THE MICHIGAN MESSENGER: While the federal Transportation Security Administration explains on its website that full-body scanners at airports using millimeter wave technology “are optional for all passengers,” devout Muslims may not have a choice anymore.
That’s because last week the Indiana-based Fiqh Council of North America issued a religious ruling, or fatwa, that the scanners violate Islam’s teaching on nudity. The council includes two Detroit area scholars. The full-body scanners, broady popular in the wake of the attempted Christmas Day attack over the skies of Detroit by the so-called “underwear bomber,” create detailed three-dimensional images that are used to detect any substances or objects underneath a person’s clothes.
But in the view of the Fiqh Council, an affiliate of the Islamic Society of North America, those detailed, revealing 3D images amount to a violation of Islam’s modesty rules:
“It is a violation of clear Islamic teachings that men or women be seen naked by other men and women,” reads the fatwa. “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.”>>> David Alire Garcia | Monday, February 15, 2010
