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Because there is no central Islamic priesthood, there is also no unanimously accepted method to determine who can issue a fatwa and who cannot, leading some Islamic scholars to complain that too many people feel qualified to issue fatwas.
In both theory and practice, different Islamic clerics can issue contradictory fatwas. What happens then depends on whether one lives in a nation where Islamic law ( sharia) is the basis of civil law, or if one lives where Islamic law has no legal status. It should be noted that many nations in which Muslims make up a majority of the population do not recognize Islamic law as the basis of civil law.
In nations based on Islamic law, fatwas by the national religious leadership are debated before being issued and are decided upon by consensus. In such cases, they are rarely contradictory, and they carry the status of enforceable law. If two fatwas are contradictory, the ruling bodies (which combine civil and religious law) effect a compromise interpretation which is followed as law.
In nations that do not recognize Islamic law, religious Muslims are often confronted with two competing fatwas. In such a case, they would follow the fatwa of the leader in the same religious tradition as themselves. Thus, for example, Sunni Muslims would not hold to the fatwa of a Shiite cleric.
The most famous fatwa in recent decades involves Salman Rushdie's novel
The Satanic Verses. The argument relates to a blasphemous statement from an early biography of Prophet Muhammad, regarding incorporating pagan goddesses into Islam's strongly monotheist structure.In February 1989, a few months after the publication of the book, the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran issued this fatwa on Radio Tehran:
In the name of God Almighty. There is only one God, to whom we shall all return. I would like to inform all intrepid Muslims in the world that the author of the book entitled The Satanic Verses, which has been compiled, printed, and published in opposition to Islam, the Prophet, and the Qur’an, as well as those publishers who were aware of its contents, have been sentenced to death. I call on all zealous Muslims to execute them quickly, wherever they find them, so that no one will dare insult the Islamic sanctions. Whoever is killed on this path will be regarded as a martyr, God willing. In addition, anyone who has access to the author of the book, but does not possess the power to execute him, should refer him to the people so that he may be punished for his actions. May God’s blessing be on you all. Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini.
Subsequently, Rushdie lived in constant fear for his life, guarded by British security police. In 1991, his Japanese translator Hitoshi Igarashi was stabbed and killed in Tokyo, and his Italian translator was beaten and stabbed in Milan. In 1993, his Norwegian publisher William Nygaard was shot and severely injured in Oslo.
Khomeini died shortly after issuing the fatwa. However, Iran has said that it is no longer pursuing it, and Rushdie has recently claimed to have returned to the "true Islamic path."
Fundamentalists in BangladeshThe People's Republic of Bangladesh is a country in South Asia that forms the eastern part of the ancient region of Bengal. Bangladesh literally means "The Country of Bengal". Lying north of the Bay of Bengal, on land it borders India almost exclusively, declared a fatwa against Taslima Nasreen in 19931993 is a common year starting on Friday and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003 Events January January 1 Czechoslovakia divides. Establishment of independent Slovakia and Czech Republic., 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 feels that she may have faced a jail term of upto two years, but it is very likely that she might have been murdered within the jail. She managed to escape the country via CalcuttaThis article is on Calcutta/Kolkata, the city. For the gambling term, see Calcutta Calcutta is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Its original name was Kalikata and is, in higher literature, still referred to as such. Speakers of the region's, was granted asylum in SwedenThe Kingdom of Sweden Konungariket Sverige in Swedish) is a Nordic country in Scandinavia, in Northern Europe. It is bordered by Norway on the west, Finland on the northeast, the Skagerrak and the Kattegat on the southwest, and the Baltic Sea and the Gulf, and currently lives in ParisEiffel Tower has become the symbol of Paris throughout the world. Paris is the capital and largest city of France. The city is built on an arc of the River Seine, and is thus divided into two parts: the Right Bank to the north and the smaller Left Bank to.
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