SAUDI ARABIA: Cleric who urged grown men to drink breast milk of unrelated women taken off air

No more fatwas for Sheikh Abdel Mohsen Obeikan, the Saudi cleric and royal court adviser who earlier this year earned notoriety for rolling out an eyebrow-raising religious decree that called on women to give men breast milk to avoid illicit mixing.

Saudi authorities on Wednesday reportedly pulled the plug on Obeikan's radio program "Fatwas on Air,"  a daily morning show in which Obeikan would go on air and issue fatwas -- religious rulings -- to the public on various matters.

Taking the sheikh off air appears to come as part of Saudi king Abdullah's recent clampdown on the nation's fatwa bazaar.

In a bid to stop unauthorized clerics issuing odd religious decrees, the king has reportedly put out a royal decree authorizing only members of the Council of Senior Islamic Scholars to issue fatwas from now on...

... Some perceive the step as much needed. A number of controversial fatwas have embarrassed the ultra-conservative kingdom.

Sheikh Yousuf Ahmad, a lecturer at the Imam Mohammad bin Saud University in Riyadh, earlier this summer suggested that only Muslim maids should be allowed to work in Saudi homes. The cleric has also called for the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Islam's holiest site and the world's largest mosque, to be demolished and rebuilt in a way that would ensure segregation between the sexes in the shrine.

Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al Shaikh, a senior Saudi scholar, hailed the king's decree, saying it would protect Islamic law, sharia, "from infringements of unqualified people who deviate from the path of the Prophet", according to the United Arab Emirates-based newspaper Gulf News.

Others, however, view the king's new restrictions on fatwas as a clampdown on free speech and thought.

-- Alexandra Sandels in Beirut

Photo: Saudi authorities have shut down the radio show of the controversial cleric Sheikh Abdel Mohsen Obeikan, who this year earned notoriety for issuing a religious ruling for women to breastfeed men to avoid illicit mixing between the sexes. Credit: Al-Riyadh newspaper.

 

 

Comments

[leaf blower]

I personally do not drink milk at all... Maybe it is not good for heath but I simply don't like it. Can't imagine about breast milk...

[Hypatia]

Morris, you are definitely a candidate for a new Jackass segment.

[Dean Blake]

morris wise is very unwise. Traditional Islamic family values include declitorizing women in a manner that results in PTSD depriving them of sensation (and free will) and eventually driving them into clinical depression, which explains why they wear burkas - agoraphobia. But don't call it sexual mutilation and locking up your women.

Since they have little sex drive, traditional Islamic family values means you take as many as four wives because without a sex drive, men bore their women with their demands, so you visit your other wife. But don't call it adultery.

By taking multiple wives, that means many young men can't find wives, and you know what that leads to!! either anger and jihad or perversion and adultery. You can buy an 'Islamic marriage' that lasts just a day or a few hours, while your at the beach resort or a motel! But don't call it prostitution.

Traditional Islamic family values must be preseved, so Sharia law says stone lovers to death rather than annul child marriages; Sharia law says enforce the child marriage contracts with the death penalty. Islamic family values don't include marrying for love and affection, only economic gain. Don't call it selling your children.

Islamic family values are more like the Addams family values and certainly nothing like those of Christianity or Judiasm.

[Abdulrahman Al-Zuhayyan]

Sheikh Abdel Mohsen Obeikan's fatwa appeared to be shocking to everyone, including Saudis. However, this is an old fatwa and it originated outside Saudi Arabia, but not too many Muslims know about, hence the man is correct.
Although, I am not strict Muslim, I believe this fatwa only proves that Islamic Figh can accommodate current problems that might hamper social progress. The problem is that this fatwa came at a time when many people around the world have become suspicious about some Islamic fatwas, while the problem is not with Islam but with those who hijacked Islam for their own advantage. All religions call for peace and social harmony, and we should be tolerant toward those ways of thinking and beliefs that we are not ascribed to, especially those that provide solutions to social problems.
However, Sheikh Yousuf Ahmad's fatwa defies the conventional wisdom, and consequently Islam and his fatwas should be off the air.

[morris wise]

Lifestyles of orthodox Christians, Jews,and Muslims are similar,each believes in traditional family values. If sharia law was declared in the US there would be little change in their lifestyles. Those that will be affected are homosexuals, drug addicts, and prostitutes, they would not be tolerated. Women would be protected by their families and given a burka to hide their beauty. Sharia law is now being followed in most parts by millions of Americans thanks to the wisdom of the prophet Mohammed.

[Bryan Hemming]

Unrelated women, eh? Uh, uh, just can´t seem to get my around that one. So, it can´t be your mother then? And it has to be more than one? If the women are to be unrelated, that is. If that´s what he means. And is it compulsory? I mean do the women have to be unrelated to me? or unrelated to each other? Given the restrictions on relationships between men and women in Saudi Arabia, how can we, I mean they, meet up? I mean the donors and the sucklers, of course. Is there a list of participating females? And are foreigners allowed to partake from the women offering the service? And where can I find out more information? Is this going to be marketed as a tourist attraction? Oh, I just forgot, the king has pulled the plug. Spoilsport! I thought Saudi Arabia had just got something going for it.

[sam]

just a thought it may be an idea for the cleric, to take more water with his milk in the future

[re: RWh]

...ironic, ain't it? :0)

[electronic cigarettes]

I have no words for this. Who drinks breast milk? Well I mean I do but it's a cows breast milk lol.

[RWh]

"Others, however, view the king's new restrictions on fatwas as a clampdown on free speech and thought."
These are the same guys who call for the death of westerners who draw their prophet. A bit of a double standard, eh?