RIYADH, Jan 17, 2009 (AFP) - Muslim scholars from around the world gathered in Mecca on Saturday for a conference aimed at giving guidance on fatwas, the crucial Islamic legal rulings that guide the lives of hundreds of millions of Muslims.

The five-day Fatwa and its Regulation conference organised by the Muslim World League (MWL) was to address the crafting and issuing of fatwas in the modern age, when complex matters and the rapid dissemination of rulings over the Internet have led to contradictory and controversial opinions by those interpreting sharia, or Islamic law.

Conference organisers said they hoped to come out with overall guidelines for issuing fatwas, as Islam has no central authority to issue fatwas.

"Some people make their fatwas on issues that they do not know in-depth and without due consideration for the sharia requirements," MWL Secretary General Abdullah Al-Turki said earlier this week.

"Issuing a fatwa is a very serious matter as it involves making a decision on the basis of the law laid down by Allah and explained by the prophet," Turki said, according to the local daily Arab News.

Fatwas are opinions or rulings which can cover minor and major matters of life and are issued by Islamic scholars and clerics based on interpretation of the Koran and centuries of Islamic thought.

In countries like Saudi Arabia where sharia is the basis of the law, they can be used for judgement in court cases.

Their scope ranges from issues of financial dealings and medical treatment to what clothes a Muslim woman must wear and to declarations against alleged enemies of Islam.

In 1989 for instance, Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for the killing of British Indian novelist Salman Rushdie for his book "The Satanic Verses", leading to Rushdie living in hidding for many years.

In 1998 Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, who is not a cleric, issued a fatwa calling for Muslims to kill Americans and their allies.

Fatwas have also become troublesome for governments. In late December the Saudi government arrested Sheikh Awad al-Qarni after he issued a fatwa calling for attacks on Israelis in retaliation for the Jewish state's assault on the Gaza Strip.

Saleh bin Zaben al Marzouki, head of the Muslim World League's Islamic Fiqh (jurisprudence) Academy, said that unqualified clerics had harmed Islamic law with their fatwas, according to a statement on the league's website.

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