Journalists have to stop covering fatwas as if they were legally binding rules all Muslims must heed. The point is they're simply not. So what if some short-sighted Mufti in Malaysia or Indonesia has decreed that yoga is not halal? Or that some cleric in Saudi Arabia has decided Mickey Mouse was the work of Satan? Or that some British Muslim has declared Valentine roses and candle dinners to be sordid acts of the devil? No legal due process has followed or will ever follow these fatwas. It's true that some highly-publicized fatwas can get people out in the streets like the Teddy Bear story in the Sudan or the Prophet's cartoons in Denmark, or the mother of all mediated fatwas, Khomeini's death call against Salman Rushdie. But the media's interest in these 'quirky' news bits and the historical elision with which they're treated help legitimize these fatwas which otherwise would have triumphed only in obscurity.

Take the yoga fatwa which is making the rounds of print and broadcast media  here, here, here, here, here, here, and here (I had to stop, but do a Google news search and you'll see my point). Are they covering this story because they assume Muslims across Malaysia, Indonesia, or the world will simply stop attending yoga classes upon hearing the 'wise' words of some imam? Or because the news is so laughable they think readers will welcome it as a much needed break from the depressing news of the economic crisis? In either case, this kind of hit-and-run news coverage does not help much. Journalists should do their homework on any story, but when the stakes are too high, rigorous reporting becomes even more urgent. The Islamic legal tradition has always been highly pluralistic and open to fierce argumentation. A fatwa reflects only the views of whoever issues it, and supposedly it should be based on an individual's careful exhortation of Islamic law. I'm not arguing that only a select few could exercise this right in Islam, but whoever has elected themselves to become a Mufti should strictly adhere to some rules of which knowledge of Islamic law is only one requirement. As Egypt's Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa said, "A Mufti who does not know the contemporary world in which he/she lives is like a person who has the ability to walk and might also have the ability to run. However, they move through a dark path without a light in their hand. It is possible that they will make it, but in most cases they will fall and perish." Let's make sure these ill-informed Muftis perish by not covering them.