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Unusually liberal Saudi Iman Adel al-Kalbani sparked controversy this week after he claimed that there was nothing in the Koran forbidding singing.

“There is no clear text or ruling in Islam that singing and music are haram,” said Kalbani in a fatwa decriminalizing singing.

“The problem is that there are some who do not accept debate at all,” he continued, stressing that he was only referring to wholesome music.

“I am talking about decent singing,” he said “Which contains decent words, and supports morality.”

Islamic news agency Ahlul Bayt said al Kalbani’s statement sparked a ‘pitched battle’ between him and conservative hardliners over who’s allowed to issue fatwas, with the issues about modernisation increasingly causing tension in the Middle East.

The dispute exploded just as details emerged of al Qaida publishing their first English magazine, Inspire which appeared this week on jihadist websites around the world.

The glossy periodical includes feature practical advice articles including ‘How to send and receive encrypted messages‘ and ‘Make a bomb in the kitchen of your Mom’ and an exclusive message from Osama Bin Laden on “how to save the earth,”

Prominent US blogger Marc Ambider (CBS New’s Chief political commentator) suggested the US is ‘quite worried about Al Qaeda’s new publishing ambitions’ though suggested ‘black’ propagandists could be at play.

“It is possible, although not likely, that the magazine is a fabrication, a production of a Western intelligence agency that wants to undermine Al Qaeda by eroding confidence in its production and distribution networks,” he speculated, “The U.S. is engaged in direct net-based warfare with jihadis; this sort of operation would not be too difficult to pull off,” he added. (The Atlantic)

(Fatwa battles in full)

Jonty Skrufff

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