Full body scanning: Islamic seminaries divided over fatwa

Leading Islamic seminaries in the country on Tuesday responded differently to the fatwa issued by a North America-based Muslim body against full-body scanning for security checks with some endorsing the ruling and others opposing it.

While the prominent Islamic seminaries Darul Uloom Deoband and the Ulema Council supported the fatwa saying such security checks were against the Islamic law and human dignity, the Islamic Centre of India saw nothing wrong in full-body scanning if it was necessary for security reasons.

The Fiqah Council of North America recently issued a fatwa against the use of full-body scanner for security checks before granting access to people to high security areas.

Speaking in favour of the FCNA ruling against full-body scanning, Vice-Chancellor of Darul Uloom Deoband Maulana Abdul Khalik Madrasi said, "The fatwa is justified as such screening of human bodies both for men and women was in gross violation of the Sharia (Islamic law)."

However, Maulana Khalid Rasheed Firangi Mahli, the general secratery of Islamic Centre of India and member of All India Muslim Personal Law Board took a different view of the issue.

"If the full body scanning is necessary for security of any place or person, then it is OK, there is nothing wrong in full body scanning," Maulana Khalid Rasheed said.

Maulana Abdul Khaliq Madrasi, an Islamic scholar in a statement given to the media said, "Be it the full body screening or any other technology on the same lines, such things are totally against the Sharia".

"It is like exposing yourself in the nude in front of others," President of Ulema Council Maulana Aamir Rashadi said.

"Don't connect this issue with religion, see this fatwa in terms of your dignity. Whenever any person from third world countries visits America, the American agencies conduct full body scan just to harass and insult them and not due to security reasons," he said.