: a legal opinion or decree handed down by an Islamic religious leader
Examples of fatwa in a Sentence
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Gibney’s film, Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie, slated in the Premieres section, centers on the titular author who was almost killed in a stabbing in 2022 by a man attempting to fulfill the Ayatollah Khomeini’s longstanding fatwa on Rushdie.
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Matthew Carey, Deadline, 10 Dec. 2025
That the idea of the possibility of weaponization, or at least the boast that Iran is capable of building a bomb, has been openly floated in the past year is an indication that a race for a bomb is not out of the question, despite Ayatollah Khamenei’s fatwa prohibiting it.
—Big Think, 25 Nov. 2025
That was a hot button topic for many years in the post 9/11 world, where a simple depiction of Muhammed could land an artist on the business end of a deadly fatwa.
—Chris Yogerst, HollywoodReporter, 30 Aug. 2025
The fatwa from Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi called on Muslims around the world to take a stand, according to the New York Sun.
—Stepheny Price, FOXNews.com, 29 June 2025
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Matthew Carey, Deadline, 10 Dec. 2025
That the idea of the possibility of weaponization, or at least the boast that Iran is capable of building a bomb, has been openly floated in the past year is an indication that a race for a bomb is not out of the question, despite Ayatollah Khamenei’s fatwa prohibiting it.
—Big Think, 25 Nov. 2025
That was a hot button topic for many years in the post 9/11 world, where a simple depiction of Muhammed could land an artist on the business end of a deadly fatwa.
—Chris Yogerst, HollywoodReporter, 30 Aug. 2025
The fatwa from Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi called on Muslims around the world to take a stand, according to the New York Sun.
—Stepheny Price, FOXNews.com, 29 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for fatwa
Cite this Entry
“Fatwa.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fatwa. Accessed 11 Jan. 2026.
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