# Shooting in the air at Muslim weddings



## cfu507

Two days ago I woke up in the middle of the night and heard shooting. I called the police and said that I heard shooting. The policeman told me "don't worry there is a wedding in XXX” (a Moslem town near my town).

Why do Moslems shoot toward the sky in a wedding and is it common in all over the world?


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## avok

Hey,

You can see it here in Turkey too. But I don't think it has got anything to do with religion but it may be something cultural. I dont think you shall see the same thing in a Muslim wedding among Afro-Americans.


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## Grop

I think the idea of (drunken?) men with guns shooting in the air during a party is quite cross-cultural. I have seen it in western movies, and I have seen it in real life (in France at some New Year's eve, and of course it was viewed as foolish).


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## GEmatt

cfu507 said:


> Why do Moslems shoot toward the sky in a wedding and is it common in all over the world?


I agree with avok and Grop. I don't think it has anything to do with religion, and wanting to make a racket and/or blast things into the air on joyous occasions is probably very widespread. I'm thinking of low-tech ratchets and hi-tech fireworks in my part of the world, to noisy firecrackers in the Far East.

Perhaps if the people in that village and others like it in the area had access to (or the money for) these alternative forms of explosive jubilation, then that is what they would be doing, instead. (There's probably even an argument that shooting into the sky is _less_ dangerous than launching your own fireworks, but that's off-topic.)


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## Saleh Al-Qammaari

I agree with avoc, Grop and GEmatt. this practice has nothing to do with religion. I'm a Muslim and never see such shooting in any wedding in my country. 

Anyhow, this act is not Islamically at all. For such shooting without need is considered extravagance. Islam prohibits extravagance and stinginess as well. 

I hope it becomes clear


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## cfu507

Thank you everyone.


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## ireney

Add weddings in Crete and  Mani (both areas of Greece) where the police is having more than just enough trouble convincing people that they should stop  . It used to happen in pretty much all Greece (a predominantly christian state) but in most cases people seem to have quitened down, at least, in this regard.


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## Kibramoa

Grop said:


> I think the idea of (drunken?) men with guns shooting in the air during a party is quite cross-cultural. I have seen it in western movies, ....



I guess it is a "drunk" men thing...  The Mexican movies from the 40's, 50's and 60's would often show  "tipsy" men shooting at the sky to show how happy they were at the party or event they were attending. Most of the time these movies were set in the countryside. 

I would not be surprised if this still happens in some rural areas.  In the cities, the people would call the police and there would be lots of problems.


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## cfu507

ireney said:


> Add weddings in Crete and Mani (both areas of Greece) where the police is having more than just enough trouble convincing people that they should stop  . It used to happen in pretty much all Greece (a predominantly christian state) but in most cases people seem to have quitened down, at least, in this regard.


 
And I thought that Greeks only break plates  
[I've been in Rhodes and looooved it].


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## cherine

crystal clear said:


> This practice has nothing to do with religion.


I agree with Crystal, this practice has nothing to do with religion, any religion.


> I'm a Muslim and never see such shooting in any wedding in my country.


I have to disagree here. Some weddings in Egypt witness this practice, but it's not a very common one. 
I think Kibramoa is right about this:


Kibramoa said:


> Most of the time these movies were set in the countryside.
> I would not be surprised if this still happens in some rural areas. In the cities, the people would call the police and there would be lots of problems.


In Egypt, it's mainly practiced in rural areas, mostly by people with less education.

GEmatt expressed what I always thought about this: it's like the fireworks. People shoot in the air instead of having fireworks shows. By the way, fireworks are getting quite popular among very rich people here


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## Saleh Al-Qammaari

cherine said:


> I have to disagree here. Some weddings in Egypt witness this practice, but it's not a very common one.
> 
> In Egypt, it's mainly practiced in rural areas, mostly by people with less education.



Actually, I said what I see and live. I do not see shooting in weddings except in movies; even in movies such an act is confined to the rural areas as Cherine said. I think this matter nowadays becomes obsolete because I was invited to some weddings in different rural areas and did not see any shooting. Anyhow, if there is any shooting, I believe it to be so rare. 

Best Regards!


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## cherine

Yes, of course they are very rare. I didn't witness any of them myself, only seen in movies and read about them in the news (when it happens that one of the shots hits a person and they speak about it in the newspapers  )


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## federicoft

I don't think it has anything to do with religion too.
Less educated people in rural Southern Italy used to shoot in the air at New Year's eve. Some people still do it, although it is steadily declining.


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## DCPaco

Kibramoa said:


> I guess it is a "drunk" men thing... The Mexican movies from the 40's, 50's and 60's would often show "tipsy" men shooting at the sky to show how happy they were at the party or event they were attending. Most of the time these movies were set in the countryside.
> 
> I would not be surprised if this still happens in some rural areas. In the cities, the people would call the police and there would be lots of problems.


