Wild Political Fatwas: the Saudi and Israeli Examples………..
“Saudi authorities are planning to regulate the issuance of Islamic rulings by limiting the number of people allowed to formulate religious decrees. The plan is currently being discussed by the Higher Council of Religious Scholars and could be implemented as early as next month. “If the Saudi authorities regulate the fatwa industry, it will reduce the amount of extreme fatwas and it will send a positive message to those who are irresponsible and unaccountable with their fatwas,” Dr. Khalil Al-Khalil, a former Saudi member of parliament and an expert on Islamic trends, told The Media Line. “It will send them a message that they are not doing the right thing.” Islamic scholar Sheikh Ahmad Bin Abd Al-Aziz Bin Baz told Al-Arabiyya that the issuance of fatwas, or religious scholarly opinions, in the Saudi kingdom had gotten out of hand to the extent there was a need to regulate and unify them………But Western media in recent years has often depicted fatwas as associated with edicts on warfare and death sentences, such as the fatwa seeking the death of author Salman Rushdie after the Iranians found his writings offensive to Islam. A fatwa can be issued by anyone who is seen to have sufficient Islamic scholarly training for the task, usually a Muslim with high standing in his community.…….” Jerusalem Post
True, almost any idiot with a Bachelor’s Degree in Shari’a is issuing fatwas.
They should appoint a prince to be the only party who can give sanctioned fatwas. That way the various shaikhs do not need to look at their respective patron princes and try to divine what kind of fatwa they “want” them to issue.
Don’t the Israelis have their own issue with “oddball” fatwas (or whatever pass for fatwas) that are issued by various rabbis?
Cheers
mhg
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