Explained: What are fatwas and how dangerous can they be?

A vicious knife attack on famed author Salman Rushdie in New York on Friday has left a reminder to the world that an edict, a fatwa, was issued by an Islamic leader in 1989 for the writer’s death.

About 33 years later and deaths of several people associated with Rushdie and his controversial book, The Satanic Verses, the fatwa issued by Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini remains active.

Over the years, the bounty offered for killing Rushdie has climbed to more than $3 million.

Rushdie’s attacker Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old Shi'ite Muslim American of Lebanese descent, pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder and assault at a court appearance on Saturday.

According to news agency Reuters, the attempt on Rushdie's life is not an isolated incident. Novelists, academics and journalists -- particularly in the Middle East -- who dared criticise or question Islamic beliefs have faced similar threats or condemnation from religious figures.

Must read: What’s the big deal about Salman Rushdie?

What are fatwas and who issues them?

A fatwa is a legal decree or opinion on a point of Islamic law or practice. It is generally given by a high-ranking Islamic religious leader, religious authority or qualified council of scholars. It can address a range of issues - including individuals.

A fatwa isn’t always about violence, unlike in Rushdie’s case. However, the fatwa against Rushdie was so high-profile for the involvement of a Booker-winning author and Iran’s first supreme leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, that it started being linked to violence and death sentences.

Fatwas calling for someone’s death are usually brought against those who may have insulted Islam or the Prophet.

Who implements death fatwas?

It is not rare for some Muslim preachers and jihadi figures to issue death fatwas against other Muslims they deem infidels. According to Reuters, death fatwas are usually carried out by indoctrinated militants, sleeper cells and followers who want to answer the call of their religious leader and fulfill their religious duty.

Some of the dangerous fatwas ever issued

Acting upon a fatwa issued by Omar Abdel-Rahman, a leading Sunni militant cleric of Al-Gama'a Al-Islamya (Islamic Group), a Muslim extremist stabbed Egyptian Nobel-laureate Naguib Mahfouz several times in the neck on 14 October, 1994.

According to Reuters, Abdel-Rahman, who issued his fatwa while on trial in a US jail for involvement in a bombing plot in New York, said Mahfouz's blood should be shed because his novel "Children of the Alley", written in 1959, was blasphemous to Islam.

In an earlier incident, on 8 June, 1992, Egyptian liberal writer Farag Fouda was gunned down by two Islamic Group members after being accused by Al Azhar, Egypt's highest Islamic authority, of being an "enemy of Islam" and an "apostate".

In June 2013, a woman in Afghanistan was shot dead by her relatives after a village preacher issued a fatwa, accusing her of adultery. The local religious leader was later arrested by the police.

With inputs from agencies

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