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Copy That Floppy? Go To Jahannum (Hell)
andrewdm writes "The Business Software Alliance has a new partner: the grand muftis at Al Azhar in Cairo. The New York Law Journal has an article explaining the new holy(?) alliance between the BSA and the highest religious authorities in the Egyptian Sunni Islam sect. The clerics issued a fatwa (holy edict) against piracy, saying it is "the worst type of theft and prohibited by Islam." What's next? The Pope denouncing mp3's as mortal sins?" The worst type of theft, indeed.
Not only is that a caterogical lie, according to Catholic doctrine, you don't even need to be Baptized or believe in God or "accept J.C. as your personal saviour" to be redeemed. All you need to do is to recognize your fallen nature in some way, and wish for redemption. That is "baptism by desire."
I'm an athiest, incidentally, but such crude anti-Catholic sentiment needs to be countered.
1302 is pre-Vatican. Current Catholic doctrine (currently called Vatican 2) is significantly different in many ways from the pre-Vatican council doctrine. 1302 is before Martin Luther and others cited the corruption of the church. So much has changed. My mother grew up pre-Vatican, and I was raised Vatican 2. You cannot judge current Catholosim by the pre-Vatican church. It is simply not the same.
By the way, please pardon my poor spelling, it has never been a talent of mine, and dictionary.com is not loading at all.
Well a couple of points:
Firstly a "Fatwa" is mearly an opinion it is not binding in any way. So if a cleric issues a Fatwa as a Muslim you are not bound to it if you do not agree with that opinion.
Secondly this Fatwa is actually wrong because in Islam copyrights and patents are not allowed, there are two reasons for this. The first being that it comes under "hoarding of wealth". The second is because in Islam you acknowledge that God is the creater of the universe, hence the holder of all knowledge and since you are part of that creation you can not claim to "own" any knowldege you gain as it is the result of your existance which of course you owe to God. Just imagine that God is the holder of all interlectual property.
Thirdly the head of the religious institions in countries like Egypt are appointed by the government and are basically puppets and are in no means regarded as authoritive figures with regards to the Koran. As a side note, one of the most respected Islamic scolars is an American who converted when he was 18.
Anyhow I hope that clears some things up, but to sum things up this fatwa is basically bullshit.
So copying a friend's King's Quest 5 floppy is going go give you eternal damnation, but suicide bombings against civilians in Israel and New York City get you 41 virgins and eternal paradise?
Can be found here. The Rabbi also calls it a no-no, but isn't threatening anyone with hellfire.
Just Like in Chistianity, the parts of the religon that don't stir up politics are the parts that don't get attention.
It's not a matter of a press agent. When the media dosen't care about what you have to say, or it dosen't stir up feelings, you will never get good publicity.
Ah the wonder of having a limited news media. With the small number of media companies involved anymore, it's no wonder there is so little interesting news covered.