You, Too, Can Ask the Ayatollah

By Al Kamen
Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Now that the British are leaving Shiastan and things are relatively quiet, folks there can fret about the more typical concerns of daily life. And many are logging on to the official Web site of the revered Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani for answers.

The attractive site -- http://www.sistani.org-- has the answer for just about anything, from bullfighting ("discouraged") to birth control ("permissible"), lying on your résumé (not permissible), cloning (okay) to Zoroastrians (no one asked yet).

The answers from Iraq's preeminent Shiite cleric are often pragmatic and seem in part aimed at getting people to chill out. For example, one person worried about whether it was okay to eat cheese from a non-Muslim country if he didn't know if it was prepared according to Muslim dietary laws.

" Answer: It is permissible for you to eat it."

Another e-mailer asked: "Can a Muslim, who rents a fully furnished house in the West, consider everything in it to be ritually pure as long as he does not find any trace of impure things in it, even if the previous occupant was from Ahlul Kitab, i.e., a Christian or a Jew? What if the previous occupant was a Buddhist or an atheist who does not believe in God and the prophets?

" Answer: Yes, he can consider everything in the house ritually pure as long as he does not know that it has become impure. Just conjecture or doubt about impurity is of no value."

Yet there are some areas where Sistani is adamantly hard-line, especially about copyright law.

" Question: What is the ruling on copying computer software, movies, audio CDs and other such things, which bear the wording 'All Rights Reserved' or 'Copyright'? Does this rule apply equally to Muslim made products and those made by non-Muslim individuals or companies?

" Answer: Copyrights must be respected; it is not permissible to copy a software product, if it is against the law.

" Question: A lot of Islamic books and software have copyrights on them. What is the Islamic view of copyrights? If I photocopy a book or duplicate a CD with a copyright am I doing a sin?

" Answer: Copying or duplicating a book or software without their owner's permission is not permissible.

" Question: Can I use cracked CD software?

"Answer: If someone else has cracked the software, you can use it but you are not allowed to copy or burn it into another compact disc."

Sistani and the Recording Industry Association of America, united at last!

The site is straightforward and easy to understand, but not for the frivolous. One e-mailer asked: "I have seen a dream that has made me very anxious, will His Eminence interpret it for me?"

" Answer: Grand Ayatollah Sistani does not interpret dreams. Should you have any questions in the area of Fiqh (jurisprudence) and ideological matters, do not hesitate to email us."

Or you can write the Ayatollah at his address in Qom, Iran, heart of the Islamic revolution, or two sub-offices in Iran or to his office in Damascus. Nothing listed in Iraq.

Last Call in the Pardon Contest

Midnight's the deadline! Last chance to enter the In the Loop Pardon Scooter Contest. Send your best guess -- month, day and year -- for when President Bush will pardon I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff. Send your entry -- one per person -- to intheloop@washpost.com. You must include your name and a telephone number.

The Sultan of Sobriquets

A great fan of alliteration -- too great, perhaps -- added snappy titles to the just-ended American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference. The programs included Battle Over Beirut, Danger in Damascus, Radioactive Revolution, Tentacles of Terror, Incubator of Innovation, Power of the Purse, Strategic Snapshot, Lobbying Lab, Promising Partners and Russian Roulette.

Not even one panel on Sex in Salvador? An analysis of how the now-former Israeli envoy to El Salvador, Tsuriel Raphael, found himself bound, gagged with a tennis ball, drunk and wearing sex toys in his yard?

A Failure to Communicate?

You don't call, you don't write, we never see you any more. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), now head of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, just can't seem to get Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to respond to his letters.

In fact, he has written 16 letters to her since 2003 and it appears the only time she bothers to write back, five times in all, is when he's gotten someone like Rep. Tom Davis (Va.), the former committee chairman, or another Republican to sign on. Kinda like having a parent co-sign for you.

Probably she was just following the general administration policy of ignoring any requests from the minority party. (Of course, GOP staffers say she rarely responded to letters from Republican Henry Hyde when he was chairman of the House International Relations Committee.) But "I am now renewing my requests as the chairman of the chief oversight committee in the U.S. House of Representatives," he said in a letter Monday to Rice. "My inquiries cover vital issues within the committee's oversight jurisdiction, including your role in the President's false assertion that Iraq was seeking uranium from Niger."

Oh, not that again. That was way back in January 2003. And wasn't that George Tenet's fault? Or Steve Hadley's? Or "maybe someone . . . down in the bowels of the agency," as Rice said back in June 2003.

Waxman has been writing to her about this ancient matter since March 17, 2003, two days before the war started -- he helpfully enclosed a copy in case she forgot -- but she "did not respond to multiple letters I sent you about this matter." He also enclosed letters on four other areas: a controversial appointment of a fellow under federal criminal investigation, the political screening of delegates to international conferences, a U.N. needle-exchange program and the administration's handling of classified information.

"I therefore respectfully request a complete response to these four letters by April 20, 2007," Waxman said, adding that she really has "an obligation to respond."

Is it . . . peona or . . . poena?