Wednesday, December 28, 2005
The religion's decentralized leadership leads to conflict.
ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- It's becoming known as the war of the fatwas: the dizzying exchange of proclamations between Islamic moderates and militants on what it means to be Muslim. The duels have been waged everywhere from pamphlets to cyberspace.
Now some Muslim leaders seek to shift tactics against radicals. Their hope rests in one of Islam's most elemental questions: Who has the real authority to make religious rulings and other interpretations of the faith?
Proposals to sharply control the issuing of fatwas -- the nonbinding edicts on Muslim life, law and duties -- are still little more than loose concepts and would require potentially stormy challenges to Islam's traditions of decentralized leadership.
King advocates change
But there are some influential backers such as Jordan's King Abdullah II. They argue that bold changes are needed in Islam's hierarchy to isolate radical clerics and discredit terrorist leaders, including Osama bin Laden, who have used self-styled religious decrees to justify their views and actions.
Abdullah, who brought his anti-terrorist message to Athens last week, has appealed for moderate Muslims to take decisive control over fatwas and religious guidance. In early December, Abdullah told the 56-member Organization of the Islamic Conference that failure to establish a clear framework to interpret Islam leaves the door open for radicals to strengthen their ranks.
Complications
The summit in Mecca, Saudi Arabia -- Islam's holiest site -- wrapped up with a statement reinforcing that only "those who are authorized" can issue fatwas. The monarchs, prime ministers and other delegates, however, could reach little common ground on a proposal to give a single body of Islamic law experts greater oversight of all fatwas covering the Muslim world.
It was a sample of the huge religious and political complications that stalk any efforts to change the centuries-old fatwa practices.
Islamic scholars say it would require a fundamental shift away from Islam's traditions that spread religious authority far and wide rather than under a single leader or institution. Some powerful centers of Islamic learning, such as Egypt's Al-Azhar University, also resist reforms that could diminish their theological voice.
"Religious authority is in the eyes of the beholder and not anywhere else," said Abdullahi An-Na'im, an expert in Islamic law at Emory University in Atlanta. "This reality has not changed in 15 centuries of history and will not change now."
But now there's the Internet and other ways to spread messages to mass audiences -- which some commentators have dubbed "the war of the fatwas."
One of the most infamous salvos was the February 1998 "fatwa" by bin Laden and followers that called on Muslims to "kill the Americans and their allies." It's been blamed for inspiring some of the most staggering terrorist strikes, including the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Other militants increasingly have followed suit with fatwa-style declarations of their own -- including statements attributed to terrorist chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the alleged mastermind of the Nov. 9 hotel bombings in Amman, Jordan, that killed 60 people.
Moderates clerics initially were slow to react to the radical fatwas. But now there's a potent counterattack.
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