Religious thinking
There is a strange form of absolutism that is behind these rulings. One that I have only seen in religious fanatics, but I've seen in Christian, Jewish and Muslim fanatics.
It goes something like this. We are not allowed to do X because God forbid it. To be safe, we are going to ban any activity that might lead to X. And then over time the ban slowly becomes bigger and bigger.
This is how "We worship the Prophet, not statues of the Prophet" became "Nobody can have statues of the Prophet because they might worship them" became "Nobody can have statues becuase statue makers might make a statue of the Prophet and then might worship it." Never put so simply, but that is how it works. In each generation there are some fanatics who feel the need to implement the rules slightly broader and more absolute then the previous one.
The same thinking is behind a big part of the Jewish dietary rules and much Christian thinking on contraceptives. Somehow "go forth and multiply" becomes "you can't do anything that might reduce the number of children you create."
Jay
