Fatwah on Yoga continues

This latest installment is from the NYTimes. (See my earlier blog posts.)

Bali, the Hindu island in Muslim Indonesia, defies the fatwa banning the practice of yoga with a week-long yoga festival. Different Indonesian cultural sects now fear crackdowns on their traditions because of recent edicts from the fatwa-loving religious council. Yoga is one of them, and especially yoga in Bali ('cause, you know, see Eat, Pray, Love).

A refresher on the issue, "The Muslim Council’s yoga ruling came in a package of fatwas issued in January. The council deemed the ancient Indian poses and exercises incorporating Hindu chanting or rituals a sin for Muslims. Similar fatwas have been issued in Egypt and Malaysia. In all three countries, the religious leaders said they were concerned that practicing yoga could cause Muslims to deviate from Islamic teachings."

The head of the council promises not to enforce the laws, but it's scary that they now exist.

Yoga in the Muslim World

(image: c/o Time inc; Jean Chung/Corbis)

Inspired by the recent Malaysian fatwa against yoga, Time magazine just published a shrewd commentary on yoga in the Muslim world--the most comprehensive I've ever read. (It's a blog entry, so don't get too excited--they're not going front cover with this.)

The writer, Azadeh Moaveni, who has practiced yoga all over the Middle East (in Egypt, Lebannon, Iran, and Iraq etc) gives us insights into yoga outside the Judeo-Christian US, ones that might inspire us North American-bound folks to look up a bit (up away from our navels...).

For example, did you know (could you have guessed?) that in Iran, even in religious cities, every kind of yoga is available to every kind of person--from kids' yoga, to toning yoga, to austere or rigorous yoga--much as it is in the US? Or that in Beirut, Lebannon, people actually prefer gym yoga?

Moaveni quips, "Attending a yoga class at one of the city's [Beirut's] many posh fitness centers means that ministers can chat on their yoga mats, and pop stars can show off their headstands, a convenient way of getting centered and being seen at the same time."

Moaveni frets over the fate of yoga post-fatwa, but eventually decides that most likely it will continue unchanged. "That the forums' experts and mediators rule so contradictorily — some rule haram, while many more judge yoga harmless — suggests there is no fixed Islamic position on yoga, just as there is no fixed type of yoga itself."

So if everyone keeps their cool, this passion for mums, babies, professionals, expats, yuppies, celebrities and the general middle class will continue to flourish across the muslim world. Now what about those problematic Christian yogis...

Read the piece here. 

Trouble in Malaysia

Normally, I don't report on yogic news outside of the US, but the idea that yoga has been banned in Malaysia by a body called The National Fatwa Council is definitely news.

This story has been circulating in smaller international papers recently but last week NPR picked it up.

The objection is similar to that of some US Christians and parents: that yoga's spiritual roots in Hinduism could interfere with the dissemination of the 'true truth.' The NPR story, reported from Kuala Lumpur, says, "News of the yoga ban prompted activist Marina Mahathir to wonder what the council will ban next: "What next? Gyms? Most gyms have men and women together. Will that not be allowed any more?"

Well, the council also outlawed tomboys. That's right, it's illegal to be a girl who looks or acts too much like a boy.

Move aside Salman Rushdie. It's fatwa yoga time. 

Nov 29, Epilogue: Apparently, the Malaysian Sultans who each take turn as king, were not amused by the fatwa council's recommendation, and issued a rebuke to the decree, which might still be overturned.