The Fiqh Council of North America (originally known as ISNA Fiqh Committee) is an association of

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraha ...

s who interpret

Islamic law Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...

on the North American continent. The FCNA was founded in 1986 with the goal of developing legal methodologies for adopting Islamic law to life in the West. According to its website, the

Fiqh ''Fiqh'' (; ar, فقه ) is Islamic jurisprudence. Muhammad-> Companions-> Followers-> Fiqh. The commands and prohibitions chosen by God were revealed through the agency of the Prophet in both the Quran and the Sunnah (words, deeds, and ex ...

Council traces its origins back to the Religious Affairs Committee of the then Muslim Student Association of the United States and Canada established in the 1960s. In 1980, after the founding of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the Religious Affairs Committee evolved into the Fiqh Committee of the Islamic Society of North America, and was eventually transformed into the Fiqh Council of North America in 1986. Its 18 members issue religious rulings, resolve disputes, and answer questions relating to the

Islamic faith Faith, derived from Latin ''fides'' and Old French ''feid'', is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or In the context of religion, one can define faith as "belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion". Religious people often ...

. As outlined in its by-laws, the Council's primary objectives include: "To consider, from a

Shari'ah Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...

perspective, and offer advice on specific undertakings, transactions, contracts, projects, or proposals, guaranteeing thereby that the dealings of North American Muslims fall within the parameters of what is permitted by the Shari'ah." The Council's opinions are not binding.

Fatwas

* Terrorism: In July 2005, the Council issued a

fatwa A fatwā ( ; ar, فتوى; plural ''fatāwā'' ) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (''sharia'') given by a qualified '' Faqih'' (Islamic jurist) in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist i ...

stating that all forms of terrorism against civilians are ''

haram ''Haram'' (; ar, حَرَام, , ) is an Arabic term meaning 'Forbidden'. This may refer to either something sacred to which access is not allowed to the people who are not in a state of purity or who are not initiated into the sacred knowle ...

'' (forbidden under Islamic law), that it is forbidden for Muslims to cooperate with anyone involved in terrorism, and that it is a duty of all Muslims to cooperate with law enforcement to protect civilian lives. * Divorce: No Muslim marriage can be terminated except through the court system of the state in which the Muslim is resident. * Capital Punishment: The Council has issued a

calling for a moratorium on

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

in the United States, based on the fact that several of the presupposed requirements for the carrying out of the law, according to

Sharia Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...

, are not being met in most cases. * Apostasy: The Council issued a

which declared that

apostasy Apostasy (; grc-gre, ἀποστασία , 'a defection or revolt') is the formal disaffiliation from, abandonment of, or renunciation of a religion by a person. It can also be defined within the broader context of embracing an opinion that i ...

could not, on its own, be the grounds for any fixed punishment, especially

. The fatwa states: "The preponderance of evidence from both the

Qur’an The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sin ...

and

Sunnah In Islam, , also spelled ( ar, سنة), are the traditions and practices of the Islamic prophet Muhammad that constitute a model for Muslims to follow. The sunnah is what all the Muslims of Muhammad's time evidently saw and followed and passed ...

indicates that there is no firm ground for the claim that apostasy is in itself a mandatory fixed punishment

Hadd ''Hudud'' (Arabic: ''Ḥudūd'', also transliterated ''hadud'', ''hudood''; plural of ''hadd'', ) is an Arabic word meaning "borders, boundaries, limits". In the religion of Islam it refers to punishments that under Islamic law (sharīʿah) are ...

, namely capital punishment"

Executive Committee and members

''Executive Committee'': * Muzammil Siddiqi, Chairman * Zainab Alwani, Vice Chairman * Zulfiqar Ali Shah, Executive Director * Mohammed Adam El-Sheikh * Jamal Badawi * Ihsan Bagby * Abdur Rahman Khan ''Members'': * Deina Abdelkader * Muhammad Akbar * Zainab Alwani * Muneer Fareed * Mohammed al-Hanooti *

Yahya Hendi Imam Yahya Hendi is the Muslim chaplain at Georgetown University; the former Imam of the Islamic Society of Frederick based in Frederick, Maryland; and the former Muslim chaplain at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda until his retireme ...

* Yusuf Z. Kavakci * Muhammad Qatanani * Hassan Qazwini * Ahmad Shleibak
(updated as of Feb 2016) Once affiliated to the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood (1973-1977), Mohammed Adam El-Sheikh was a founding member of the Muslim American Society (MAS), which, in his words, was started by ex-Muslim Brotherhood members who felt that "we should cut relations with the rotherhoodabroad and regard ourselves as Americans... hodon't receive an order from any organization abroad". As of 2004, El-Sheikh was serving as the imam of Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center, the same Mosque where Anwar al-Awlaki was once an imam. El-Sheikh stated that the mosque's sermons never promote terrorism, and that suicide bombings are never legitimate. Jamal Badawi was mentioned among the unindicted co-conspirators in the

Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development The Holy Land Foundation (HLF) was the largest Islamic charity in the United States. Headquartered in Richardson, Texas, and run by Palestinian-Americans, it was originally known as Occupied Land Fund. The organization's mission was to "find and ...

trial, the largest case of terror financing trial in U.S. history.List of Unindicted Co-conspirators and/or Joint Venturers, Attachment A, ''United States of America v. Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development et al.''

External links

Official Web Site

Educational Addendum: Understanding Your Rights
"Muslim Americans And Shari'ah", by Robert D. Crane, Yusuf Talal and Robert D. Crane, IslamiCity
U.S. Muslim Scholars Issue Edict Against Terrorism
report by Jason DeRose,

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

, July 28, 2005

References

{{Reflist Islamic organizations based in the United States