While not about biodiesel, the following is relevant to any forum members who are of the Islamic faith.

Thursday, 19 February 2009

Sheikh advises ethanol bio fuel use prohibited by Islam
Saudi scholar warns alcohol in bio fuel is a sin

Muslims may be sinning if they fill their cars with bio fuel like that from
this Sao Paulo ethanol pump (Courtesy of Mario Roberto Duran Ortiz)

DUBAI (AlArabiya.net)

A prominent Saudi scholar warned youths studying abroad of using ethanol or
other fuel that contains alcohol in their cars since they could be
committing a sin, local press reported Thursday.

Sheikh Mohamed Al-Najimi, member of the Saudi Islamic Jurisprudence Academy,
based his statement on a saying by the prophet that prohibited all kinds of
dealings with alcohol including buying, selling, carrying, serving,
drinking, and manufacturing, the Saudi newspaper Shams reported Thursday.

Saudi and Muslim youth studying abroad would violate the prohibition if they
used bio fuel, he said, since it ³is basically made up of alcohol.²

Majimi stressed that his statement should not be considered an official
fatwa, but is rather a personal opinion. He noted that this is an important
issue that needs to be studied by the relevant religious bodies.

Bio fuel is becoming increasingly popular in the West for its relatively low
price and as an environmentally-friendly source of energy..

In the past few years, millions of organic-fuel cars have been manufactured
in Europe, the United States, Brazil, China, and India.

Bio fuel is derived from recently dead biological material. Bio fuel is
manufactured by growing plants that are high in sugar, like sugar cane or
sugar beet, or high in starch, like maize. The sugar or starch is then
converted into cellular energy by using yeast fermentation to produce ethyl
alcohol, or ethanol, which is also found in alcoholic beverages.


(Translated from Arabic by Sonia Farid)



All rights reserved for Alarabiya.net © 2007-2008

__________________
Searching the Biofuels Forum using Google
Adding images and/or documents to your posts