IN a previous article I had written that huge amounts have been wasted by Saudis on foreign tourism. A substantial share of this amount is spent by young Saudi men and women to attend musical events of Saudi singers and to visit cinema houses in neighboring countries. In light of the ongoing debate on the subject, I would like to raise the issue once again but from a different angle. The most saddening thing is not the wastage of money while going abroad to attend musical programs or watch latest international films but this foreign travel will give them an opportunity to visit suspicious places. Thus when we prevent our people from less harmful things like music – there is difference of opinion among Islamic scholars whether music is haram (prohibited) or not — we push them to greater evil. We know that there are no definite rules and instructions in Islam that prohibit music. On the other hand, cinema is just shifting from what we see at home on small screen to big screen. The most surprising thing is that cinema is being banned by people who have not entered a cinema house and do not know what is happening there and they don't know how films are displayed on big screens. According to an Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) principle, a jurist should have necessary knowledge about something before making judgment on it and he should not make a judgment on the basis of baseless and unsubstantiated statements. Such judgments will have a negative impact on the nation and its people and will also weaken the prestige of the fatwa or religious ruling. There have been instances of some ulema prohibiting mobile phones, bicycles, telex and cameras. It has been explained that religious rulings are to inform people about Shariah rules and that it would not be binding on them. Famous scholar Al-Hattab has written in his book "Mawahibul Jaleel" that giving religious ruling or fatwa is to inform people about religious opinion on a subject and people need not follow it. Fatwa is different from a judicial verdict, which is mandatory on the belligerents to follow, even if they do not like it. Ibn Al-Qayyim, a reputed scholar, has given three opinions on fatwa and has categorically stated that it is not mandatory on anyone to follow a fatwa unless he decides to do it. Rulers often introduce reforms despite opposition. We know that there was big opposition against introducing girls' education in the Kingdom and appointment of women to the Shoura Council. You can imagine what would have been our condition if our authorities had heeded to those prohibitions and oppositions – we would not have used telephone for communication and our girls would not have gone to schools for education and none of us would have traveled in cars, on planes and not even bicycles. A virtuous scholar once opposed watching television and urged authorities to ban cinema. He said most people do not like cinema and music and called for holding a referendum on it to prove his point. That scholar and many others were opposing entry of television sets in our homes. Then they started opposing satellite channels. But today these scholars compete with one another to appear on these channels to address people who have destroyed their TVs in response to religious rulings. The strangest thing is that some of these opponents now own satellite channels. You will not be surprised when you see them in the near future owning cinema houses at a later stage. I would like to ask the scholar who called for a referendum on the need to ban TVs and satellite channels, do we need it when we see the number of TV antennas has exceeded the country's population? These so called scholars believe that what is displayed on big screens is different from what they see on satellite channels. In my opinion it is better to see films at cinemas than on small screens inside our closed rooms without any authority to monitor. What is displayed at the cinema will be controlled by the government with indecent and immoral scenes censored. Radical scholars ridicule the public as useless and then demand a referendum on their opinion. The General Authority for Entertainment has stated in its brochure that social obstacles and resistance to change are two major challenges facing the organization but the extremists used the social media to attack the authority saying it was against the society's religiosity. We Saudis estimated at 20 million are a drop in the ocean of 1.5 billion Muslims around the world. All other Muslims enjoy permissible entertainment programs including cinema and music. Do our extremist scholars think that all these Muslims have gone astray? There was a suggestion to establish an Islamic cinema house and I believe it would pave the way to popularize cinema in our country after removing the taboo against this population recreation.
