Official Fatwa Council Created in Morocco

Here’s a very interesting development in the religio-political landscape in Morocco: an official council will be tasked with issuing fatwa proposals in the kingdom. The council will be composed of religious scholars, men and women, and the proposals will be put to the king (who also acts as the ‘commander of the faithful’.) Ordinarily, any cleric can issue his own fatwa, and it’s quite possible that competing and contradictory fatwas can circulate at any given time. With the creation of this new body, fatwas will be based on a collective opinion and will have more of a government oversight. It sounds like an effort to curtail the influence of the Islamists, though the Party for Justice and Development claims they’re quite happy with the development and commend it. Yeah, right.