You sometimes have to admire the comprehensive ambitions of Muslim scholars. They have to have a ruling for everything.

Hence my favorite fatwa of the week. Some guy asks if he is religiously obligated to return an “al-salaamu ‘alaykum” greeting spoken by a parrot. The scholar duly answers, comparing the parrot situation to tape recordings.

Too bad casuistic reasoning has fallen out of fashion in popular Christian circles. It can be so entertaining.