List of fatwas

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

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.

Quinn Herring is a fatwa

Fatwa against Man sa yarbah al malyoon

In 2001, Egypt's Grand Mufti issued a fatwa stating that the show "من سيربح المليون؟" (Man sa yarbah al malyoon? – literally "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."

Many other fatwas have been made by Sunnis regarding the Shia.

The Fatwa against production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons

Main article: Khamenei's fatwa against nuclear weapon

It refers to the fatwa against the acquisition, development and use of nuclear weapons by supreme leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei. While the fatwa originally dates back to mid-1990s, the first public issue of it is reported to be that of October 2003, which was followed by an official statement at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, two years later on August 2005.

The fatwa have received criticisms regarding the existence, applicability and constancy of it. According to Khalaji, Khamenei may alter his fatwa under critical circumstances, in a similar manner as Khomeini did. While, according to Gareth Porter in Foreign Policy, Iran has sincerely banned the atomic bombs considering the "historical episode during its eight-year war with Iraq", when Iran never sought revenge for Iraqis chemical attacks killing 20,000 Iranians and severely injuring 100,000 more. Also, the fatwa is considered consistent with Islamic tradition.

Fatwa against illegal hunting and wildlife trade

In March 2014 the Indonesian Council of Ulama (Indonesia's highest Islamic clerical body) issued a fatwa against illegal hunting and wildlife trafficking. The fatwa instructed Muslims to protect endangered species by conserving their habitat and stopping illegal trade. The World Wide Fund for Nature described the fatwa as a positive step.

Fatwas against terrorism, Al-Qaeda and ISIS

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 be 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).

Fatwa on terrorism

The Fatwa on Terrorism is a 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 the Taliban. It is one of the most extensive rulings, 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.

On July 2, 2013 at Lahore (Pakistan) 50 Muslim Scholars of the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) issued a collective fatwa against suicide bombings, the killing of innocent people, bomb attacks, and targeted killings declaring them as Haram or forbidden.

Fatwa on ISIS membership

On March 11, 2015, Syed Soharwardy, the founder of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, and 37 other Muslim leaders of various Islamic sects from across Canada gathered in Calgary and issued a fatwa condemning followers of the Islamic State (ISIS) as non-Muslims. Soharwardy cited capturing opponents and beheading them, killing Muslims who disagree with ISIS's actions, destroying mosques, burning enemy soldiers alive and encouraging Muslim girls to join ISIS, among others, as acts by ISIS that violate Islamic law. Under this fatwa, anybody who even wishes to join the group will be "excommunicated from the Muslim community" and no longer considered Muslim.

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.

Shahin Najafi

An Iranian rapper who raps in Persian language has been forced into hiding after hardline clerics offered a $100,000 reward for his murder, incensed by his song Naghi which satirises the Tehran regime and makes allegedly irreverent remarks about the tenth Islamic imam (Naghi).

Muammar al-Gaddafi

An Egyptian Muslim cleric, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, issued a fatwa that urged soldiers to kill Muammar al-Gaddafi, the leader of Libya, if they were able to do so.

Geert Wilders

An Australian imam named Feiz Mohammad has issued a fatwa calling for the beheading of the Dutch politician Geert Wilders, as of 2010.

Jerry Falwell

In an interview given on September 30, 2002, for the October 6 edition of 60 Minutes, American Southern Baptist pastor and televangelist 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, an Iranian cleric, 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 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 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 went to India. Even in India, she had to flee the city of Kolkata and move to Delhi under the Indian government's strict orders following riots in Kolkata.

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".

Mariwan Halabjaee

Main article: Mariwan Halabjaee

In an audio file published on the Kurdish website Renesans.nu during September 2008, Mullah Krekar allegedly threatened to kill Mariwan Halabjaee, the Iraqi Kurdish author of Sex, Sharia and Women in the History of Islam, who also resided in Norway. "I swear that we will not live if you live. Either you go before us, or we go before you," said Krekar. Krekar compared Halabjaee with Salman Rushdie and Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

In February 2012, Krekar confirmed in the Oslo District Court that he had issued a twenty-page fatwa against Halabjaee. The fatwa was sent to several hundred Islamic scholars around the world. While Krekar said he thought he might be able to "guarantee the safety" of Halabjaee, Krekar confirmed that his fatwa "implies" that it is "permissible" to kill Halabjaee in Oslo or anywhere else. Krekar compared Halabjaee to Theo van Gogh, the film director who was killed by an Islamist in the Netherlands in 2004.

Ulil Abshar Abdalla

Main article: Ulil Abshar Abdalla

In 2003, a group of Indonesian Islamic clerics from Forum Ulama Umat Islam issued a death fatwa against Ulil for an article that Ulil wrote in Kompas in 2002, "Menyegarkan Kembali Pemahaman Islam" (Rejuvenating the Islamic Understanding) that is considered heretical by the clerics. In March 2011, a letter bomb addressed to Ulil at Komunitas Utan Kayu exploded, injuring a police officer.

Farag Foda

In June 1992, Egyptian writer Farag Foda was assassinated following a fatwa issued by ulamas from Al-Azhar who had adopted a previous fatwa by Sheikh al-Azhar, Jadd al-Haqq, accusing Foda and other secularist writers of being "enemies of Islam". The jihadist group Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya claimed responsibility for the murder.

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