Somewhere deep in the State Department, experts are hard at work putting the final touches on the Obama administration’s strategy for the forthcoming talks on Iran’s nuclear program.
Their deliberations center on the meaning of a fatwa supposedly issued in 2005 by Iran’s “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenei. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said a full interpretation of the fatwa could have a major bearing on the outcome of the talks, set for May 23-24 in Baghdad.
Some explanation is required to understand how comical this is.
In Islam, a fatwa is a religious opinion issued by a mujtahid (senior theologian) in response to a question from believers. Why should this bear on Iran’s nuclear program, which is at the center of an international dispute? Because Iran’s recent propaganda claims that, in the supposed fatwa, Khamenei declared nuclear weapons to be unacceptable in Islam.
