God Is in the Rules By GEOFF D. PORTER

October 16, 2005
Op-Ed Contributor

God Is in the Rules

By GEOFF D. PORTER

Fatwas, the legal opinions proclaimed by Islamic scholars, have
proliferated in the Muslim world since the 1980's, driven by rising
literacy rates and the Internet. The growth in fatwas - some of them
contradictory - has led to a debate over who can legitimately issue
them and has alarmed governments in the Middle East, since the
decrees sometimes challenge state-sanctioned interpretations of Islam.

Yet criticizing fatwas about divisive issues like the propriety of
killing civilians and Shiites can be dangerous for officials. So the
Saudi government is trying a different tactic, zeroing in on what it
considers frivolous fatwas in order to rally support for tougher
measures on who can and who cannot issue opinions. Recently, Al
Watan, a semiofficial Saudi daily newspaper, reported that a young
athlete had joined the jihad in Iraq under the influence of a fatwa
forbidding playing soccer by regular rules. The newspaper also
republished the fatwa, said to have originally appeared on an Islamic
Web site. Portions of the fatwa, which I translated from the Arabic,
follow.

- GEOFF D. PORTER

IN the name of God the merciful and benevolent:
1. Play soccer without four lines because this is a fabrication of
the heretics' international rules that stipulate using them and
delineating them before playing.
2. International terminology that heretics and polytheists use, like
"foul," "penalty," "corner," "goal," "out" and others, should be
abandoned and not said. Whoever says them should be punished,
reprimanded and ejected from the game. He should be publicly told,
"You have imitated the heretics and polytheists and this is
forbidden."
3. Do not call "foul" and stop the game if someone falls and sprains
a hand or foot or the ball touches his hand, and do not give a yellow
or red card to whoever was responsible for the injury or tackle.
Instead, it should be adjudicated according to Sharia rulings
concerning broken bones and injuries. The injured player should
exercise his Sharia rights according to the Koran and you must bear
witness with him that so-and-so hurt him on purpose.
4. Do not follow the heretics, the Jews, the Christians and
especially evil America regarding the number of players. Do not play
with 11 people. Instead, add to this number or decrease it.
5. Play in your regular clothes or your pajamas or something like
that, but not colored shorts and numbered T-shirts, because shorts
and T-shirts are not Muslim clothing. Rather they are heretical and
Western clothing, so beware of imitating their fashion.
6. If you have fulfilled these conditions and intend to play soccer,
play to strengthen the body in order to better struggle in the way of
God on high and to prepare the body for when it is called to jihad.
Soccer is not for passing time or the thrill of so-called victory.
7. Do not set the time of play at 45 minutes, which is the official
time of the Jews, Christians and all the heretical and atheist
countries. This is the time used by teams that have strayed from the
righteous path. You are obliged to distinguish yourself from the
heretics and the corrupted and must not resemble them in anything.
6. Do not play in two halves. Rather play in one half or three halves
in order to completely differentiate yourselves from the heretics,
the polytheists, the corrupted and the disobedient.
9. If neither of you beats the other, or "wins" as it is called, and
neither puts the leather between the posts, do not add extra time or
penalties until someone wins. No, instead leave the field, because
winning with overtime and penalty kicks is the pinnacle of imitating
heretics and international rules.
10. If you play soccer, do not appoint someone to follow you called a
"referee," since there is no need for him after doing away with
international rules like "foul," "penalty," "corner" and others. His
presence would be in imitation of the heretics, Jews and Christians
and would follow international rules.
11. Young crowds should not gather to watch when you play because if
you are there for the sake of sports and strengthening your bodies as
you claimed, why would people watch you? You should make them join
your physical fitness and jihad preparation, or you should say: "Go
proselytize and seek out morally reprehensible acts in the markets
and the press and leave us to our physical fitness."
12. If you finish playing soccer, do not talk about your game and
say, "We were better than the opponent," or "So-and-so plays well"
and so on. Instead be concerned with your bodies and their strength
and muscles, and say, "We played only to drill in running, attacking
and retreating, and to prepare for jihad in the name of God on high."
13. You should spit in the face of whoever puts the ball between the
posts or uprights and then runs in order to get his friends to follow
him and hug him like players in America or France do, and you should
punish and reprimand him, for what is the relationship between
celebrating, hugging and kissing and the sports that you are
practicing?
14. You should use two posts instead of three pieces of wood or steel
that you erect in order to put the ball between them, meaning that
you should remove the crossbar in order not to imitate the heretics
and in order to be entirely distinct from the soccer system's
despotic international rules.
15. Do not do what is called "substitution," that is, taking the
place of someone who has fallen, because this is a practice of the
heretics in America and elsewhere.
These are some conditions and precepts so that morally aware youth do
not inadvertently imitate heretics and polytheists when playing
soccer ... Hell awaits those who die playing soccer according to
rules established by heretical countries, at the head of which is
America.
Geoff D. Porter directs Middle East and North Africa analysis at a
political risk consulting firm.