Fatwas Useless Against Madmen

— Aisha Eteraz

 

Religious rulings by Muslim clerics, called fatwa, have often been cited as one impetus for terrorism. The infamous fatwa issued by Iranian Ayatollah Khomeini against Salman Rushdie, author of the controversial book The Satanic Verses, is a prime example. In the West, the word fatwa has come to be viewed with universal dread.

 

Yet there have been literally dozens of fatwas issued against terrorism by high-ranking sheikhs in the years since 9/11. An incomplete list of them can be found here. (Also here and here, oh, and here too. Wow, that’s a lot.) For critics who claim that mainstream Islamic authorities have been silent on the issue of terrorism, your humble servant hopes this is a sufficient mouthful to keep you occupied for awhile. Have your cake, and eat it too.

 

The problem, then, is not silence on the issue of terrorism. By now most Muslims are beginning to realize that as many Muslims are killed by terror as hostile outsiders, and that most of the ‘hostile outsiders’ end up being harmless tourists who pour money into otherwise faltering economies. Your humble servant lives in the Middle East, and she can tell you with authority that there are actually commercials against terrorism aired on television, ending with threats of an afterlife in the fiery furnace for the irhebiyeen. That’s irhebiyeen, terrorists (singular irheb), not shahideen, martyrs. The one running now shows a sorrowful mother placing black ribbons across the photographs of her three children, all claimed in terrorist attacks. For inhabitants of countries like Jordan and Egypt, in which terrorism has killed far more resident Muslims than non-resident non-Muslims over the last decade, terror attacks are the furthest thing from a source of pride.

 

So: documented resistance to terrorism by media and clerical bodies in the Muslim world.

 

Why hasn’t it worked?

 

It hasn’t worked because our much-lauded Islamic law is far less powerful than it seems, and far far less powerful than the militants would like you to believe in the West. The reach of any given sheikh goes only as far as his charisma; even in countries where Shari’a is the law of the land, a cleric with state-appointed powers has no authority beyond those powers. A militant group working outside the law certainly isn’t going to stop its activities because of a few decrees by sheikhs working for the law. Fatwas are strictly temporal decrees; no sheikh has the authority to speak for God, thus, any attempt to convince terrorists to give up their pipe bombs using the tools of Islamic law is likely to end in failure. If they don’t like what you have to say, they are well within their rights as Muslims to listen to someone else. Someone who is already saying what they want to hear.

 

Shari’a law is not all-powerful. Shar’ia law, today, is almost useless. Saint Ali, grandson of Muhammad, said it best: “Shari’a only functions in a just society.” If nothing else, the state of the Muslim world today is ample proof that in an unjust society, it functions not at all. If we’re looking for a stick with which to beat sociopaths who rent porn the night before they fly planes into buildings for God, we should look elsewhere. Fatwas are useless against madmen.

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I found this on an Islamic forum. Its a great read. Too often the west ignores the fact many high level islamic leaders are agaisnt terrorism and speak out agaisnt it.

Intresting article.

You didn't put a link in "here, here and here too.Wow that's a lot" ;)

yeah, shari'a laws usually are null and void in democratic nations, they just don't work that well with the laws and rules we've got today. no muslim would endorse terrorism unless they really were mad because actions such as those are condemned in Islam. but i too have asked myself why there hasn't been a bigger reaction throughout the Muslim communities because i myself have been outraged at them.