In a recent news item I wish I didn't have to take seriously, the Shariah-promoting Fiqh Council of North America is claiming that airport body scanners violate Islamic law. The Detroit Free Press says this could complicate airline screening:

In a move that could complicate airport screening, a group of Muslim-American scholars issued a religious ruling this week that called upon the faithful to not go through body scanners because the scholars said the machines violate Islamic rules on nudity.

A growing number of body scanners -- 450 more of them this year -- are to be introduced in airports in Michigan and across the U.S., say Transportation Security Administration officials. Their increased use comes after the Dec. 25 bombing attempt on an airliner over Detroit, heightening fears of terrorism. The suspect in the failed bombing is a Nigerian Muslim.

The Fiqh Council of North America -- a national group based in Indiana -- said the scanners contravene Islamic law, which is grounded in the Quran. The council consists of an executive council and a council of 10 scholars, two of whom live in metro Detroit. It's an affiliate of the Islamic Society of North America.

As far as I'm concerned, people who have objections grounded in Shariah Law can just stay the hell off the planes.

Please, just go ahead and obey the fatwa!

"It is a violation of clear Islamic teachings that men or women be seen naked by other men and women," reads the fatwa. "Islam highly emphasizes haya (modesty) and considers it part of faith. The Quran has commanded the believers, both men and women, to cover their private parts."

In a statement late Thursday, the TSA said it is committed to keeping passengers safe and also protecting privacy. "Screening images are automatically deleted, and the officer viewing the image will never see the passenger," the agency said.

The suspect in the Dec. 25 attempt, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, is accused of hiding explosive chemicals in his underwear. Since then, some have called for the use of body scanners at airports to find dangerous materials on passengers. Critics say the scanners show details of the outlines of a person's body.

But the TSA said the scanners "do not produce photos." Rather, it said, the images "look like chalk outlines."

Currently, there are 40 full-body scanners -- two of them in Detroit -- at 19 airports in the U.S., said TSA spokesman Jim Fotenos.

One option offered to passengers who don't want to go through a scanner is a pat-down by a security guard of the same gender, the TSA said.

All in violation of someone or another's religious principles, no doubt!

What would the Shariah say? Shouldn't there at least be a fatwa against making heterosexual Muslims submit to pat-down searches by gay American TSA employees when the latter get turned on by the search?

The two members of the Fiqh Council from Michigan are Imam Hassan Qazwini of the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn and Imam Ali Suleiman Ali of the Canton Mosque. "Fiqh" means Islamic jurisprudence.

The director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a separate group that has a chapter in Michigan, says it endorses the fatwa.

Hmmm...

Maybe these scanners are a better idea than I realized.

And I still think that hiring sexy hookers to conduct the searches is an idea whose time has come!