Muslims Issue Fatwa Against Airport Scanners

Body scanners at airports violate Islamic rules on modesty and Muslim-American groups have barred the faithful from using them. “It is a violation of clear Islamic teachings that men or women be seen naked by other men and women," an influential Muslim council said in a fatwa forbidding Muslims from walking through the scanners. “Islam considers modesty part of faith. The Koran has commanded believers, both men and women, to cover their private parts.”

Body scanners do not produce photos, but images that “look like chalk outlines," said a statement from the federal Transportation Safety Administration. Officials stressed that body scanning is optional and that Muslims or any other passengers who refuse to go through the scanners "will receive equivalent screening that may include a physical pat-down, hand-wanding, and other technologies." (More TSA stories.)