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Fatwa

A fatwa is a ruling or decision by an Islamic cleric. A fatwa can be a ruling on anything, and fatwas are issued by Islamic clerics all the time on everyday religious subjects, such as dress and behavior. Fatwas on everyday subjects rarely receive mention in the non-Islamic press. Much more controversial are fatwas calling for the death of “heretical” Muslims or non-Muslims.

The Rushdie Fatwa

One of the most famous such “death” fatwas in modern times was the 1989 decree issued by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, then leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, calling for the death of British writer Salman Rushdie. The fatwa declared that Rushdie should be executed for having insulted Islam in his novel The Satanic Verses, published in late 1988. It also called for the death of any editor or publisher involved in publishing the novel. The fatwa read, in full:

The author of The Satanic Verses, a text written, edited, and published against Islam, against the Prophet of Islam, and against the Koran, along with all the editors and publishers aware of its contents, are condemned to capital punishment. I call on all valiant Muslims wherever they may be in the world to execute this sentence without delay, so that no one henceforth will dare insult the sacred beliefs of the Muslims.

A group in Iran offered a reward for anyone, Muslim or non-Muslim, who killed Rushdie. Rushdie spent the following 10 years in hiding and received round-the-clock police protection.

On February 12, 1997, the Iranian charitable foundation 15 Khordad announced an increase in the reward for the murder of Salman Rushdie to $2.5 million. At the same time, the Iranian government gave its assurances that it would not send anyone to kill Rushdie but also said it cannot ever revoke the fatwa.

While Rushdie himself has not been attacked, some of those associated with Rushdie's work have not escaped the fatwa. A Japanese translator of the book, Hitoshi Igarashi, and an Italian translator, Ettore Capriolo, were stabbed in their own countries in July 1991. Igarashi died immediately, and Capriolo was seriously injured. The Norwegian publisher of the book, William Nygaard, was shot at three times outside his home in Oslo in 1993, but survived the attempt on his life. No one was arrested in any of those cases.

Other Controversial Fatwas

In October 1999, a British cleric issued a fatwa calling for the death of American playwright Terrence McNally, author of a controversial play that portrays Jesus Christ as a homosexual crucified as the King of Queers. The shari'a (Islamic law) court of the United Kingdom issued the fatwa, saying McNally had insulted Jesus, who is a prophet in the Koran. The fatwa was signed by Omar Bakri Muhammad, an extremist cleric and a judge of the U.K. shari'a court.

During the Gulf War, Sheikh Muhammad had issued a fatwa calling for the assassination of former British prime minister John Major. Sheikh Muhammad said, “The fatwa is to express the Islamic point of view that those who are insulting to Allah and the Messengers of God must understand it is a crime.”

Perhaps the best-known recent fatwa was the proclamation by Osama bin Laden and four other fundamentalist figures, two from Egypt, and one each from Bangladesh and Pakistan, on February 23, 1998. That fatwa, issued in the name of the International Front for the Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders called for Muslims to “kill the Americans and their allies—civilians and military,” calling it an “individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it.” That fatwa has since been used by various Islamic extremist groups around the world to justify attacks on military and civilian targets.

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