Source: The Gazette
A Calgary imam will take the bold step of issuing a fatwa — an official religious edict pronounced by a scholar of the Muslim faith — against honour killings and domestic abuse on Saturday.

Imam Syed Soharwardy, who is head imam at the Al-Madinah Calgary Islamic Centre as well as the founder of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, will deliver the fatwa at a mosque in Mississauga, Ont. He will be backed by more than 30 imams and Muslim scholars from across North America who want to send a strong message to other members of their faith.

"Within the Muslim community, there are a few clergy people — it's a very small number, no doubt about it — who misinterpret the Qur'an and say it is OK to beat a wife," Soharwardy said. "That kind of mentality has to be changed, and has to be confronted."

Soharwardy said that while he has been doing research into the issue of misogyny in Islam for a long time, it was the recent high-profile Shafia murder trial that prompted him to take action.

Mohammad Shafia, his second wife Tooba Mohammad Yahya and the couple's eldest son, Hamed, were found guilty of first-degree murder earlier this week in Kingston, Ont. The prosecution's case was built around the premise that the Shafias murdered four of their relatives because they had stained the family's "honour."

"Those people who justify these crimes in the name of Islam, they are dead wrong," Soharwardy said. "There is no place for these crimes in our faith."

Soharwardy said the fatwa will contain evidence of verses in the Qur'an where mistakes in translation from the original Arabic may have led some people to believe that Islam accepts violence against women.

"In some cases, we are coming back with a translation that conflicts with the rest of our understanding of the Qur'an," Soharwardy said. "I don't think it's acceptable . . . The Prophet Mohammed never did these kinds of things, he never said you can hit your wife."

By issuing the fatwa, Soharwardy said he and other scholars also hope to make non-Muslims understand that anti-female sentiment has no place in the true teachings of Islam.

This is not the first time Soharwardy has taken a stance on a current event by issuing a formal edict. In 2010, the Calgary imam and other imams associated with the Islamic Supreme Council issued a fatwa condemning terrorist attacks by Muslim extremists.

While not legally binding, fatwas carry substantial weight within Islam, particularly with followers of the Shia branch of the faith.