Fatwās for an Unprecedented Minority: Sheikh Rāʾid Badīr and the fiqh of Medical Transplantation for Muslims Living in Israel

Abstract

This article deals with legal opinions (fatwās) for Muslims living in Israel as a minority under non-Muslim rule. A well-developed legal doctrine known as fiqh al-aqalliyyāt al-muslima (jurisprudence concerning Muslim minorities) applies to Muslim minorities living in the West. The innovators of fiqh al-aqalliyyāt, Yūsuf al-Qaraḍāwī and Ṭaha Jābir al-ʿAlwānī, did not issue legal opinions for the Muslim minority living in Israel, which, because of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is classified as The Abode of War (dār al-ḥarb). In this article, I examine developments in Islamic jurisprudence for the Muslim minority living in Israel, with a focus on the legal opinions of Sheikh Rāʾid Badīr, the senior religious authority of the southern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel and the pioneer in issuing fatwās for the Muslim minority in Israel.