A Saudi Arabian religious scholar who advises the King of Saudi Arabia issued a religious ban on stealing other peoples’ Wifi.
Ali Al Hakami stated, “Taking advantage of the WiFi service illegally or without the knowledge of other beneficiaries or providers is not allowed,” according to Gulf News.
The genesis of the bans stems from an anonymous question submitted earlier this year to Dubai’s Islamic Affairs and Charitable Activities Department on whether using your neighbor’s Wifi without permission violated Islamic Law.
The department issued a statement April 11, “There is nothing wrong in using the line if your neighbors allow you to do so, but if they don’t allow you, you must not use it.” The ban is based in the belief that using Wifi without owner permission constitutes theft, a serious crime under Islamic Sharia law.
“When the WiFi service is open such as in parks, malls, cafeterias, hotels and government departments, then there is no problem since it is meant to be used by the people or clients,” Hakami clarified to the Saudi Arabian public.
These religious edicts or fatwa’s range in seriousness. The Islamic State routinely uses them to justify its murder of those it deems enemies inside Syria and Iraq. Similarly, late-Iranian Ayatollah Khoemeni famously issued a fatwa against Salman Rushdie in 1988 for publishing a novel critical of Islam, which requires him to have security to this day.
Saleh Al-Fazwan, a fellow member of the Kingdoms’ religious advisory council, stated in 2014 that food buffets violated Islamic law because they did not give a clear price for food. In February 2016 the Indonesian government cited Islamic law when banning the same sex couple emoji.
Al Aneed, an anonymous Saudi Blogger, stated online “We do not need a religious edict to pinpoint such basic things.”
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