Cleric declares selfies ‘sinful’

JAKARTA: ‘Selfies’ are the latest to be denounced as sinful and un-Islamic. Felix Siauw- a young Indonesian cleric who pronounced a fatwa against selfies, reportedly posted a 17- point manifesto on Twitter last week, where he argued that taking a selfie often means succumbing to pride, arrogance, and ostentation- all of which make them a sin under Islam.

He reserved most of his exasperation for women, who he said were being ‘shameless’ and ‘unpure’. However, this prompted a huge backlash in Indonesia, where smartphones and social networks are hugely popular. Men and women have been tweeting photos of themselves under the hashtag #Selfie4Siauw. 

Siauw, who according to Quartz has over a million Twitter followers, wrote: ‘These days many Muslim women take selfies without shame. There are usually nine frames in one photo with facial poses that are just – My Goodness – where’s the purity in women?’ (according to a translation by Coconuts Jakarta.)

He also said that because selfie-takers are desperate for social media views, they’re being ostentatious, and because taking a selfie makes people feel ‘cooler’, we’ve ‘fallen into the worst sin of all – arrogance’. 

However, this provoked retaliation on Twitter against his messages by many Indonesians. Hundreds have posted selfies on the social media site using the hashtag # Selfie4Siauw. Many were taken by women, dozens by men – and some purely for comedy purposes, with a camel and great white shark uploaded with the hashtag. Quartz reports that the influence of a single cleric may not outweigh the pro-selfie forces—especially since Indonesian president Joko Widodo is a noted selfie fan.

This decree follows another recent edict issued by a prominent religious scholar in Saudi Arabia giving the cold shoulder to snowmen. A snowfall in the middle eastern country saw Saudis eagerly building snowmen and even snow camels.

However, Mohammed Saleh Al Minjed decreed that building snowmen – or indeed creating any living creature out of snow – was an insult to the Islamic religion.

The Daily Mail reports that last year the General Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowment (GAIAE) in the UAE issued a fatwa against living on Mars.

The committee argued that an attempt to dwell on the planet would be so hazardous as to be suicidal and killing oneself is not permitted by Islam.

The astronauts, the committee said, would end up dying for no ‘righteous reason’ and would face the same punishment in the afterlife as someone who’d committed suicide.

The GAIAE has reportedly issued around two million Fatwas through its Official Fatwa Centre since its inception in 2008.

In Malaysia, meanwhile, Muslim clerics have issued fatwas banning everything from yoga to Valentines Day in a bid to stop the influence of Western culture.

To ensure Muslims can keep pace with the rules, an ‘e-fatwa’ site has been started the Globalpost reports. The issue recently came to a head at a dog-petting festival for Muslims, with the organiser receiving threatening phone calls. Muslims are taught that canines are unclean.

Malaysian activist Zainah Anwar, recently wrote that Muslims are ‘sick and tired of being told, yet again, of more categories of Muslims and practices to be denounced, hated and declare deviant’.

Her women’s rights group, Sisters in Islam, has also been targeted. It was issued with a fatwa for pushing ‘liberalism’. It had pushed for Muslim women to be able to enter beauty pageants. The group were challenging the ruling.

The list of fatwas now includes, Halloween, which is said to be too Christian and black metal because it is ‘powerful enough to force a Muslim to forsake his faith’. Botox is banned, but can be used if medically necessary. 

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