Over the past two weeks there has been an unprecedented flurry of religious edicts, sanctioning killing. It seems that Arab societies are at the threshold of a dark stage of religious thinking in the Arab world. Sheikh Saleh Al-Luhaidan, head of the Supreme Judicial Council in Saudi Arabia, has sanctioned the killing of the owners of satellite channels. A few days later, Sheikh Ibn-Jebreen, who was a member of the Directorate of Religious Research, Islamic Legal Rulings, and Islamic Propagation and Guidance, said that journalists and writers critical of religious scholars must be lashed. Interestingly, a Saudi Sheikh has recently issued an edict sanctioning the execution of Mickey Mouse . We may even hear in the future of a fatwa permitting the killing of those who drink orange juice. Such fatwa chaos, which has spread horribly over the past five years, indicates several things. First, it is an extension of the "salafization that has dominated the Arab media and has started to bear fruit now. Second, it reflects the control of obscure thought that is deeply ingrained in religious scholars in the Muslim world. Third, it reflects the state of intellectual and cultural emptiness in Arab societies. Such emptiness is filled only by the scholars of satellite channels. In the past, we used to hear killing fatwas from the leaders of extremist groups, like the Islamic Jihad in Egypt, as well as Al-Qaeda and its followers around the world. But now these fatwas are issued by clerics and scholars that have significant impact on youth and the masses in Arab societies. We cannot exclude the murder of a journalist or a TV anchor by extremists in keeping with such edicts. The fatwas issued by these clerics do not represent the true face of Islam, because they are driven by local primitive cultures based on a narrow interpretation of religious texts and are incapable of developing their religious and doctrinal discourse. It's even more of a mystery to me why our clerics are obsessed with the culture of killing and death instead of life and co-existence? And I don't know why Arab governments do not counter such eccentric fatwas that might harm everyone? Strangely enough we have not heard of a fatwa from those clerics condemning the social injustice and political oppression faced by Arab societies. None of them has issued a ruling sanctioning rebellion against the ruler to hold him accountable for injustice and suppression of political opposition. Although Al-Qaeda no longer has an effective presence in terms of structure and organizational wings, its ideology still persists, as it is reflected in the killing rulings issued by Saudi clerics against their critics. There is no doubt that some content of Arab satellite channels may reflect a degradation of moral values, but such degradation must be countered with words not bullets. Khalil Al-anani is an Egyptian expert on political Islam and democratization in the Middle East and is a senior fellow at Al-Ahram Foundation. E-mail: [email protected]
