MWL chief stresses need to differentiate fatwas to maintain stability

JEDDAH: During the opening session of “The Role of Fatwa in Maintaining Social Stability” conference held in Cairo by Dar Al-Iftaa Al-Massriyyah, the secretary-general of the Muslim World League (MWL), Mohammed Al-Issa, called on muftis and religious men to consider the consequences of fatwas before issuing them, the differences between Islamic communities and immigrant minorities, and the difference between fatwas for individual and international issues.

Held under the auspices of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, more than 1,000 muftis and Islamic organization heads from around the world gathered for the conference.

Al-Issa stressed the need to differentiate between general and special fatwas, in accordance with each state’s conditions.

He also called on taking into consideration the immigrant minorities’ priorities when issuing fatwas to help apply them better, and thus maintain social stability by avoiding any misleading fatwas.

Later, Al-Issa commended the royal decree to establish the King Salman Complex for the Prophet’s Tradition in Madinah, which will have a council comprising worldrenowned scholars of the hadith.

He said: “The order came in response to a need to face the disgraceful jurisprudence of quoting out of context, and stop the attempted distribution of misrepresented texts which pose a danger due to the lack of scientific studies.”

Al-Issa clarified that due to their lack of knowledge and intellectual misguidance, extremists tend to justify their mistakes and deviance with texts they claim support their erroneous view of Islamic law. The complex will help expose all such allegations and serve Islam and Muslims by protecting the sciences of Islamic law, he added.