'Aki'lles

A couple of days ago muslim clerics in Lucknow and Varanasi issued a fatwa denouncing terrorist attacks on religious places. So for once we get to hear about a Fatwa that does not advocate murder of an author or editor and instead conveys an idea of peace and tolerance. I find the idea of issuing this fatwa in particular as a great concept. Most terrorists and religious zealots believe that they have a religious license to go about their business of hate . Atleast, now they know that their divine license is not accepted in every corner of the world.

The clerics who issued this fatwa based their on pronouncement on a specific directive in Quran which states that killing of an innocent person was a murder of the entire humanity. It is about time that saner elements of the now much maligned and universally misinterpreted religion found their voice and expressed their views on various incidents and happenings. I guess, that's the only way to contain 'Islamophobia' that is sweeping across the non-islamic world.

Found a few snippets about the concept of fatwas in general on Wikipedia, have listed them below:

"Contrary to what is believed by many non-Muslims, and even by the majority of Muslims, a fatwa is not binding on all persons professing the Muslim faith. The only ones who are obliged to obey any specific fatwa are the mufti who issued it and his followers."

"Because Islam has no centralized priestly hierarchy, there is no uniform method to determine who can issue a valid fatwa and who cannot, and upon whom such fatwas are binding. Some Islamic scholars complain that too many people feel qualified to issue fatwas."