Sunday, Sep 21, 2008
Gulf News
Dubai: Religious edicts calling for death to violators of Islamic rules as interpreted by some clerics invariably comes up as a topic of public discussion these days.
The latest spark has come from Saudi Arabia with Chief Justice and senior cleric Saleh Al Luhaidan declaring that the killing of owners of television stations that broadcast programmes with immoral content is justified.
Dr Ahmad Al Kubaisi, Head of the Legislative Committee at the Ministry of Justice in the UAE, says the original as well as the modified versions of Al Luhaidan's edict against the owners of satellite television channels are wrong and baseless, and has called on Muslim scholars all over the world to stand up against it.
"A Muslim can not kill another or issue a legal order to kill someone unless the crime involved is a premeditated murder and the murderer has been given all legal chances to defend himself. Human blood is highly respected in Islam and no one has the right to take innocent lives through a general fatwa like the one issued by Shaikh Al Luhaidan, even if the stated reason was to protect Islam," Al Kubaisi told Gulf News.
Degree of hesitance
Muslims scholars throughout Islamic history had shown a certain degree of hesitance in standing up against other scholars who issued strange and harmful edicts, he observed.
"Apart from being baseless, an edict like Al Luhaidan's will only serve to give added momentum to the campaign against Islam. We [scholars] have to stand against it and denounce it strongly by using all means," he said.
Al Kubaisi said Muslim scholars have benefited from the existence of satellite channels that promote Islam and there are now more Muslims who believe in the moderate and the peaceful values of the religion than ever before. The moderate voices would one day come to assume the strength needed to represent Islam, he said.
Al Luhaidan's fatwa flies in the face of government efforts aimed at correcting the image of the kingdom following the 9/11 attacks on the US.
The strongest reaction to the edict came, however from inside Saudi Arabia, with liberal writers denouncing it.
"The edict was issued by a judge who is standing against the efforts for liberating different aspects of life in Saudi Arabia. He was the man who hindered the modernisation of the judicial system in the kingdom since it was initiated by King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, two years ago," wrote one Saudi columnist.
Nasir Al Sarami, a liberal Saudi writer, said edicts like the one issued by Al Luhaidan emphasised the need for rationalisation while issuing fatwas. Some scholars in the electronic era are spreading their limited understanding of Islam through e-fatwas that had actually become a true nuisance for Muslims, he said.
Mundane issues
The call for capital punishment against owners of satellite television stations for spreading immorality apart, many fatwas address mundane issues.
Take for instance the edict that forbade people from giving flowers to patients that labelled the gesture a "waste of money" on trivial issues.
"I think rationalisation is the key to facing scholars who are using digital facilities to propagate their limited understanding of Islam," Al Sarami said.
Gulf News 2008. All rights reserved.