 
It'd be interesting to see if they do this in Spain as well because we shouldn't forget that Mexico's Spanish ancestry is also moorish and maybe that's why culturally at the ranch weddings (en las bodas de rancho) the bullets are the fireworks of the show.


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## Outsider

Fireworks and firecrakers are pretty common during popular festivities in Portugal (though not weddings), but shooting guns in the air is not. In fact, shooting guns in public is quite unheard of.


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## b00nish

I'd also guess, that this has nothing to do with religioun.
I heard this once from a wedding in Afghanistan and this case has only become widely known after an US combat aircraft bombed the wedding because they tought the armed people at the wedding were terrorists.
But of course the Afghan culture has a lot more aspects than islam (old pasthun traditions for exmaple), so I guess they would also do it, if they had another religioun. If there are guns all over, it's not very suprising that they're shooting instead of launching fireworks.

In my country you could of course get trouble with the law for shooting in the air. A dubious politician did this here last summer after his victory at a local election. Well he had only to pay a little finde for disturbance of the peace because they wasn't able to prove that he'd shooten with real ammunition.


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## Aldhameer

In Bosnia,shooting was quite common,but not only at Muslim  weddings but also at orthodox and catholic.I think it's wild,but I also think it doesn't have to do anything with Muslims.


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## jinti

I have always wondered whether those who practice this are at all concerned where the bullets will fall...?


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## gurseal

I don't know if it is common in the U.S. for Muslims to do this at weddings, but shootings toward the sky do happen.  Evidence?  The people wounded, maimed and killed by falling bullets.


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## avok

gurseal said:


> I don't know if it is common in the U.S. for Muslims to do this at weddings, but shootings toward the sky do happen. Evidence? The people wounded, maimed and killed by falling bullets.


 
Unfortunately some people in Turkey lost their lives that way in the weddings! because of the bullets


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## Chaska Ñawi

jinti said:


> I have always wondered whether those who practice this are at all concerned where the bullets will fall...?



Every couple of years, sometimes every year, I read about somebody being killed that way in the Buenos Aires area.  Most recently it was a toddler playing in his back yard.  

It has to happen in other places too.


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## Mahaodeh

crystal clear said:


> I think this matter nowadays becomes obsolete because I was invited to some weddings in different rural areas and did not see any shooting. Anyhow, if there is any shooting, I believe it to be so rare.


 
I think it is slowly becomeing obsolete because governments are controlling who has a gun. It's very difficult to buy a gun and get amunition and the police do not alow it even if they understand why. It's dangerous and not the best expression of happiness. In rural areas (a small village) there might be only one policeman, if any, and he is probably related to half the village so people depend on this relation and don't abide by the law.

I've heard gunshots to celebrate weddings in Iraq, I've also heard gunshots in funaruls and sometimes for something as silly as a football team wining.

However, I disagree with the drunken thing, they are perfectly sober, but usually uneducated.


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## Dandee

¿What does the law say about that?. ¿Are the authorities conscious about the consequencies of the coming back of the bullets to the ground if they reach a person?


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## GEmatt

Dandee said:


> ...about the consequencies of the coming back of the bullets to the ground if they reach a person?


That's a big "if", isn't it? Does anyone have any statistics on the likelihood of being brained by an earthward-bound, post-nuptial Muslim bullet, versus the odds of being struck by lightning?


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## Dandee

GEmatt said:


> That's a big "if", isn't it? Does anyone have any statistics on the likelihood of being brained by an earthward-bound, post-nuptial Muslim bullet, versus the odds of being struck by lightning?


 
I think common sense is more needed than statistics are, I mean in order to prevent the obvious possible accidents.

Dandee.


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## Grop

Dandee said:


> ¿What does the law say about that?



I don't know about Cfu's place, but in most countries you may hardly have a gun: in these countries there is obviously strict rules about shooting.


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## cfu507

Grop said:


> I don't know about Cfu's place, but in most countries you may hardly have a gun: in these countries there is obviously strict rules about shooting.


 
Hi,
Well... Israel is not the "Wild West" . Serving in the Israeli Army is a mandatory service for Jewish citizen, but most of the Bedouin tribesman and Druses citizens serve in the Israel Defence Forces too. Hence, they have guns at home. Some of them are also policemen.
The police knows when there is a wedding with shooting and I belive that there is an ambulance around.

The town near my town is Bedouin's. You won't see people shoot in Jew's weddings. Jews use fireworks (the same fireworks that we see on the Independence Day). That's why I thought that shooting at weddings is a matter of religions, and it was nice to know that I was wrong .


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