Saudi Cleric Places Fatwa on Mickey Mouse

In a story that’s so weird his has to be considered true, a leading Saudi Arabian cleric has declared Mickey Mouse to be an “agent of Satan.” As such, he has put a fatwa, or death sentence , on the Mouse’s head.

According to the London Telegraph Sheik Muhammad Munajid claimed the mouse is "one of Satan's soldiers" and makes everything it touches impure. He warned that depictions of the creature in cartoons such as Tom and Jerry, and Disney's Mickey Mouse, had taught children that it was in fact loveable. The cleric, a former diplomat at the Saudi embassy in Washington DC, said that under Sharia (Islamic law), both household mice and their cartoon counterparts must be killed.

Not that Mickey’s alone in the condemnation department. During the Moslem holy month of Ramadan, Saudi Arabia’s chief cleric, Sheikh Saleh el-Lheidan, has also spat venom at the Olympics and Turkish soap operas. He declared the international sporting event “obscene” and claiming that nothing made Satan happier than seeing females athletes dressed in skimpy outfits. As for the soaps, he has issues with various bedroom scenes.

“I advise the owners of the shameless satellite stations who distribute programs promoting impudence, insolence and silly humor,” said el-Lheidan. “I warn them, they’re wasting people’s time and corrupting them. If they don’t heed our call, their killing could be permissible.”

According to CNN, viewers across the Arab world are absorbing it all in; unaware, or uncaring about the edict controversy.

This is not the first time the Mouse has come into conflict with the Muslim world. A few years back, the Palestinian political group Hamas used an almost exact duplicate of the Mickey, named Farfour, as a sort of host of its own TV show. From this pulpit it used to preach death and destruction to its audience, young Palestinian children.

In 2007, the character was also “murdered” on air. A co-host of the show declared Farfour was killed by an actor posing as an Israeli official trying to buy Farfour's land. At one point, the mouse called the Israeli a "terrorist."

"Farfour was martyred while defending his land," said Sara, a teen co-star. He was killed "by the killers of children," she added.