re the inimitable rushdie re an anecdote about islam in article apr monu cc monash edu au darice yoyo cc monash edu au fred rice writes in article c c cn gb ra nrl navy mil khan itd itd nrl navy mil umar khan writes i just borrowed a book from the library on khomeini s fatwa etc i found this useful passage regarding the legitimacy of the fatwa it was also common knowledge as prescribed by islamic law that the sentence was only applicable where the jurisdiction of islamic law applies moreover the sentence has to be passed by an islamic court and executed by the state machinery through the due process of the law even in islamic countries let alone in non muslim lands individuals cannot take the law into their own hands the sentence when passed must be carried out by the state through the usual machinery and not by individuals indeed it becomes a criminal act to take the law into one s own hands and punish the offender unless it is in the process of self defence moreover the offender must be brought to the notice of the court and it is the court who shoud decide how to deal with him this law applies equally to muslim as well as non muslim territories i agree fully with the above statement and is precisely what i meant by my previous statements about islam not being anarchist and the law not being enforcible despite the law being applicable hence on such clarification from the ulama islamic scholars muslims in britain before and after imam khomeini s fatwa made it very clear that since islamic law is not applicable to britain the hadd compulsory punishment cannot be applied here i disagree with this conclusion about the applicability of the islamic law to all muslims wherever they may be the above conclusion does not strictly follow from the foregoing but only the conclusion that the fatwa cannot be enforced according to islamic law however i do agree that the punishment cannot be applied to rushdie even were it well founded wow from the above it looks like that from an islamic viewpoint khomeini s fatwa constitutes a criminal act perhaps i could even go out on a limb and call khomeini a criminal on this basis certainly putting a price on the head of rushdie in britain is a criminal act according to islamic law anyhow i think it is understood by knowledgeable muslims that khomeini s fatwa is islamically illegitimate at least on the basis expounded above others such as myself and others who have posted here particularly umar khan and gregg jaeger i think go further and say that even the punishment constituted in the fatwa is against islamic law according to our understanding yes gregg
