The Soccer Fatwa

Well, we suppose it was inevitable: Saudi Muslims have declared a fatwa on soccer. It's all documented in this article from the International Herald Tribune, which we found through the groovy blog Ole, Ole. Portions of the fatwa, which the Herald Tribune translated from Arabic: In the name of God the merciful and benevolent: 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 a red card to whoever was responsible for the injury or tackle. 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. Play in your regular clothes or 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.

We're still kind of speechless here. Though we have to say, for all the reasons to hate Americans, our love of soccer seems like it should be pretty low on that list, no?

Shariah On The Soccer Field [IHT] (via Ole, Ole)