Head of the OIC says 'Fatwas must be regulated'

Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu says Islamic states must move to control and protect the numbers of religious edicts that affect millions.

King Abdullah's royal decree will limit fatwas and the scholars who can issue them.

JEDDAH // Islamic states must protect and regulate the issuing of fatwas to reduce the huge number of the religious edicts affecting the lives of millions of Muslims, the head of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) said yesterday.

Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary general of the 57-nation group representing the interests of the Muslim world, said his organisation has been working for years to limit the spread of fatwas among scholars as not all of them are qualified to issue them. Mr Ihsanoglu's comments came days after King Abdullah issued a royal decree limiting fatwas on public matters to the board of the kingdom's senior scholars.

"The limitation is necessary because many individuals have started surpassing the authority of official religious bodies and have issued fatwas that cause disputes and dissent among Muslims," said the decree, which was published during the first week of Ramadan. Mr Ihsanoglu expressed his full support for the Saudi move, which he said will help his Jeddah-based organisation to unify fatwas in the Muslim world through its Islamic Fiqh Academy - a centre specialising in the advanced study of Islam.

"This is a brave decision for the Saudi King to make and it's a step in the right direction for the Muslim world," Mr Ihsanoglu said in an interview. The academy, which contains a large number of scholars qualified to issue fatwas, has fought for years to bring some order to the chaos in the Islamic world due to the absence of regulations preventing the unqualified from issuing fatwas. Mr Ihsanoglu said that although the Saudi decree had just been issued, it came after a long campaign by King Abdullah, who began his efforts to reduce the number of fatwas when he was crown prince. Mr Ihsanoglu said King Abdullah called for the reform of the Islamic Fiqh Academy to perform the role entrusted and reserved to it by the leaders of Muslim countries in 2003 during the Tenth Islamic Summit Conference held in Putrajaya, Malaysia.

"The academy has reformed since then and now it's becoming an international body that can issue fatwas to Muslims in all corners of the globe," he added. "The academy now has its own Council of Senior Scholars from different Muslim countries and its own secretary general," he added. Mr Ihsanoglu said that the OIC is trying to promote more tolerant religious interpretations through the academy. "There is a trend among Muslim countries to promote more tolerance and I expect this to increase with regulating fatwas," he added.

The Islamic Fiqh Academy has gained great support from Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries since the Third Extraordinary Islamic Summit Conference held in Mecca in 2005, during which leaders emphasised the importance of reforming the academy to become a jurisprudential reference for the entire Muslim world. The 2005 summit resulted in the Ten Year Programme of Action which, among other things, "condemned the audacity of those who are not qualified in issuing religious rulings, thereby flouting the tenets and pillars of the religion and the well-established schools of jurisprudence".

The Third Extraordinary Summit Conference also mandated the OIC secretary general to conduct a detailed study to develop the work of the academy so it can refute the fatwas that might adversely affect the faith of Muslims. Mr Ihsanoglu denied that the regulation of fatwas would be viewed by Muslims as a political move from governments to control religion. He accepted there would be some debate among the public over the issue but said this should not stop governments from pushing towards a more unified approach for the issuing of fatwas.

"I expect to see a debate at the beginning but in time people will understand the benefit of limiting fatwas to senior scholars approved by Muslim governments," he added. Sheikh Abdul Gaher Qamar, acting director of the Fatwa Department at the Islamic Fiqh Academy, said in an e-mail statement that according to Sharia, rulers have the power to regulate fatwas and limit them to an identified number of scholars.

The issuing of fatwas is becoming increasingly controversial in Saudi society with many scholars issuing their opinions on their own websites, television channels and in newspapers interviews. In recent months, one Saudi declared that music is not un-Islamic and another endorsed breastfeeding for grown men - both decisions sparked a massive furore in the ultra-conservative kingdom over who can issue fatwas.

The Saudi royal decree will prevent scholars in the country from issuing their opinions individually and directly to the public. In the decree, which was published by the state-owned Saudi Press Agency last Thursday, the Saudi monarch also asked the grand mufti, who heads the council, to submit a list of scholars qualified to issue fatwas. "We have followed this issue and noted many violations that we cannot allow. It is our religious obligation to confront it firmly to safeguard religion, preserve unity and to prevent evil," the king said in the decree. "All those who violate this order subject themselves to accountability and punishment, whoever they are, because the interests of the religion and the nation are above anything else," the king warned in the decree.