Saturday 14 March 2015

The Fitna of Photography فتنة التصوير

Experts in the Kingdom continue locking horns regarding the Saudi school curriculum, as they are trying to reach middle ground as to what is acceptable in Islam and what is not, such as the images in text books.
According to Monotheism, which is taught to 12th grade students, photography is prohibited, while science book have plenty of images of humans and animals to explain anatomy.
Students can see this stark contradiction when they read the Monotheism textbook, since in its pages, scholars strongly condemn the use of photography.

“Taking photographs of living things, such as humans and animals, is forbidden, but taking photographs of tress and mountains is allowed,” the book states.


The textbook also discusses sculpting and abstract art, describing them as major sins, and only allowing photography which is highly required for official documents, including the passport and ID cards.
Local media monitored a fatwa for the permanent committee of the Council of Senior Scholars, prohibiting photography in all its forms. The committee excluded some exceptional cases such as the national ID card or the passport. The argument comes at a time when smartphones are the prevailing method of communication. Statistics show that Saudis rank four in the use the Instagram.
Hassan bin Safar, prominent member of Islamic Fiqh Academy, said scholars differ in this case, with some allowing it while others prefer to limit it to official documents and education.
Safar beliefs photography is allowed but it shouldn’t be taken as a form of entertainment.

http://www.arabnews.com/saudi-arabia/news/718051



NEW DELHI: Next time you’re at the Taj Mahal, find yourself standing on a precarious cliff or see an approaching train, maybe just enjoy the moment rather than trying to capture the perfect selfie.
These are just three of the ways that 76 selfie-takers in India have lost their lives, according to a study published by US-based Carnegie Mellon University and Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi.
In the quest for the coolest selfie, more people have died in India in the past two years than the total number of selfie-related deaths in the rest of the world, according to the study titled “Me, Myself and My Killfie: Characterizing and Preventing Selfie Deaths.”
Using special search techniques to trawl the Internet and social media, the researchers identified 127 confirmed selfie deaths since March 2014.
They blamed people’s desire for more “likes” and comments on social media for driving increasingly risky selfie-taking.
“(The) clicking dangerous selfies (has proved) to be so disastrous that during the year 2015 alone, there have been more deaths caused due to selfies than shark attacks all over the world,” the researchers said in a blog post.
Three students in northern India died trying to take a daring selfie in front of an oncoming train, according to the study published last week.
Another student lost his life when the cliff he was standing on for a photo cracked, sending him plunging 18 meters (60 feet) into a ravine. 

http://www.arabnews.com/node/1012391/offbeat 

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