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Airport body scanners violate Islamic law, Muslims say

By Niraj Warikoo

Saying that body scanners violate Islamic law, Muslim-American groups are supporting a �fatwa� � a religious ruling � that forbids Muslims from going through the scanners at airports.

The Fiqh Council of North America � a body of Islamic scholars that includes some from Michigan � issued a fatwa this week that says going through the airport scanners would violate Islamic rules on modesty.

�It is a violation of clear Islamic teachings that men or women be seen naked by other men and women,� reads the fatwa issued Tuesday. �Islam highly emphasizes haya (modesty) and considers it part of faith. The Quran has commanded the believers, both men and women, to cover their private parts.�

The decision could complicate efforts to intensify screening of potential terrorists who are Muslim. After the Christmas Day bombing attempt in Detroit by a Muslim suspect from Nigeria, some have called for the use of body scanners at airports to find explosives and other dangerous materials carried by terrorists. Some airports are now in the process of buying and using the body scanners, which show in graphic detail the outlines of a person�s body.

But Muslim groups say the scanners go against their religion. One option offered to passengers who don�t want to use the scanners would be a pat down by a security guard. The Muslim groups are urging members to undergo those instead.

Two members of the Fiqh Council are from Michigan, Imam Hassan Qazwini of the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, and Imam Ali Suleiman Ali of the Canton Mosque. �Fiqh� means Islamic jurisprudence.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, which has a chapter in Michigan, says it endorses the fatwa.

�We support the Fiqh Council�s statement on full-body scanners and believe that the religious and privacy rights of passengers can be respected while maintaining safety and security,� said Nihad Awad, national executive director of CAIR.

Currently, there are 40 full-body scanners at 19 airports in the U.S., including two of them in Detroit, said spokesman Jim Fotenos of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). There are plans for 450 more body scanners in U.S. airports, he said.

In a statement, the TSA said it is committed to keeping passengers safe and also protecting their privacy.

"TSA's mission is to keep the traveling public safe. Advanced imaging technologies are an important tool in a multi-layered security system to detect evolving threats such as improvised explosive devices. TSA's use of these technologies includes strong protections in place to safeguard passenger privacy. Screening images are automatically deleted, and the officer viewing the image will never see the passenger.�

The TSA stressed that the body scanners are �optional to all passengers.� Those who turn them down, �will receive equivalent screening that may include a physical pat-down, hand-wanding, and other technologies. Physical pat-downs are performed by Transportation Security Officers of the same sex as the passenger in a private screening area, if the passenger requests.�

Body scanners �do not produce photos,� the agency said. Rather, the images �look like chalk outlines.�

Body scanner images are available at www.tsa.gov.

Fiqh Council advises Muslims on Islamic law

The Fiqh Council is based in Plainfield, Ind., where it is affiliated with the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and advises Muslims on sharia, or Islamic law.

An earlier version of the group started in the 1960s with the Muslim Students Association of the United States and Canada. The chairman of the Fiqh Council is Muzammil Siddiqi, religious director of the Islamic Society of Orange County in California and former president of ISNA.

In its fatwa, the council said the use of body scanners �is against the teachings of Islam, natural law.�

Anybody else see the disconnect here?

If the images are automatically deleted, then where did the images at www.tsa.gov come from?

Then keep their rug heads off the airlines. No scanners - no air travel. There is no right to fly. Let 'em take the bus or a camel.

Sounds logical. There is a "right to travel" protected by the U.S. Constitution, but it does not grant carte blanche privilege to all modes of travel.

Since reading your first post, the disconnect is huge......

Thanksgiving dinner must be a hoot at Barak's house between the terrorists, anarchists and rapists.

I understand the overall debate from both sides. Singling out this particular, isolated issue and not involving myself with the global debate, I'll voice this comment.

The Muslims can kiss my ass. I impose a Fatwa against Muslims thinking they can fly US airlines with bombs in their shoes and underwear while trying to dictate how we detect the pathetic pieces of schit.If their law opines Muslims are now prohibited from being body scanned in airports, it's one law of theirs I totally support and I will personally contribute to the placement of body scans in all airports. In fact, I would be cool if Muslims were the only folks singled out for the body scans in airports.

I also impose another Fatwa against Muslims thinking we should give a schit about their laws.

You say my pitch is emotional rather than rational and I say yeah, you're right. Fuggem and the carpets and camels they rode in on!!

Everything seems to violate Muslim Law that the Muslims don't like; for the most part they like nothing about us at all. Why we seem to care is another issue.

Of course there's a right to fly.

To be more specific, everyone has the right to conduct whatever consensual business transactions he likes with anyone he chooses. The Constitution pretends to give Congress the power to prohibit a very few well-specified business transactions, but it certainly doesn't give Congress any power, pretended or not, to tell airlines which fares they may carry and which they may not.

Therefore, it's flatly unconstitutional for the TSA to step between passengers and airlines the way it has.

If the airlines themselves chose to use all sorts of scanning equipment on their customers, that'd be a whole different story: it'd be part of the consensual business transaction. But the State has no authority to mandate it.

And shortly a couple more RPeeer's will chime in that they agree with Muslim religious rights...as allowed by the Constitution.

Easily led these RPeeer's....maybe Medina can chip in some advice? She seems to be having a little problem with Muslims at the moment.

first, i'm sick of their archaic laws and rules that ignore human nature and pretend everything is perfect in the real world.

second, i am waiting until our administration bends and says "oh well if you're a muslim you can opt out of the scanner" and we miss the exact group of people we put the damn scanners in for in the first place.

what we need in this country is a little more "tough $hit"

oh, you don't like hunting? tough.
want us to all be vegetarians? tough.
think we should ride a bike to work? tough.
you want to pretend no muslims look at naked people? tough.
you want to blow up a plane? um...let's see...no.

i cannot STAND the way we bend to the will of people without a true will to accomplish anything!

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Anybody else see the disconnect here?
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Oh yeah....with each post.

At least on this issue they have bigger balls than the fundamentalist Christians who have similar reasons to object. You don't see any well-known Christian pastors denouncing the body scanners, do you?

I'm a Christian myself, and of course I think the Muslims are wrong about a great many things: but I respect courage when I see it, regardless of the source.

Courage??....LMAO.

PS....flying is not a right.

What exactly is couragous about bitching about everything?

Whatever you call it, you must admit that they seem to have a lot more of it than we do. We grumble to ourselves about the body scanners, but very few of us seem to be taking anything resembling a public stand against them; the ones who do, as far as I've seen, seem to be hair-on-fire radical libertarians.


Go on. How do you figure?

Where does the Constitution or Bill of Rights guarantee your right to fly?

More interesting would be your explanation as to why you erroneously believe it is a right. Indulge me.....your spins provide for a enjoyable escape from reality.

Barak

You have the "right" to choose to fly over another form of transportation, but you don't have a right to decide whether or not you will abide by the regulations attached to that form of transportation. The airlines have limits as well. Since they engage in interstate and international commerce, they can have restrictions forced on them due to the potential impact their form of travel has on multiple jurisdictions. The restrictions are stupid, but they are what they are. Real courage would be for the people in general to simply say, we're not flying anymore. But the idiot Americans just keep on handing over the plastic and boarding the planes.

Dan