A SAUDI cleric has issued a fatwa, or religious edict, against all-you-can-eat buffets, setting tongues wagging in the kingdom and, presumably, stomaches rumbling.
The cleric, Saleh al-Fawzan, made the anti-buffet proclamation during a broadcast on al-Atheer, a Quranic TV station in Saudi Arabia, Al Arabiya News reported.
“Whoever enters the buffet and eats for 10 or 50 riyals without deciding the quantity they will eat is violating Sharia [Islamic] law,” Fawzan reportedly stated.
The statement set of a fierce debate on Twitter, where many were quick to condemn the ruling.
Bryan Patterson's Faithworks 
What is he saying? 50 riyals is Aus $15.00.
Is he saying you should only eat the equivalent of what you pay? We’re lucky to get a cup of coffee and a sandwich for that price! 😯
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But… you don’t live in Saudi Arabia… so your comments are irrelevant
And what does the Scripture say? Before the second coming the days will be like the days of Noah, with people eating and drinking and being insensible to the signals that herald the second coming. Gluttony is a big issue in the western world with the increase in preventable diseases like diabetes, obesity and heart disease. Yet the Christian world does nothing about it except ridicule, criticise and condemn those who would point out the spiritual dangers involved in eating too much, eating the wrong type of food, etc.
What amazes me is that the Christians who are supposed to be the light of the world do nothing, but the “heathen, ungodly, pesky Moslems” are rising their voice against this evil?
The Christian world would do well to remember the following:
“If you keep silent at this time, liberation and deliverance will come to the Jewish people from another place, but you and your father’s house will be destroyed.” Esther 4:14. Although written at the time for Jewish people, it applies aptly in the case of every Christian who belittles efforts in combating gluttony.
As for the Moslems… good on them… it is a start.
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Bryan,
Could you please issue a fatwa on davinci? Know any Sumo wrestlers who would be willing to sit on him? 😉
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Yes. I wonder what sound he’d make if someone sat on him?
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Davinci, I don’t always see eye to eye with you, but I do appreciate what you’re saying here.
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From My Telegraph UK , dated March 20th, 2014
By Annabel Kantaria
(a journalist who’s lived in the UAE long enough to call it home. She’d quite like to ride a camel to work and is totally over gold-plated supercars)
“What inconvenience to have to decide in advance what one would like to eat; what horror never again to experience the pleasure of grazing through random platters of fruit, cereal, croissants, foul maddamas , pancakes, eggs, cheese and cold cuts of a Friday morning.
But, while the overall reaction was perhaps one of disbelief, I had some sympathy with what Al Fawzan was saying. Figures shared at February’s International Obesity Conference showed that 70 per cent of Saudi Arabians are obese. Anything that discourages mindless eating should be applauded.
In addition, there’s the issue of wastage that surrounds the all-you-can-eat buffet; anyone with a social conscience must surely care about the amount of food that’s prepared for these feasts and then binned. I know it’s an issue in Saudi: who could forget the Saudi-based restaurant manager, who, fed up with the waste caused by egotistical ordering, three years ago started fining diners for leaving food on their plates after a meal?
It seems there’s been a misunderstanding. Yesterday, Al Fawzan took to his website to clarify that he hadn’t issued a fatwa against buffets, per se, just against buying food if the quantity is not specified. Why? Because that would be buying an unknown amount of food and, he said, “the unknown cannot be sold until it is defined and identified.””
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Actually I agree with the cleric, buffets are place of gluttony. People eat as much as they can because its for the same money.
At my 59th birthday party a church going Christian vomited twice in the toilet, so he could eat more. He happen to be a Christian, but I am sure others do this as well. If we pay for one meal we will eat it because we spent money.
Just a thought.
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Although I am against gluttony on a number of counts, I thought a fatwa was going too far, until I looked it up on Wikepedia – and that left me somewhat confused.
Then I saw the following. “Fortunately for buffet-loving Muslims, fatwas are not generally regarded as being legally binding, which means the edict is ‘optional for the individual to respect or not,’ writes the Islamic Supreme Council of America.”
Now I wonder is it going far enough!
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Maybe the word has been accidentally shortened and in actual fact is a warning against a ‘fat-wa..ist’.
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boom tish
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Lahore (Pakistan) (AFP) – A court in eastern Pakistan has sentenced a Christian couple to death for sending a blasphemous text message insulting to the Prophet Mohammed, their lawyer said Saturday.
However, defence lawyer Hassan said that the text originated from a cellphone which the couple had lost some time before the incident, so they could not have sent the message.
Pakistan has extremely strict laws against defaming Islam, including the death penalty for insulting the Prophet Mohammed, and rights campaigners say they are often used to settle personal disputes.
In 2009 a mob attacked a Christian neighbourhood in Gojra and burned 77 houses and killed at least seven people after rumours that a Koran had been desecrated.
This is the best case against religion you could find.
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