Using biofuels might be a sin, says Muslim cleric

I had no idea what would pop up when I typed in "ethanol sin" into the search box over at Flickr. Turns out, you get the image above, which was created for the Pope's visit to the U.S. back in early 2008. It's a good reminder that the debate over biofuels has donned religious clothing before. There a new twist to the discussion, though, following a recent statement from Sheikh Mohamed Al-Najimi, member of the Saudi Islamic Jurisprudence Academy, who said that using biofuels might be a sin because they go against the Islamic rule forbidding alcohol. This opinion, issued as a personal opinion and not an official fatwa, according to Al Arabiya, would apply to ethanol and methanol, and biodiesel made using methanol. SVO users, you're off the hook, here.

Related stories:

• Could the Pope make 15 mpg a sin?
• Can driving greener get you into heaven? Vatican says sure
• Another thing to worry about gas guzzlers: the sin factor

Note: we've had a little too much name-calling in the comments recently and have needed to ban some people from writing more. Feel free to write what you think about this particular issue, but stay away from name calling and broad generalizations about religion or ethnic groups, ok? No more warnings, just bannings if you can't be civil.

[Source: Cleantech via Green Daily, Al Arabiya]
Image by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com. Licensed under Creative Commons license 2.0.