Telephone conspiracy

From The Friday Times:

Saudi ulema against ‘hello’

According to daily Pakistan, seventy religious scholars (ulema) of Saudi Arabia including the Imam of Kaaba have issued fatwa that Muslims should not say hello on telephone because it refers to Hell. When a Muslim says hello to another Muslim, he is calling him a jahannami (dweller of Hell) which is banned in Islam. The Europeans are very clever because they actually don’t say hello but Hi which avoids sending Christians to Hell. Therefore it was banned for Muslims to say hello. They should say Salam which is a far better thing to say to another Muslim than hello, the word that contains ‘hell’.

PS: a wag immediately pointed out that salam is contained in salami.