A chaos of fatwas
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Cairo?s Al-Azhar University, once a centre of Islamic Enlightenment, now issues fatwas representing hardline Islam, mostly to punish free-thinking intellectuals. These days it issues 1,000 fatwas a day. All over the Muslim world, fatwas are issued in their thousands to satisfy the curiosity of the believers about whether they are abiding by the edicts of Islam or not. The nation-state and its legal codes are no longer important in the eyes of the people who thus reject the state indirectly. For instance, the Darul Ulum of India, second only to Al Azhar in its international following, has outlawed the watching of TV. Ironically, TV channels themselves are adding to the ?fatwa chaos? by inviting the clerics to ?solve? people?s problems.
In Pakistan and Bangladesh, people have been killed after fatwas of death or apostatisation were issued against them. Bangladesh banned the issuance of fatwas, but Pakistan has lingered on the brink of decision, simply because apostatisation unfortunately forms a part of its Constitution. As in Pakistan, fatwas actually declare the measure to which the nation-state has lost its validity in the eyes of the people.