Tattoed Muslims... ?

 AP Photo of Syrian Rebel

Associated Press   (link)
Muhammed Muheisen

In this Sunday, Aug. 26, 2012 file photo, Syrian rebel fighter Tawfiq Hassan, 23, a former butcher, poses for a picture, after returning from fighting against Syrian army forces in Aleppo, at a rebel headquarters in Marea on the outskirts of Aleppo city, Syria. America's Arab allies have dramatically stepped up weapon supplies to Syrian rebels in preparation for a push on the capital Damascus, the main stronghold of President Bashar Assad, officials and Western military experts say, with one official saying airlifts to neighboring Jordan and Turkey have doubled the past month. The U.S. and other Western governments are involved to channel the flow toward more secular fighters, they say. The influx appears to be boosting a rebel drive to seize supply routes from the border with Jordan to Damascus.

My Muslim friends, some of whom are from Syria, were surprised to see this picture; they were no more surprised than I was. I saw it early this morning and thought, "What in the world...?" as I fell off my chair.
There is a sequence of photos, each purporting to be some every-day Ahmad, who used to be a butcher, baker, or barber, who has taken up arms in the cause of freedom.

The man identified as Tawfiq Hassan has tattoos !
Tattoos are  haram  in Islam; they are forbidden.

Not only does this man have tattoos, but the tattoos picture animate creatures: two women crowned with doves, one on each shoulder blade.
The depiction of animate creatures is also haram, forbidden, to a greater or lesser degree, depending on one's school of the law.

It is, in other words, a double whammy... or haramān   (two forbiddens)... if you will.

I can imagine a good deal of serious discussion given in Muslim forums about tattoos and about the depiction of human beings, but I think it would take a long stretch of the imagination to think that anyone would look at these tattos and think anything but haram.

If this guy is anything but a mercenary, I will be very surprised.

If they are non-Islamic, who are they? Perhaps they are Middle Eastern, but they seem to have no religious roots. Perhaps they are the sociopaths being groomed to rule the future Syria.

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