Fatwas Can Be Outrageous. Here Are 10 of the Most Bizarre

Extreme Muslim clerics never fail to deliver peculiar material that blurs the borders between the serious and the satirical. We’ve all read – or heard – about at least one absurd fatwa in recent years.

Here are some of the most outrageous fatwas issued in the 21 st century, ranked from the oldest to the newest, since ranking them based on their level of absurdity proved too difficult.

A Saudi fatwa banned Pokémon early in 2001, urging parents to prevent their children from playing with its cards in order to “protect their religion and manners.” The fatwa added that “most of the cards figure six-pointed stars, a symbol of international Zionism and the state of Israel.”

Sheikh Ali Gomaa issued the infamous “urine fatwa” in a book called Religion and Life, telling the story of a woman who drank the prophet’s urine. In the book, Gomaa wrote: “Umm Ayman drank the urine of the prophet, the prophet told her: "This stomach will not be dragged through the fire of Hell, because it contains something of our Lord the Messenger of Allah.”

In 2006, the former Dean of Al-Azhar's School of Sharia, Sheikh Rashad Hassan Khalil, ruled that a marriage becomes illegitimate if spouses strip completely naked during sex.

Sheikh Izzat Atiya issued a fatwa encouraging working adult women to breastfeed their male counterparts so that they develop a “family bond” and can therefore be allowed to be alone together at work. “A woman at work can take off the veil or reveal her hair in front of someone whom she breastfed.”

Sheikh Muhammad Munajid claimed that Mickey Mouse was “one of Satan’s soldiers” and had a corruptive influence on society. He also added that under Sharia law, cartoon mice – just like household ones – “must be killed in all cases.” The Islamic State is reportedly on the lookout for him.

Leader of a banned Pakistani militant organization and religious cleric Maulana Fazlullah issued a fatwa warning that polio vaccination is an American ploy to sterilize and reduce the Muslim population.

The head of the Moroccan Association of Jurisprudence Research issued a fatwa allowing Muslim men to have sex with their just-deceased wives. According to the fatwa, a man may have "farewell sex" with the corpse of his wife for up to six hours after she dies.

Sheikh Saleh bin Saad al-Lohaidan said that women drivers risked “negative physiological impacts” and having children “with clinical problems of varying degrees.” He added that “functional and physiological medical studies show that it [driving] automatically affects the ovaries and pushes the pelvis upwards.”

A one-way trip to Mars is strictly-prohibited in Islam as it “poses a real risk to life,” according to a fatwa committee under the General Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowment in the UAE. The fatwa adds that a person who dies during the “hazardous trip” would be liable to a “punishment similar to that of suicide in the hereafter.”

Sheikh Mohammed Saleh al-Munajjid issued a fatwa forbidding the building of snowmen, describing them as “anti-Islamic” and claiming that “it is not permitted to make a statue out of snow, even by way of play and fun.”

Note: Religious clerics who issued the above-listed fatwas – which were fiercely rejected and mocked by the majority of Muslims – have been widely-criticized and disciplined or dismissed by their institutions.