WELL, we could see this one coming a mile off ….
Full body scanners at airports have been declared un-Islamic by the Fiqh Council of North America because they violate religious rules on nudity.
The  Council this week issued a fatwa warning Muslims to steer clear of the scanners.
Body scanners are said to violate Islamic principles
It is a violation of clear Islamic teachings that men or women be seen naked by other men and women. Islam highly emphasises haya (modesty) and considers it part of faith. The Quran has commanded the believers, both men and women, to cover their private parts.
The powerful council of ten scholars that issued the fatwa is affiliated with the Islamic Society of North America.
In the US, there are now forty scanners in nineteen airports and could be as many as 450 by the end of the year.
They were implemented as part of a global security crackdown ordered after the thwarted Christmas Day bombing when Nigerian former London university student Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab smuggled explosives onto a US-bound plane hidden in his underpants.
Some American Muslim groups are supporting the fatwa. The ruling has won support from the Council on American-Islamic Relations . Said CAIR national director Nihad Awad:
We support the Figh Council’s statement on full-body scanners and believe that the religious and privacy rights of passengers can be respected while maintaining safety and security.
In the US, the Transportation Security Administration said Muslims will have the option of a pat down search by a security guard.
But in Britain, travellers who refuse to pass through the scanners could be barred from boarding.
The Muslim Council of Britain has not yet responded to a call for comment.
The TSA said it is committed to keeping passengers safe and insisted the scanners that show the outlines of a person’s body in graphic detail did not represent an invasion of privacy.
The TSA’s mission is to keep the travelling public safe. Advanced imaging technologies are an important tool in a multi-layered security system to detect evolving threats such as improvised explosive devices. Use of these technologies includes strong protections in place to safeguard passenger privacy. Screening images are automatically deleted, and the officer viewing the image will never see the passenger.
The TSA stressed that the body scanners are ‘optional to all passengers’.
Those who turn them down in the US:
Will receive equivalent screening that may include a physical pat-down, hand-wanding, and other technologies. Physical pat-downs are performed by Transportation Security Officers of the same sex as the passenger in a private screening area, if the passenger requests.
Body scanners do not produce photos’, the agency added. Rather, the images ‘look like chalk outlines’.
HAT TIP: Barriejohn
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
February 13th, 2010 at 10:05 am
Is there a scanner erotica porn site to be enjoyed? Where did you get that filthy scanner image?
February 13th, 2010 at 10:25 am
That’ll be the next thing, Perspix! My personal view is that they would much prefer to be touched up by a nice young man than ogled by some invisible operative in another room!!
February 13th, 2010 at 10:31 am
This is actually quite funny. They have no sense of irony, do they? Just why is it that these body scanners were introduced….?
February 13th, 2010 at 10:48 am
I’m going to have to start doing sit ups before I fly again.
February 13th, 2010 at 10:53 am
Re Perspix: These images will be all over the internet in no time, I’m sure, but how long before we have You’ve Been Scanned, I wonder – hahaha!!!
February 13th, 2010 at 11:27 am
Damn.
Annette beat me to it.
February 13th, 2010 at 11:58 am
Damn there goes the title for my next screenplay…it was going to be called “Muzzies on a Plane in Birqas”
it’ll have the effect they want..no devout Muslims on planes..now why didn’t they think of this 10 years ago ??
February 13th, 2010 at 12:00 pm
Damn these people; it’s their co-religionists who started all this with their stupid actions. The least they can do, is pipe down a little and not play the victim-card again.
I’m not a Muslim and I don’t look and live like I could be one, and I, like everybody else, have to to go through all these faith-based safety-procedures, costing all of us extra time and money. Am I allowed to say they can shove their fatwa on the chance of them getting upset again?
February 13th, 2010 at 12:05 pm
“In the US, the Transportation Security Administration said Muslims will have the option of a pat down search by a security guard.”
