Fatwa follies

So the celebrated fatwa against terrorism is a phoney. You know, I'm starting to think that the gentlemen at CAIR and FCNA aren't acting in good faith.

I guess we shouldn't be surprised, nor should we have expected that Muslims would pay much attention to it, even if it were all in proper form. Islam has no priesthood. It doesn't really even have the concept of divine authority being vested in any human, except perhaps the prophet Mohammed. That's what the whole Sunni/Shiite split was about, who should be the leader of all Muslims. As we can see, it was never resolved, although if the Wahhabis get their way, it will be through the liquidation of every Muslim who disagrees with them.

I've always found it curious that the three main religions based on the Old Testament all believe that God revealed his will to prophets in the past, but ceased to do so after some point, although the time of such cessation varies. Generally this assurance that God has quit speaking is delivered by non-prophets who have taken over the role of the real priesthood, generally the intellectuals of their day, scribes, rabbis, or doctors of philosophy who began to be elected to ecclesiastical office after the Christian apostles were no longer around to guide the Church. What we see today is the result of the arrogance of scholars who have changed doctrines, wrested the scriptures or changed them and arrogated to themselves the power to establish doctrine. In both Christianity and Islam religious leaders have resorted to violence once they got a taste for power, and behaved in ways at odds to the founding revelations of the past. In any event, today the value of a pronouncement by any of them is based on how many accept his holiness.

I come from a tradition that believes the true religion will be lead by people choseen by God to whom he reveals his commandments, and that any religion that doesn't allow for continuing revelation is not representing God. Pronouncements that are in the nature of philosophical treatises or legal briefs, don't impress me much, especially when they turn out to be dishonest.