resonate strongly within Indonesia, which has the world’s largest Muslim population.

Fatwas have been flying in recent weeks – new releases have banned Muslims from one-way Mars travel and damned Russell Crowe’s new “Noah” flick. But as governments struggle to create effective laws to stop poaching and criminal trafficking networks, maybe God can give a vital assist.

“People can escape government regulation, but they cannot escape the word of God,” ICC member Hayu Susilo Prabowo told National Geographic.

Image of Sumatran tiger from Shutterstock

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Islamic law is crystal clear that in order for meat to be halal, animals can’t be mutilated, deformed or diseased nor experience discomfort or stress prior to slaughter. Any meat that doesn’t abide by these precepts becomes haram.

Can animals used in the live-export trade, who endure long transport in immeasurably cruel conditions (like by ship from Australia) be considered halal?

The Middle East live-imports most of its sheep from Australia, with tens of thousands of animals crammed onto huge ships each month, constrained in abominable conditions.  Half of all sheep deaths during sea transport are caused by starvation as grass-fed animals don’t recognize the manufactured feed provided on ship, and stop eating. Crammed shipboard conditions raise dehydration levels and promote disease.

Spend some time with the halal ranchers oxymoronically named Mercy Slaughter to get a view of how halal sacrifice ought to be done:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc5BWafzEu4[/youtube]

Qurbani is essential for people with financial means, yet none of my Amman Jordanian friends has ever personally killed an animal.  They’ve witnessed the ceremony as children, but never did the deed. Instead, most urbanites drop some dinar with butchers in exchange for a neatly packed parcel of meat and an assurance that the rest is handed to the needy.

Organizations such as Tkiyet Um Ali are also emerging, offering value (thanks to bulk buying) and organized distribution to the poor. An important side benefit of community-centric sacrifice-sharing is mitigation of problems related to improperly executed halal practices and poor waste management, since animals are slaughtered in Australia and meat shipped frozen to the Middle East.

This modernity is further distancing Muslims from animal slaughter. (Islamic vegetarians must participate in the practice: obligated to pay for an animal sacrifice, and distribute the meat to the needy, but they do not need to consume the food themselves.)

In his book Animals in Islam, Al-Hafiz B. A. Masri quotes Sheik Fardi Wagdi, “There may come a day when Muslims shall have to substitute the rite of animal sacrifice with other methods of giving alms.”

There is a growing movement of Muslims who have declared a fatwa on animal killings, who consider that sacrifice is not obligatory. They call to reform animal transport processes and advocate (in lieu of meat offerings) other means of support for the poor, including the sharing of vegetarian food, and pursuit of public services like educational support of the care of orphans.

“It is neither their meat nor their blood that reaches Allah; it is your piety that reaches Him.” (Qu’ran 22:37)

Image of sacrificial animal from Shutterstock

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Throughout Ramadan, Muslims must refrain from eating or drinking from dawn to sundown.  The commitment demand both mental and physical stamina.  Fasting challenges sedentary workers in air conditioned offices.  Imagine the toll on world-class athletes who, depending on their particular sport, can lose 15 percent of their body weight sweating through practice and qualifying events.

With the Olympics falling during this Islamic holy month of Ramadan, religious leaders in Egypt, Algeria and the United Arab Emirates determined that their London-bound athletes were relieved from fasting.  They cited the same reason for the exemption: undertaking extensive travel with an intention to return home.

Last week Ali al-Hakmi, a member of Saudi’s Council of Senior Islamic Scholars, issued a fatwa stating that Saudi Arabian athletes participating in the Olympics can be exempted from fasting, again citing travel.  Hakmi told Saudi newspaper Okaz that, as the athletes are traveling with the intention of returning, they and their entourage may defer their Ramadan fasting, even if their stay “reaches 15 or 19 days.”

There are 17 Saudi athletes participating in athletics, equestrianism and weight lifting.

In his fatwa granting the Egyptian Olympic delegation the right to postpone fasting, Egypt’s Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa included a verse from the Quran, “[Fasting for] a limited number of days. So whoever among you is ill or on a journey [during them] — then an equal number of days [are to be made up].”

When asked if Egyptian Olympians must respect Ramadan fasting, the Fatwa Council of Egypt’s dominant religious authority, El Azhar, provided a recorded response, citing an interpretation of Islamic teaching, “According to Hanafi scholars, it’s permissible to break fasting while traveling if the duration will not exceed 15 days. … If a person was to stay in his country of destination more than the mentioned duration, he must fast as long as he is able and it won’t impose difficulty on him.”

Said plainly, Egypt’s athletes may eat and drink during the games.

Dubai’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Ahmed Al-Haddad declared that athletes can fast for the same number of the days they skipped, after the Olympics end, and the Algerian Fatwa Committee ruled that as the athletes are traveling in the service of their country, they can skip fasting provided that they resume  after the games end. MENA reports that the Moroccan Sports Ministry is awaiting a similar fatwa from the country’s Islamic scholars.

Four common reasons for not fasting:

1. Sickness (where fasting  will worsen ill health or slow recovery)
2. Travel (on long journeys requiring shortened prayers, and where the traveler doesn’t intend to settle in the place to which he travels)
3. Pregnancy and breastfeeding (when fasting would jeopardize good health)
4. Senility and old age

A spiritual dilemma: some will still fast.

Imam Johari Abdul-Malik, from the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Virginia, explained to National Public Radio (NPR), “Do I starve my body to feed my soul? Or in this month, do I starve my soul to feed my body, and my appetite for Olympic gold?” Abdul-Malik says fasting should bring blessings, not hardship, such as denying a Muslim athlete’s chance of winning an Olympic medal.

Going without food and water in the lead-up to an event could forfeit a competitor’s chances for success, and cause serious physical harm. But despite the high-level reprieve, some Muslim athletes will choose to fast.

Ron Maughan, chairman of the nutrition working group for the International Olympic Committee, told NPR it’s impossible to predict the effects of fasting on any particular athlete.

“When you first talk to people about Ramadan fasting, and sports performance, the automatic assumption is that every sports performance is going to suffer,” Maughan says. “But then if you think about some specific events, it soon becomes obvious that may not be the case.”

Maughan says competitors in strength and power events like weightlifting, or in skill competitions such as archery, might not be hampered. Time of day is also a factor. Sprinters racing at 10 AM might not feel washed out. But others in endurance sports, or who compete in multiple events, fasting will take a considerable toll.

This is a story that deserves follow-up: who fasted, who did not, and – from the athlete’s point of view – what were the physical and spiritual repercussions .

Maxisport / Shutterstock.com

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