This means that Muslim wouldn’t really have to pass through the scanners? If yes, then, wouldn’t that beat the purpose of the scanners? I don’t mean to label all Muslims as terrorists but weren’t the scanners put to try to prevent Muslim terrorists’ actions?
February 13th, 2010 at 12:24 pm
Having a religious opt out from a security measure imposed because of religious terrorism seems … foolish.
February 13th, 2010 at 12:26 pm
Sound of huge penny dropping J.C., the Muzzies are onto us and realise that they can get around the problem by quoting the Koran and claiming religious persecution. Would it not be better to say that the scanners are non-negotiable and if you don’t pass through them you don’t fly? Alternately everyone should have to eat a small piece of bacon and wash it down with a swig of beer or wine. I am a vegetarian but would be willing to make a small exception for the sake of aviation safety.
February 13th, 2010 at 12:51 pm
Someone sent me this email yesterday. I know it’s meant as a joke but…..it would solve the problem. lol
”
An engineer (ex-NASA project director) has what I think is
the near perfect solution for airport security!
*Here’s a solution to all the controversy over full-body
scanners at the airports. Have a booth that you can step into
that will not X-ray you, but will detonate any explosive device
you may have on you.*
*It would be a win-win for everyone, and there would be none of this
crap about racial profiling and this method would eliminate a long
and expensive trial. Justice would be quick and swift..*
*Case Closed!*”
February 13th, 2010 at 1:03 pm
I see an opening here for an enterprising manufacturer of tin-foil underwear…
February 13th, 2010 at 4:10 pm
I’ve read that these scanners may violate US child pornography laws.
February 13th, 2010 at 5:36 pm
No fundies on a plane sounds like win/win to me. Can we persuade Xians it’s equally unbearable?
February 13th, 2010 at 6:25 pm
Good! Mrs Flight’s safety is more important than Mrs Gupta’s modesty.
February 13th, 2010 at 6:36 pm
Mrs Flight’s safety is more important than Mrs Gupta’s modesty.
February 13th, 2010 at 6:42 pm
Could it be the muzzies object to body scanners because it would show up men disguised in burqas?
February 13th, 2010 at 6:45 pm
Normand, that is a brilliant idea. It is a shame that it has been circulated as a joke and the cat has been let out of the bag because you would only have to convince people that the technology existed to make it work. You would have to fake the death of one suicide bomber to make it convincing but it would take one cool customer to walk into the booth without giving the game away even if he only half believed that it worked.
On a different note, I have a feeling that these body scanners are going to generate a whole new type of porn. as a male hetero I can imagine that that picture would have been quite intriguing had it been a female.
February 13th, 2010 at 7:15 pm
@Heather Flight – Gupta is not a Muslim name.
February 13th, 2010 at 9:20 pm
We should have separate flights. Secure flights on Mon,Wed,Fri and Sat AM, Unsecure at other times.
You’re more likely to die as a result of having stairs in your house than these people who like to delude themselves that they are terrorising the world. I’d take the unsecure flight over the compulsory porn star flight.
February 14th, 2010 at 3:53 am
@Dave McKeegan: Now Mr Mckeegan I dont say your not worldly coz you might be but my neighbour Mrs Gupta is very muslim – without the funny clothes – an she agrees with me that its much more important im not blown up than she is seen naked. Im sure im very respectful of scots even though you might be perfectly english.
February 14th, 2010 at 9:05 am
Oh dear, Heather – McKeegan’s an Oirish name! As someone of Irish descent myself, I can assure you of that!! (I believe the Scottish form is McKay.)
February 14th, 2010 at 12:43 pm
Precisely – what’s in a name!
February 14th, 2010 at 6:29 pm
Easy enough
You can’t travel then can you? Fucking orc.
Go blow up a train instead.
February 15th, 2010 at 1:44 pm
Of course, we wouldn’t need full body scanners if we stop treating EVERYONE like a terrorist. But it’s not PC to look for a pattern of behavior.
February 16th, 2010 at 10:22 pm
I think the “pattern of behaviour” being looked for is the placing of bombs in the underpants, Dear.