My father tells this story about how, when he was in the Air Force, he was stationed in Libya. (This would have been during the late 60’s.) Anyway, the walls surrounding the airbase (or barracks or whatever) were lined with broken beer bottles. He was informed that it was done because Muslims believe that if they are cut by a piece of colored glass, their soul will escape through the cut.
Is there any measure of truth to that, or is that just a line of BS they fed to the newbies?
1.) I admittedly don’t have a deep familiarity with Islam, but I’ve done a LOT of reading on it, and I’ve never encountered that belief before.
2.) In France and the UK and here in the states I have encountered brick or stone walls with broken glass bottles set in them. This is a cheap and easy waty to make a sort of “barbed wire” atop the wall. It keeps people out because they don’t want to get cut up. I’ve never heard anyone suggest that the French, British, or Americans stay away from these walls because they’re afraid they’ll lose their souls.
My verdict: Newbie tale.
There is no such thing in any version of Islam I’ve ever heard of. Somebody was just pulling his leg.
While I am a Muslim, I’m not Arab (and neither are roughly 82% of Muslims) nor Libyan. A lot of what is attributed to being part of the religion, both by ignorant adherents and by acquaintances, is really cultural. I wouldn’t rule out that there may have been a belief among some of the locals concerning the colored glass, but its just as likely, as Jomo suggested, that its a myth.
Thanks, guys. I kinda thought so.