The controversy surrounding four Muslim women who were deemed to have insulted Islam for joining the Miss World Malaysia 2013 has brought the spotlight back on fatwas.

A fatwa is an Islamic religious ruling or scholarly opinion when there is doubt on whether or not a particular practice is permissible (halal) or forbidden (haram) in Islam.

There has been differing opinion on whether these edicts should act merely as a spiritual guideline or legally binding and criminalise offenders.

Former minister and lawyer Zaid Ibrahim yesterday opined that Fatwas should not be regarded as laws and lambasted the Islamic authority-- The Federal Territory Islamic Affairs Department (Jawi)—which is currently investigating the four women over the alleged offence of being in a beauty contest.

“Fatwas are meant for Muslims, unfortunately in Malaysia, it is understood as laws. Furthermore, these organisers are non-Muslims, why did they disqualify these contestents? ” said Zaid.

Zaid also lashed out at JAWI for which he claimed “don’t understand democracy and living in free society."

"It means the state do not punish for every sin committed. God can do that," he said.

“Let’s go back to Islamic history where fatwas were just opinions to guide us, for Muslims to follow or not is up to them, it is not for men to punish them.”

Zaid argued that laws in a country should only be made through state legislative assembly or Parliament.

However, Syariah lawyer Kamar Ainiah Kamaruddin disagreed with such a view, and said that whenever a fatwa is gazetted, it is legally binding.

“All Muslims must observe a fatwa, if they do not, action may be taken. That is providing that it is gazetted by the state assembly. There are quite a number of fatwas lying around which go ungazetted,” said Kamar.

She added that the fatwa applies to offences committed within that particular state it is gazetted in.

“If it is gazetted in Selangor then it is binding there if the offence is committed there,” she said.

Citing the case of author Irshad Manji’s book on Islam where a bookstore was brought to court, Kamar said that the prosecution failed because no fatwa was gazetted to say that the book is haram before JAWI seized them.

Asked if a fatwa can be challenged, Kamar said that any law can be challenged and this applies to edicts as well.

“In the case of a fatwa, if you feel that it is wrong opinion, there is the Syariah high court to challenge it based on Hukum Syarak, and if you are challenging it based on Federal Constitution, then it has to be in the civil court, there is no conflict here.”

The said edict by National Fatwa Council was made on Jan 15, 1996 and gazetted on Feb 8, 1996 under the Administration of Islamic Laws (Federal Territories) Act. The fatwa states that it is “haram” and “sinful” for a Muslim to join, organise, or contribute in any way to a beauty pageant.

In the latest case, JAWI director Datuk Che Mat Che Ali said that its enforcement unit investigate the case following a report that the girls were bent on taking part in the beauty pageant despite the edict by the prohibiting it. Two of the girls, however, had said that they would abide by the edict.

Four finalists for the Miss Malaysia World beauty pageant – Sara Amelia Bernard, Wafa Johanna De Korte, Miera Sheikh and Kathrina Ridzuan – were dropped from the competition after criticism from Federal Territory mufti Wan Zahidi Wan Teh that their participation was “sinful”.

In 1997, two contestants of the Miss Malaysia Petite contest were fined by the Syariah High Court in Kuala Lumpur. They were charged under Section 9 of the Syariah Criminal Act (Federal Territory) 1997 which carries a maximum RM3,000 fine or two years jail upon conviction.

In Selangor, three other contestants from the same beauty pageant were brought to trial for violating a similar fatwa. They were charged under Sect 2 (C) of the Syariah Crimes Enactment Selangor 1995 that also carries the same penalty.