They’ve got to be kidding…No they aren’t!
Umar, Rashad, Hood, Umm Zaid and I have all recently written about the ”Muslim foods” issue and the way that many converts believe that they must adopt Arab foods in order to be a good Muslim.
However, according to this story, it seems that some extremists in Iraq have taken thinking a bit further.
In a bizarre example of Iraq’s creeping “Talibanisation”, militants visited falafel vendors a fortnight ago, telling them to pack up their stalls by today or be killed
[...]
The ultimatum seemed so odd that, at first, most laughed it off - until two of them were shot dead as they plied their trade.
“They came telling us, ‘You have 14 days to end this job’ and I asked them what was the problem,” said Abu Zeinab, 32, who was packing up his stall for good yesterday in the suburb of al Dora, a hardline Sunni neighbourhood.
“I said I was just feeding the people, but they said there were no falafels in Mohammed the prophet’s time, so we shouldn’t have them either.
“I felt like telling them there were no Kalashnikovs in Mohammed’s time either, but I wanted to keep my life.”
Good move, because often when you try to reason with these kind of people, they tend to get confused with the facts…
Filed under: Muslim Isolation, Sloganism over Reality
I guess it’s pointless to comment that there were no guns either…
I suppose they see some things like guns, carbombs, etc as a necessary evil in order to get us back to the past where they feel we belong.
I know that some brothers are very fanatical about this issue and will shout you down over it, but it is totally mind-blowing to me that these guys in this article are actually willing to shed blood over a FALAFEL…much less what they’d think of those of us who eat hamburgers and French Fries.
well, in all honesty…those falafels are quite nasty
Seriously though…it’s amazing how ‘hard-liners’ pick and choose what should be eliminated because of the excuse that it did not exist or was not done during the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him). However, when you bring up things like the partition in most masjids between men & women they freak out.
I wonder if they are going to give up their AC, refrigerator. Birth-control, razorblades. I bet if they get shot they are going to want modern medical care.
These guys are too much.
Salaam ‘Alaikum
Such is the result of the widespread ignorance of the Ummah today… an extreme example, but a result of it nonetheless.
We desperately need to educate the religious leaders who teach Islam to young men (and women maybe). If they had a problem with felafel, then I think they should restrict themselves to Saudi Arabia because that is where Islam originated and not stay in other countries. From what I have read, the Prophet (pbuh) was for all mankind, so does that not very simply imply that Islam takes the colour and food and shape of all cultures all over the world, as long as it comes within its framework and rules.
Lack of education and moral character is ruining the Muslim population. I feel sad.
Hmm, I see someone named after neo-nazi band Prussian Blue….You wouldn’t happen to be that “aryan muslim” idiot from Umar’s blog would you?
I saw a new report which said an ice-seller was also told that ice was “un-Islamic”; he and his family were threatened with death.
Well, even in Saudi they have Pizza Huts and McDonalds.
Abu Sinan:
Some brothers feel that Muslims should not eat at those places even in Muslim countries
man this is almost too stupid to be true. But, how different is it from a brother in America teling me that beef bacon is not halal.
I agree with the criticisms of these attitudes as far as they go. I don’t think the attitudes are very widespread, however.
In my experience, Salafi Muslims flock to American fast food zabiha restaurants.
In situations of desperate poverty and war, there are different issues such as ignorance, power seeking, nationalism/tribalism at play.
Allaah knows best
Just to clarify, I don’t really like to use the term Salafi, but I wasn’t sure what word to use. I just mean that Muslims who are literalist in attitude towards intrepreting Islamic texts rarely in my experience have the type of cultural issues you guys are talking about. Those types of attitudes are actually more common among people who either don’t really know much about Islam other than it being their cultural background or to people whose religious training is very heavily centered in their own culture.
So let me get this straight…. they’re killing another Muslim for selling a food item that over all meets the definition of halal?! Who taught these guys? This is what happenes when we let others rule us, we get reactionaries with good intentions, but not information. Just what we need. Where were they when Iraqis were selling liquor and porn, before the invasion? Why don’t they come here and shoot down the Muslim liquor-tore owners who sell death to our communities that would be ripe areas for dawah w/o the alcohol problems?