On the name of Fatwa did you see the Media Circus?

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Did you see the Media Circus, on the name of fatwa?

Fatwa is nothing but a religious opinion from a religious scholar to a question asked by a Muslim on a particular situation that he or she may be facing at the time or might face in future and doesn’t know what should be an appropriate way to act in light of Islamic teachings. A mufti then issues a fatwa or opinion based on his understanding of the question and Islam. Just as different medical doctors will have a difference of opinion regarding a diagnosis and treatment plan, it is common for different muftis to give different opinion for the same question.
At least once every year, on a slow news day, some enterprising journalist finds a fatwa that will fit the stereotype about Muslims being backward or Muslim scholars being ignorant or out of touch with the real world or all of the above reasons, and will publish a news story based on this ‘prized’ fatwa. Let’s take the example of the fatwa issued by Darul Uloom Deoband that is making the round in news cycles this week.
The fatwa in question was issued more than a month ago and one can ask the question, why is there a sudden interest by the media in this particular fatwa? A fatwa that is only a sentence long has had numerous newspaper column space and hours of airtime devoted to it. The media bosses have decided that it is an important fatwa because it has all the right keywords to keep the attention of readers & viewers, and therefore will keep a flow of revenue coming in.
One has to question the motive of the major media regarding the publicizing of a fatwa. There is more to this than meets the eye when the Indian media that is obsessed with breaking news and exclusives these days picks up a fatwa that was issued more than a month ago. Within 24 hours of this news being flashed on NDTV on May 11th, 2010, all major media networks of India had reported it. And every new report had added information that was not even there. Let’s look at the fatwa first.
Question number 21031 to Darul Ifta (house of fatwas) of Darul Uloom Deoband asked by someone in India states: “Asalamu-Alikum: Can muslim women in india do Govt. or Pvt. Jobs? Shall their salary be Halal or Haram or Prohibited?” Answer published on April 4th, 2010 simply answers it as: “It is unlawful for Muslim women to do job in government or private institutions where men and women work together and women have to talk with [to] men frankly and without veil.”
Headlines
Now let’s look at some of the headlines of news reports about this fatwa:
Fatwa against working Muslim women: NDTV
Fatwa to working Muslim women: Don’t talk to male colleagues: NDTV
Women’s earnings haram, says Deoband: The Times of India [Print edition]
Deoband fatwa: It’s illegal for women to work, support family: The Times of India[Online]
Don’t talk to male colleagues: Darul Uloom’s fatwa to all working women: DNA
Muslim women can’t work: Deoband: Samay Live
Darul Uloom says Muslim women can’t work in public: India Today
Now, fatwa against working women: Indian Express
Women Working with Men Un-Islamic: Deoband: Outlook
Fatwa against men-women proximity at workplace: Zee News
In case you ever wondered why there isn’t a successful supermarket tabloid in India, here is your answer. There is no need for one because major media houses in India do that job very well.