'New media' fatwas rankle Islamic establishment

CAIRO -- The Internet, satellite television and even the telephone are increasingly being used in the Muslim world to issue fatwas — religious decrees — on issues as varied as whether women can pluck their eyebrows or good Muslims should read Harry Potter.

A fatwa is a ruling by a recognized Islamic scholar, often on a weighty matter. But the traditional definition is becoming blurred as Muslims turn to Islamic websites and "tele-imams" for advice on how to live their lives.

For example, going online turns up the fatwa on British author J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books, banning reading about the boy wizard because of his ties to witchcraft. Another says plucking women's eyebrows is "haram," or forbidden, because it alters God's creation. One exception: if the lady's bushy brows displease her husband.

Religious rulings have often been on grave topics. Many Westerners first heard the word "fatwa" when the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued one in 1989 condemning British writer Salman Rushdie to death, accusing him of blasphemy in his book The Satanic Verses.

More recently, fatwas have dealt with the question of whether suicide bombing is accepted under Islam, producing dueling opinions — not surprising given that Islam has no single, universally recognized source. Muslims across the world seek advice from various authorities representing different sects and schools of Islamic law.

But now the growth of so-called new media fatwas has upset Egypt's religious establishment, which fears an erosion of its authority to people without solid theological credentials.

Others applaud the increasing diversity of opinion and believe it is critical to updating Islamic theology and helping Muslims cope with modern life.

Traditionally, fatwas were been issued by a mufti, a scholar such as Ali Gomaa, Egypt's chief Sunni Muslim authority, known as the Grand Mufti. Gomaa heads Dar al-Iftaa, or the House of Fatwas; it and Al-Azhar University are Egypt's most important institutions for issuing fatwas and have influence with Sunnis everywhere.