FATWA

noun Also written Fatwa or fatwah (Politics) A legal decision or ruling given by an Islamic religious leader. Etymology: A direct borrowing from Arabic; the root in the original language is the same verb fata (to instruct by a legal decision) from which we get the word Mufti, a Muslim legal expert or teacher. History and Usage: Actually an old borrowing from Arabic (in the form fetfa or fetwa it has been in use in English since the seventeenth century), the fatwa acquired a new currency in the English-language media in February 1989, when Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa sentencing the British writer Salman Rushdie to death for publishing The Satanic Verses (1988), a book which many Muslims considered blasphemous and highly offensive. Fatwa is a generic term for any legal decision made by a Mufti or other Islamic religious authority, but, because of the particular context in which the West became familiar with the word, it is sometimes erroneously thought to mean 'a death sentence'. The...International Committee...have capitalized on the outrage felt at the notorious fatwa to drive forward with new confidence the long-nurtured campaign for total abolition of blasphemy laws in this country. Bookseller 29 Sept. 1989, p. 1068 This Fatwa...was written and signed by the Grand Ayatollah of Shia in Iraq, explaining his position regarding the executions of 16 Kuwaiti Pilgrims after the Saudi media quoted his name. Independent 27 Oct. 1989, p. 10 [He]...rejected the findings of a BBC opinion poll which claimed that only 42 per cent of Muslims in Britain supported the fatwah. Independent 16 July 1990, p. 5