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Maybe not the cool kids, just Egypt. And the fatwa council leader lied about Singapore banning yoga: It has not (the picture below is from a Singapore health club). Religiously deracinated yoga helps millions around world reduce stress without turning them into Hindus, but the fatwa council is anxious that some Muslims may be too weak to withstand 'the Hindu temptation.'
Other recent postings on this topic:
Breaking news: Victory against extremist social engineering as royals reverse anti-yoga fatwa.
Making society weaker: Some Malaysians concerned that fatwa against martial arts may come next.
Fatwa for harm: Malaysian cancer survivors, medical tourism industry, put at risk by yoga ban.
Picture of resistance: Malay Muslim yoga business owners move ahead with plans to open studio chain.
Good news: Malaysia's royals rise to challenge of thwarting extremist deviants who issued yoga ban.
Fatwa council as intellectually incurious as George Bush, and just as harmful.
Sisters in Islam vows to continue classes.
Yoga fatwa a political gambit that may have been inspired by recently deposed US extremists.
Comparison of Muslim conservative deviants to US conservatives, both of whose ideologies tend to afflict the human race with villiany.
Salaam writes: By the intellectual lights of the Malaysian fatwa council, one would conclude that Hinduism - not Islam - is the fastest growing religion on the planet if we were to accept their paranoid fear that yoga is a gateway activity to Hindu conversion. The article below contains inaccurate facts in the first sentence. Yoga as practiced by Muslims and many other people does not necessarily include the Hindu prayer (the saying of aum or om), and if a teacher does recite the syllable, the Muslim participant does not. Also, most people outside of the Hindu faith who practice yoga do not seek "union with God" through the practice.
Why is yoga for stress reduction so important? See this article. Also know that many problems that afflict the Ummah, from marital discord to declining physical health, are aggravated, compounded or initiated by stress. The reason why yoga is so widely popular is because it is so effective. And unlike the alternatives suggested by the fatwa council, it can be practiced in the privacy of your own home while multi-tasking with other household activities.
Yoga is an ancient historical and cultural Asian tradition that has been drafted into the narrative of several Asian religions including the Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists. Therefore it follows that gulf Arab cultural imperialist salafis and their local cutouts would seek to eliminate it.
If the Buddhists wake up tomorrow and claim the automobile as a Buddhist icon, will the fatwa council ban us all from driving? Or perhaps we should follow the local Wahhabi colonials to their inescapable religious conclusion that since cars (like yoga) didn't exist in the time of Muhammad, we shouldn't be driving anyway.
What Malaysians need now is a progressive, grassroots movement to take back their fatwa council. If the people who claim to represent the religion become so alien to the true deen that you become alienated, don't leave the religion, reclaim it.
From Al Arabiya News Channel:
Outraged Malaysians were told by the country's top Islamic council Saturday to avoid yoga because it uses Hindu prayers and encourages a union with God that is blasphemous.
"Yoga is forbidden for Muslims. The practice will erode their faith in the religion," Abdul Shukor Husin, chairman of the government-backed National Fatwa Council, told reporters.
Yoga, an ancient Indian aid to meditation dating back thousands of years, is a popular stress-buster in Kuala Lumpur.
"There are other ways to get exercise and a peace of mind," Husin said, adding "you can go cycling, swimming and eat less fatty food."
Husin said yoga involved physical and religious elements of Hinduism including the recitation of mantras he also said the ban would not be implemented on non-Muslims.
"For us, yoga can destroy a Muslim's faith. But this is not a matter for the non-Muslims to be concerned about because it's not imposed on them. We are looking out for the Muslim community," he said, noting Egypt and Singapore had issued similar rulings.
Malaysians outraged
Malaysians have expressed outrage in blogs and letters to the editor since the council first announced a few weeks ago it was considering a fatwa against yoga.
"I wonder what's going to happen to the health clubs here in Malaysia... will they be forced to put up a 'No Muslims allowed' sign during their yoga classes?", said a posting at a popular Malaysian fitness blog, (www.thedailymuscle.com).
Social commentator Marina Mahathir, daughter of former prime minister Mahathir Mohammad, questioned the council's priorities.
"What endangers a society more... corrupt citizens and leaders, or yoga practitioners and females who dress in a masculine fashion?" she said in a recent column in the Star newspaper.
"Yet there are so many of us who are unwilling to trust our own conscience and would prefer to trust the robed and the turbaned to make rulings on things which we should be able to judge on our own," she said.
Story here. |
