Originally Posted by dlish

i thought i'd jump in and clear a few things up before it gets messy in here.

firstly, Muhammad Al Munajjid is a prominent muslim scholar in Saudi Arabia, and comes from the well known sunni strain of islam known today as wahabism. their strict interpretations are well known across the islamic world. their most popular adherant being none other than Osama Bin laden himself.

so when it comes to interpretation, if you want the strictest interpetation on anything islamic to do with islamic law, then you head over to the wahabi interpretation. they do have their good things, and i know many people who follow their brand of islam. some im fond of, others i am not.

theres a few issues to think about here:

1) mice/rats in islamic law - they are referred to in arabic as "fuwaysiqa" which translated means deviant or evil. why does it refer to rats as evil? the popular belief is that no good from it. its unclean, it may carry diseases (black plague), it eats stored food. the reference to kill them is in regards to them being in your house. The islamic injunction to kill mice or rats refers to when they are in your house. now which person wouldnt kill a mouse or rodent in their house with bait or traps? (except for maybe Master Splinter)

2) the 2nd issue here is the cartoon mice - are they going to eat your rations? spread disease? unclean? cause havoc? none of the above - so there is no islamic injunction that refers to cartoon mice. NONE! cartoons didnt even exist at the time of the prophet Muhammad, so theres no way he made a reference to cartoons. Therefore this is an interpretation of the sheikh going on a few sayings of the prophet Muhammad that has been extended to cartoons. its merely someone interpretation of islamic law, and a wahabi interpratation at that!

so i say, dont taint the majority because of a few erring individuals.

i agree with baraka, this IS quite silly and uncalled for. theres no conspiracy here! i dont think that its a political issue with mice or cartoons or the influence of cartoons in the islamic world at all. its a non issue as far as im concerned.