As many of you know, I've lived in Egypt for nearly 3 years. (And formerly lived in Saudi Arabia for 2 years).
So I'm watching the fight between "moderate" and "radical" Islam first-hand. Albeit as a neutral observer (I'm an atheist) and a fairly ignorant one when it comes to Islam (I'm an American working here). And usually from a safe distance. I hope.
So strictly FWIW (not much) from an atheist American ignoramus, on this whole fatwa thing. Gleaned from talking to Actual Muslim People and, of course, the Internets:
When you read about a fatwa, keep in mind that it is an
opinion issued by some religious authority or other. Even in strictly Wahhabi Saudi Arabia, fatwas are sharply distinguished from
verdicts, which are issued by judges. Verdicts are legally binding, in
sharia law exactly as they are in Infidel Law.
Fatwas are not. If you, as a Muslim, go and ask an expert for an answer to a religious question, technically his opinion is only binding on two people: you and him.
As the Malaysia case shows, national religious bodies can issue fatwas, but they are pretty much only binding on those citizens who choose to follow them.
This is further complicated by which school of Islamic jurisprudence you follow. There are more than 30, which puts Muslims in somewhat the same position as Protestants--anyone claiming to be a religious expert can merrily issue any ol' fatwa he wants, and any other expert can issue their own counter-fatwa completely contradicting his opinion.
New technology has led to exciting new ways for fatwas to be issued: via TV and the internet. "Ask-An-Imam" TV shows and websites are wildly popular in the Middle East right now.
So now, any Yusef-(Without-A)-Sixpack can call/email in and get an instant religious opinion.
Most of these are pretty basic questions:
Q: If it is not permissible to talk to or look at other muslim girls, how are we supposed to choose a girl, of our liking, for marriage?
A: It is encouraged to look at a girl for purposes of marriage. It is not permissible to talk to a girl.http://www.askimam.org/ Hmm. Muslim girls talk to me all the time here in Egypt, so I assume there is an Old Ugly Infidel loophole. (They usually just want to practice their English. When my job took me to Tokyo and I rode the subways, Japanese schoolgirls talked to me for the same reason.)
All this confusion has led to some really hilarious fatwa cases here in Egypt. (You can find these on the Internets, too.):
--A couple of years ago, somebody called into a TV Imam and asked if married couples should be totally naked when they have sex. (I'd love to know what prompted THAT question.)
The imam issued an Instant Fatwa saying it was forbidden to copulate completely nude and both parties should be wearing something.
Two of his next callers were female experts on
sharia law from Cairo's Al-Azhar University--the oldest Islamic university in the world and the highest authority on religious/legal issues for Sunni Muslims.
The women immediately issued their own opinion about the Imam--they said he was crazy.
One of those scholars was Souad Saleh, who routinely receives death threats for her liberal
fatwas. (To a Westerner, she's not really that liberal. While condeming the TV Imam, she also warned that Islam does prohibit "dirty" sex acts. She mentioned a couple of specific examples--anal sex and intercourse during the woman's menstrual period.)
--But even that goofy
fatwa was soon overtaken by another one. This started out as a seemingly routine question about the status of employees in a company or household.
Was it
halal (permitted) for a man and woman to work together? Or, what if a Muslim woman employed a male driver? That meant she would often be alone with him, which is generally
haram (forbidden).
One of the most senior imams at Al-Azhar Univeristy consulted the Koran and
Hadith, and came up with a solution--the woman could "suckle" her employee. (That means exactly what you think it does.) And then he would be a member of the family, so she could be alone with him.
That time, the telephone lines blazed with Islamic smart-asses calling in to ask very specific questions about this suckling thing. ("Would it not also be permissible if I were suckled by the oldest daughter of the family?" Etc.)
:rofl:
The Esteemed Imam was temporarily removed from his duties at the University. And some scholars noted that while the Suckling Fatwa sounded goofy, the Imam had supported it by citing Islam's holiest written works. More research was clearly needed...
Finally, since religion and religious laws were all invented by humans, the whole fatwa concept is just as susceptible to corruption and bribery as any other human invention.
There's a great example in the novel
The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany. (Required reading if you want to understand a little about the modern Middle East. Aswany was severely blasted for his writing about corruption, homosexuality, and religious questions in the novel.)
In the novel, an up-and-coming politician takes on a "secret second wife." In the West, we would call her a "mistress." She gets pregnant, and he wants her to have an abortion--strictly forbidden in Islamic law.
The mistress comes to a meeting with her lover and a Holy Man he has obviously bribed. The woman is told that, according to some fatwas of the past, abortion may be permitted "up to the third month."
The woman laughs bitterly and asks if that fatwa was issued "by an American imam."
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