Quranic Ringtones Un-Islamic

Sometimes there's a news item that perfectly captures the insanity of the religious fanatics. The maulvis at Deoband in India - the same people who brought you the Imrana affair - have weighed in on another weighty social matter: mobile phone ringtones. Turns out that a popular trend among some Muslim youth is to use Quranic ringtones on their mobile phones. I don't know who these youth are, and I have never heard such a ringtone myself, and a quick look at the Ufone and Mobilink websites didn't yield any such Quranic ringtones. But these ringtones must be widespread enough for the Deobandis to weigh in on the issue. One might guess that the clerics would like the idea of even young hipsters with mobile phones turning to the Quran for their ringtone needs. But one would guess wrong.

And what do they have to say? Their verdict is that the Quranic ringtones are un-Islamic (source: The Daily Times):

Clerics at the Darul Uloom seminary in the northern Indian town of Deoband issued an edict banning the use of holy Quran verses or Muslim call to prayers as ringtones, saying doing so violates Islamic law.

Their logic? Apparently, Quranic verses are not meant for entertainment purposes. In addition, what is really problematic for our mullah friends is that a person may answer their phone without letting the entire ringtone play, thus cutting short the verse. Explains Mufti Badrul Hasan:

One should hear the complete verse of the holy Quran with a pious mind and in silence. If it is used as a ringtone, a person is bound to switch on the mobile, thus truncating the verse halfway ... This is an un-Islamic act.

When I shared the news item with lahorimunda, he replied that "every system has the seeds of its own destruction." I certainly hope so, but I'm really beginning to wonder if these people are too stupid and incompetent to even pull off their own destruction.