Religion and Technology Don’t Mix
Posted by Andrew | Filed under Technology
I’ve got to say, John C. Dvorak’s Dvorak Uncensored is a great resource for what I would call “back door” news. You know, things that the Mainstream American News Organizations don’t report on because “real” Americans aren’t interested in it. But this story that I have found is another prime example of how people around the world are continuing to take Religion too seriously, by imposing old and outdated ideas and rules in the modern technologically advanced new world. Apparently, a group in northern India has issued a “fatwa” on mobile phone use in the Muslim world.
Never heard of a “fatwa”? Neither have I, which is why I did what any sensible person with a computer and an internet connection would do and looked it up on Wikipedia. According to the article, as of today (April 14th, 2009), a fatwa is “…a a religious opinion on Islamic law issued by an Islamic scholar.” It can be binding or non-binding depending on the sect of Islam you are in and the status of the scholar in that sect. Well these scholars have spent countless hours contemplating the ways of Islam and the laws in place and have decided that no one is allowed to have an aayat (a verse of the Qur’an) as their ring tone.
The rational behind this, is that if you use an aayat as your ring tone and someone calls you and you pick up before the cell phone is finished reciting the aayat, you are in violation of the laws of Islam. And of course, if you allow the phone to just finish the ring tone before picking it up, you risk two things. First, the ring tone could start playing again and you would have to keep waiting until it’s finished again and second, the aayat could be so long that by the time it finishes, the person calling has given up and hung up. By the way, the fatwa also includes a clause against setting your phone to vibrate when you are praying. Because it would “distract” you from what you are doing.
In my experience, if you are praying correctly, nothing could possibly distract you. Unless the cell phone’s vibrating causes your leg to jump up in some sort of weird reflex, that would be really distracting. Why do the larger world religions seem to be at odds with technology in their teachings while smaller organizations are trying to embrace the same?
