List of fatwas

A fatwa (Arabic: فتوى‎), is a legal pronouncement in Islam, issued by a religious law specialist on a specific issue.

Fatwa against Man sa yarbah al malyoon

In 2001, Egypt's Grand Mufti issued a fatwa stating that the show Man sa yarbah al malyoon ("Who will Win the Million?"), modelled on the British show Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, was un-Islamic. The Sheikh of Cairo's Al-Azhar University later rejected the fatwa, finding that there was no objection to such shows since they spread general knowledge.

Fatwa regarding theology

• al-Azhar Shia Fatwa on July 6, 1959:

"The Jafari fiqh of the Shi'a is a school of thought that is religiously correct to follow in worship as are other Sunni schools of thought."

Fatwa Against Production, Stockpiling and use of Nuclear Weapons

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a fatwa forbidding the production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons on August 9, 2005. The full text of the fatwa was released in an official statement at the meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna.

Fatwas Against Terrorism and the Group "al-Qaeda"

Spanish Muslims proclaimed a fatwa against Osama Bin Laden in March 2005 issued by Mansur Escudero Bedate, Secretary General of the Islamic Commission of Spain. The ruling says that Bin Laden and "his" al-Qaeda had abandoned their religion and should thus called "al-Qaeda terrorists" without using the adjective "Islamic". The fatwa urges other Muslims to make similar proclamations. They were followed in July 2005 by the Fiqh Council of North America, a ruling council that issued a fatwa against providing support to "terrorist" groups that make up their own rules by unjustifiably referring to Islam (see Istihlal).

Fatwas promoting violence against a particular individual

Fatwas involving violence are more likely to be well known than other fatwas, especially to non-Muslims. One possible reason is that non-Muslims regard most fatwas as not affecting them, but fatwas involving violence can potentially affect them. Fatwas do not only affect Non-Muslims. It is important to note that a Fatwa is meant to be issued by a legal scholar, not by any political entity. Generally, any given case may have many fatwas (legal opinions) written by the scholars of the region and time. The fatwa backed by the State is the one with legal power.^{[citation needed]}

Muammar al-Gaddafi

A Muslim cleric, Al Qardawi, issued a fatwa that urged people to kill Gaddafi if they were able to do so.

Geert Wilders

Possibly the most internationally well-known politician, Geert Wilders, is one of many Dutch politicians who have had a fatwa issued against them. In 2008 Wilders received 285 death threats, with a further 264 aimed at all Dutch politicians. There were a total of 145 protection orders for Wilders in 2006; in 2005 there were 110. An Australian imam named Feiz Muhammad has issued a fatwa calling for the Dutch politician’s beheading, as of 2010.

Jerry Falwell

In an interview given on September 30, 2002, for the October 6 edition of 60 Minutes, American Christian minister Jerry Falwell said: "I think Muhammad was a terrorist. I read enough by both Muslims and non-Muslims, [to decide] that he was a violent man, a man of war."

The following Friday, Mohsen Mojtahed Shabestari, the spokesman of Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a fatwa calling for Falwell's death, saying Falwell was a "mercenary and must be killed." He added, "The death of that man is a religious duty, but his case should not be tied to the Christian community."

Salman Rushdie

Main article: The Satanic Verses controversy

One of the first well-known fatwas was proclaimed in 1989 by the Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, against Salman Rushdie over his novel The Satanic Verses. The reason was an allegedly blasphemous statement taken from an early biography of the Prophet Muhammad, regarding the incorporation of pagan goddesses into Islam’s strongly monotheistic structure. Khomeini died shortly after issuing the fatwa. In 1998 Iran stated it is no longer pursuing Rushdie’s death; however, that decree was again reversed in early 2005 by the present theocrat, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In 1991, Rushdie's Japanese translator, Hitoshi Igarashi, was stabbed to death in Tokyo, and his Italian translator was beaten and stabbed in Milan. In 1993, Rushdie's Norwegian publisher William Nygaard was shot and severely injured in an attack outside his house in Oslo. Thirty-seven guests died when their hotel in Sivas, Turkey was torched by locals protesting against Aziz Nesin, Rushdie's Turkish translator.

Taslima Nasreen

Fundamentalists in Bangladesh proclaimed a similar fatwa against Taslima Nasreen in 1993, against a series of newspaper columns in which she was critical of the treatment of women under Islam. The next year she wrote Lajja (Shame) which described the abuse of women and minorities. Again there were calls for her death, and her passport was confiscated. Within the legal system, she felt that she might have faced a jail term of up to two years, where she was likely to be murdered. She managed to escape the country via Calcutta, was granted asylum in Sweden, and then lived in Paris, and finally came to India. Even in India, she had to flee the city of Calcutta and move to Delhi under Indian government's strict orders following riots in Calcutta.

Isioma Daniel

Mamuda Aliyu Shinkafi, the deputy governor of Zamfara state in Nigeria, issued a fatwa in November 2002 calling for the death of journalist Isioma Daniel for comments suggesting that Muhammad may have chosen a wife from one of the Miss World contest. Other Muslim authorities have questioned the validity of the fatwa.

Raheel Raza

Raheel Raza, a Muslim human rights activist who has advocated for gender equality, especially for Muslim women, became the first woman to lead mixed-gender Muslim prayers in Canada, in 2005, and said: "I already have a fatwa against me".

Fatwa on Terrorism

Fatwa on Terrorism is 600-page Islamic decree against terrorism and suicide bombings released in March 2010. This fatwa is a direct refutation of the ideology of Al-Qaeda and Taliban. It is one of the most extensive ruling, an "absolute" condemnation of terrorism without "any excuses or pretexts" which goes further than ever and declares terrorism as kufr under Islamic law. It was produced in Canada by an influential Muslim scholar Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri and was launched in London on March 2, 2010. Dr Qadri said during the launch "Terrorism is terrorism, violence is violence and it has no place in Islamic teaching and no justification can be provided for it, or any kind of excuses or ifs or buts." According to CNN, experts see the fatwa as a significant blow to terrorist recruiting.

External links

• The Fatwa and Revolutionary Islamic Movements
• Live Fatwa & archive
• Fatwa archive
• Osama bin Ladin’s Fatwa urging jihad against Americans
• Ask Imam Fatwas by Mufti Ebrahim Desai (The Fatwa Department)
• Fatwa-Online
• Salafi fatwas