A More Peaceful World

A fatwa is a kind of legal opinion made by a Muslim scholar. It is binding only as far as followers of the scholar who issues it are concerned – the Muslim faith is non hierarchical, and there is no central authority – so many fatwas are necessary, one for each mosque or group.

A fatwa has to have these characteristics:

1. It must be derived from the Q’ran and revered commentary
2. It must come from an authority figure
3. It should not be opportunistic or due to political subservience
4. It must be adequate to the needs of contemporary society 

The beauty of the fatwa method is that it gives us, the ordinary citizens, a part to play in world peace, since Governments cannot issue the request. To balance the request, it would be good if people paired their request for a fatwa with a request to the leaders of Christian churches to condemn the deterrence strategy, on the grounds that it is not infallible.

More on the fatwa option http://greenerblog.blogspot.com/2015/01/charlie-hebdo-call-for-widespread-fatwa.html

Religion as a factor in the causation of war is a thorny problem, but no human problem is beyond the possibility of being brought into line.