MEMRI takes credit for spurring a lively debate on the fatuous fatwa concerning Mickey Mouse. The arguments are worth reading as it shows that moderates (which MEMRI tendentiously calls ‘reformers’) are pushing back against extreme interpretations of Islam. Whether this debate is due to MEMRI’s role in publicizing the fatwa is, well, debatable. But the debate is a good sign that reason has a chance to prevail in forming a definition of global Islam.

MEMRI Generates Debate Between Arab Reformists and
Extremist Islamist Sheikhs Over Call to Kill Mickey Mouse

In the latest of his controversial statements and fatwas, well-known Saudi Islamist lecturer and author Sheikh Muhammad Al-Munajid stated, on Al-Majd TV on August 27, 2008, that mice were Satan’s soldiers and that “according to Islamic law, Mickey Mouse should be killed in all cases” (to view the clip, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1850.htm ; to read the transcript, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip_transcript/en/1850.htm ). Sheikh Al-Munajid, who frequently appears on Saudi TV channels, was a former member of the staff of the Saudi Embassy Islamic Affairs Department in Washington, D.C., but was stripped of his diplomatic credentials. [1]

MEMRI’s translation of Al-Munajid’s statements, which was quickly picked up by the international media, became part of the ongoing dispute between hard-line clerics and reformers in the Arab world.Additionally, the widespread western attention to his statement forced Al-Munajid to defend and clarify his statements. In a November 6, 2008 interview on Iqra TV, he insisted that he had “never issued a fatwa about the killing of Mickey Mouse,” and complained about MEMRI’s translation and release of clips of his statements on this and other matters (to view the MEMRI TV clip of this interview, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1912.htm ). Previously, on September 4, 2008, in an interview with Alarabiya.net, he discussed his statements and complained about MEMRI; and on September 29, 2008, he posted his own YouTube video, in response MEMRI.

In the Arab world, the Saudi daily Al-Madina published a lengthy article citing Saudi Islamic scholars who defended Al-Munajid and claimed that MEMRI had distorted his words, just as the Jews and the Christians had falsified scripture. One of the scholars also proposed establishing an organization to counter MEMRI.

In contrast, Egyptian Mufti ‘Ali Gum’a called for a halt to the issuing of bizarre fatwas, saying that they damaged Islam and Muslims, and also called for the establishment of a body for fatwa oversight. [2] Senior Saudi cleric Sheikh ‘Abd Al-Muhsin Al-’Obikan also called for the establishment of a fatwa oversight body; while he did not specifically mention Al-Munajid’s Mickey Mouse statements, he said that such a body had become necessary because in the modern world, fatwas quickly find their way into the global media and raise a storm.

Liberal columnists in the London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat and in the Saudi and Gulf press, as well as liberal Arab websites, accused Al-Munajid of making Islam look ridiculous, and decried the flood of controversial fatwas of the past few years. The Syrian poet Adonis, in an interview with the Algerian Al-Nahar daily, said that Islam today was about “how to issue fatwas about Mickey Mouse and how to make licit the killing of Mickey Mouse,” and added that “Islam is no longer directed to the heart and the soul.” [3] Sami Al-Behiri, a columnist for the Arab liberal e-journal Elaph, said that Al-Munajid had a life-denying mentality that breeds terrorism. Al-Behiri also conducted a mock interview with “Mickey Mouse”; in it, the latter complained that the threats against him had made him into another Salman Rushdie.

Following are excerpts from Sheikh Al-Munajid’s November 6 interview on Iqra TV and September 24 interview on Alarabiya.net, and some of the reactions in the Arab press to his statements about Mickey Mouse:
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