Why Can't We Get A Fatwa Where We need On

"Cherifa Kheddar, Djazairouna’s president, is one of Algeria’s most important human rights advocates. When I meet her, she wears a gray suit and black pumps. Her hair is chin length and jet-black and she looks tired, having worked a long day before our grueling discussion begins. I receive her in the salon that Fayza’s family has given over to me. It is furnished with backless couches, and low tables with lace covers. In this serene environment, we relive some of Cherifa’s most difficult moments. “My mother went to Mecca on pilgrimage in 1996. She went with a group of Algerians to see the imam of the Grand Mosque and asked for a fatwa against what was happening in Algeria. The imam replied: ‘No, that is politics and we are not involved in politics.’ ” Why can’t you get a fatwa when you actually need one? Forty days later, armed thugs came to the Kheddar house in Blida and shot Cherifa’s mother and niece (who survived) and her sister Leila (who did not), and tortured her brother Mohamed Redha to death."

- Karima Bennoune. Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here. (Algerian)