Khamenei declares fatwa against Moroccan king’s beard
By ReutersThe bitter rift between Iran and Morocco deepened Wednesday, threatening to plunge the region into full-scale war, after Ayatollah Khamenei issued a fatwa against Morrocan King Mohammed VI’s beard, declaring it “un-Islamic.”
In a vitriolic speech on Iranian state television, the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 72, said Mohammed VI’s facial hair was “a disgrace” and “spat in the face of the prophet [Mohammed].”
King Mohammed VI, a Sunni Muslim and Morocco’s third king since the country gained independence from France in 1956, wears a closely-cropped “designer- stubble” beard. The monarch caused a scandal in the Arab world last year when he told Western reporters that he had “never even seen an Islamic beard,” and that headscarves were “boring.”
The white-bearded Shi’ite cleric, Khamenei, who has frequently spoken out against shaving or trimming beards and has set the minimum length for Iranian facial hair at five inches, called on Iranians and Muslims worldwide to burn the Moroccan flag in public squares, chant government-approved slogans and throw shoes at images of the Moroccan king.
The Iranian religious Later on Sunday, King Mohammed VI told Moroccan state television channel “Camel Plus” that the fatwa was “just the sort of messed-up nonsense you’d expect from a Shi’ite,” adding that “the Iranians aren’t even Arabs anyway,” and that he was “thinking of growing a goatee and a handlebar-mustache just to piss [Khamenei] off.”
The vastly wealthy monarch, whose official title is “His Majesty the King Mohammed the Sixth, Commander of the Faithful, may God grant him victory,” claims to be a direct descendant of the Muslim prophet, and has pointed to the fact that the two share a name.
Mohammed VI faces growing domestic difficulties, however, with the Moroccan public questioning his palace’s daily running costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The Moroccan king added that he believes his shorter beard is trendy and that it makes him popular with women.
“I’m a man of the people,” he said, as he inspected his fleet of luxury Mercedes Benzes and BMWs.
In a vitriolic speech on Iranian state television, the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 72, said Mohammed VI’s facial hair was “a disgrace” and “spat in the face of the prophet [Mohammed].”
King Mohammed VI, a Sunni Muslim and Morocco’s third king since the country gained independence from France in 1956, wears a closely-cropped “designer- stubble” beard. The monarch caused a scandal in the Arab world last year when he told Western reporters that he had “never even seen an Islamic beard,” and that headscarves were “boring.”
The white-bearded Shi’ite cleric, Khamenei, who has frequently spoken out against shaving or trimming beards and has set the minimum length for Iranian facial hair at five inches, called on Iranians and Muslims worldwide to burn the Moroccan flag in public squares, chant government-approved slogans and throw shoes at images of the Moroccan king.
The Iranian religious Later on Sunday, King Mohammed VI told Moroccan state television channel “Camel Plus” that the fatwa was “just the sort of messed-up nonsense you’d expect from a Shi’ite,” adding that “the Iranians aren’t even Arabs anyway,” and that he was “thinking of growing a goatee and a handlebar-mustache just to piss [Khamenei] off.”
The vastly wealthy monarch, whose official title is “His Majesty the King Mohammed the Sixth, Commander of the Faithful, may God grant him victory,” claims to be a direct descendant of the Muslim prophet, and has pointed to the fact that the two share a name.
Mohammed VI faces growing domestic difficulties, however, with the Moroccan public questioning his palace’s daily running costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The Moroccan king added that he believes his shorter beard is trendy and that it makes him popular with women.
“I’m a man of the people,” he said, as he inspected his fleet of luxury Mercedes Benzes and BMWs.
No comments:
Post a Comment