[Reader-list] Everybody loves a bad fatwa

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Everybody loves a bad fatwa

Within 24 hours of this news being flashed on NDTV this week, all
major media of India have reported this over a month old fatwa. And
every new report had added information that was not even there, says
KASHIF-UL-HUDA. Pix: the Deoband seminary.

Posted Thursday, May 13 23:11:03, 2010

Everybody loves a bad fatwa. And why not? Newspapers, for it fills the
front page for its readers; Television channels, for it brings in the
audience; communalists, for it plays into the image of Muslims as
backwards; and activists, because it gives them a chance to reinforce
their secular credentials. Never mind that this fatwa will not change
the lives of millions of Muslims and may be text of the fatwa is not
what it has been reported or may be the said fatwa doesn't even exist.

A fatwa is nothing but a religious opinion from a religious scholar to
a question asked by a Muslim on a particular situation that he or she
may be facing or might face in future, and does not know what should
be appropriate way to act in light of Islamic teachings. A mufti then
issues a fatwa or opinion based on his understanding of the question
and Islam. Just as different medical doctors will have difference of
opinion regarding diagnosis and a treatment plan, it is common for
different muftis to give different opinions on the same question.

Media circus

At least once every year, on a slow news day, some enterprising
journalist finds a fatwa that will fit the stereotype about Muslims
being backward or Muslim scholars being ignorant or out of touch with
the real world or both, and publish a news story based upon this
'prized' fatwa. Let's take the example of the fatwa issued by Darul
Uloom Deoband that is making the round in news cycles this week.

The fatwa in question was issued more than a month ago and one can
ask, why the sudden interest by media in this particular fatwa? A
fatwa that is only a sentence long has had numerous newspaper columns
space and hours of airtime devoted to it. The media bosses have
decided that it is an important fatwa because it has all the right
keywords to keep the readers, audience, and therefore revenue coming
in.

One has to question the motive of the major media regarding this
fatwa. There is more to this than meets the eye when the Indian media
which is obsessed with breaking news and exclusives these days picks
up a fatwa that was issued more than a month ago. Within 24 hours of
this news being flashed on NDTV on Tuesday (May 11th, 2010) this week,
all major media of India have reported it. And every new report had
added information that was not even there.

Let's look at the fatwa first.


Question number 21031
(http://darulifta-deoband.org/viewfatwa.jsp?ID=21031) to Darul Ifta
(house of fatwas) of Darul Uloom Deoband asked by someone in India
states: “Asalamu-Alikum: Can muslim women in India do Govt. or Pvt.
Jobs? Shall their salary be Halal or Haram or Prohibited?” Answer
published on April 4th, 2010 simply answers it as follow: “It is
unlawful for Muslim women to do job in government or private
institutions where men and women work together and women have to talk
with [to] men frankly and without veil.”


Headlines

Now let's look at some of the headlines of news reports about this fatwa:

Fatwa against working Muslim women: NDTV

Fatwa to working Muslim women: Don't talk to male colleagues: NDTV

Women's earnings haram, says Deoband: Times of India [Print edition]

Deoband fatwa: It's illegal for women to work, support family: Times
of India [Online]

Don't talk to male colleagues: Darul Uloom's fatwa to all working women: DNA

Muslim women can't work: Deoband: Samay Live

Darul Uloom says Muslim women can't work in public: India Today

Now, fatwa against working women: Indian Express

Women Working with Men Un-Islamic: Deoband: Outlook

Fatwa against men-women proximity at workplace: Zee News

In case you ever wondered why there is no successful supermarket
tabloid in India, this is your answer. There is no need for one
because major media in India does that job very well.