UPDATED: As MadMullah In Charge Of The Country At The Behest Of The Fundamentalists And Brownshirts (his official Western title), Iran's Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khameini is asked many weighty questions on matters relating to Islamic law. Ynet reports:

Khameini, who is Iran's most powerful political and religious figure, was asked on his website: "If somebody masturbates during the month of Ramadan but without any discharge, is his fasting invalidated?" (Answer:) "If he do(es) not intend masturbation and discharging semen and nothing is discharged, his fasting is correct even though he has done a ḥarām (forbidden) act. But, if he intends masturbation or he knows that he usually discharges semen by this process and semen really comes out, it is a ḥaram intentional(ly) breaking fasting," the Iranian leader said, posting the reply on his website.

I'm glad he's cleared that up. (Recommended soundtrack: Fleetwood Mac's "Rattlesnake Shake" - circa '71, when they still had balls). There's no shortage of online queries to imams ersatz and otherwise about the permissibility of this and that. Earlier this year, Islamic clerics debated a pronunciamento from one of their number in Egypt that it was contrary to their religious laws for a husband and wife to have intercourse fully naked.

I sort of wish they would all wrestle with these strictures, though: Is it even remotely permissible for any imam anywhere to preach forced conversion of non-Muslims to Islam? Or second-class citizenship with a special tax for non-Muslims? Or death to "unbelievers"?

Anyone who answers "yes" is a real......jerk-off.

Hat tip: Eric.

TECHNORATI TAGS: IRAN, KHAMEINI, SHARIA, RAMADAN, MASTURBATION, FORCED CONVERSION, DEATH TO INFIDELS, FLEETWOOD MAC