Syrian insurgents forbid consumption of "anti-Muslim" croissants / Православие.Ru

Aleppo, July 31, 2013

The Sharia committee of the Syrian city of Aleppo has recognised production and consumption of croissants (crescent rolls) as contrary to Muslim law, reports Al Arabiya. According to the authors of the respective fatwa, the crescent, in the shape of which these rolls are usually baked, is "a reminder of the victory of Christians over Muslims".

Over the recent months the Islamists who took many districts of Aleppo under their control, have begun publishing numerous very strict Muslim directions regarding daily life. Specifically, women now have been strictly forbidden to use cosmetics and to wear tight clothes. The rest of Aleppo's citizens have been threatened that they will be imprisoned unless they fast during the Ramadan.

Such innovations have already led to protest demonstrations of the citizens of Aleppo against Islamists, who, as a rule, are either rural dwellers or foreigners.

According to one of the versions of origins of croissants, they were baked in 1683 on the occasion of the victory of Christians over the troops of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed IV who attempted to seize Vienna. According to the fatwa, the shape of croissants supposedly symbolized crescents above Mosques. That defeat caused the decline of power of the Ottoman empire: after the battle of Vienna the Turks began to draw back from Europe until they were eventually driven away from it, mainly, early in the 20th century.