The WORD Blog

I read a copy of the complaint that you filed with the Department of Public Safety that you and our Colleagues have been bad-mouthed for years and years and years and that you are upset that I refer to you as the Colleague who says on linked in that he is a professor and that you were upset that you aren’t allowed to respond to posts and that you feel your safety is at risk because you have been targeted for a fatwā.

Fatāwā are essentially Islamic messages (sometimes I refer to them as Islamic memos because I write so many memos about the department) but the news media has been known to hype them as lethal threats, especially when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini made it clear to the world that he wanted Salman Rushdie dead because of his The Satanic Verses (1988).

In recent years, the term “fatwā” has been widely used throughout the media, usually to indicate that a death sentence has been dealt to someone or some group of people. The limited use of this term has resulted in a limited understanding of its meaning. ISCA therefore offers the following statement to elucidate the true significance of the term “fatwā.”

Most importantly, a fatwā is not by definition a pronouncement of death or a declaration of war. A fatwā is an Islamic legal pronouncement, issued by an expert in religious law (mufti), pertaining to a specific issue, usually at the request of an individual or judge to resolve an issue where Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), is unclear. Typically, such uncertainty arises as Muslim society works to address new issues – issues that develop as technology and society advance. “Can a Muslim be involved in cloning?” for instance.

We might compare a fatwā to the legal ruling of a high court or the Supreme Court, depending on the authority of the mufti behind it. However, a fatwā is not binding as is the verdict of the secular courts; while correct and applicable to all members of the Muslim faith, the fatwā is optional for the individual to respect or not. [The Islamic Supreme Council of America]

Here is another:

A fatwā (Arabic: فتوى‎‎; plural fatāwāArabic: فتاوى‎‎) in the Islamic faith is the term for the legal opinion or learned interpretation that the Sheikhul Islam, a qualified jurist or mufti, can give on issues pertaining to the Islamic law.^[1] The person who issues a fatwā is called, in that respect, a Mufti, i.e. an issuer of fatwā, from the verb أَفْتَى ‘aftā = “he gave a formal legal opinion on”. This is not necessarily a formal position since most Muslims argue that anyone trained in Islamic law may give an opinion (fatwā) on its teachings. If a fatwā does not break new ground, then it is simply called a ruling. [ wikipedia]

You pretend to be engulfed in fear because you were asked if it was time for a fatwā to describe all the heinous academic chicanery taking place in the Department of Film and Media Studies, Hunter College, but you chose to make the question into an hostile act. That is quite a reach. You shake in your boots every time we pass each other? You tremble with fear when our eyeballs lock? I don’t know whether to laugh or consider this a Larry Shore sobering moment, an intoxicating stretch of the imagination. I think that certified letter I sent you a while back is the real issue.

I read your statement more than once and got the impression that you were more upset about being badmouthed – personally attacked is more specific regarding what your wrote but badmouthed and personal attack are synonymously linked – and that you were more upset that you were identified as the Colleague who says on linked in that he is a professor and that you were more upset that you weren’t allowed to post than you were about the alleged fatwā  against you. Wow! There’s much Larry Shore bullshit and calumny and chicanery squeezed into that complaint, so much that I’m going to need several blog posts to address them all. I’m surprised you haven’t been arrested on the grounds of felonious deceit. Felonious silliness. Felonious cockamamy.  This is one of those Kinky, Klutzy, Kooky moments that can’t be ignored. NOTE: The insistence by Colleague Larry Shore Who Says on Linkedin That He Is a Professor that he can’t post on this blogsite is a lot of baloney.

End of Part 1
In Part 2, I plan to address your allegations, starting with badmouthing/personal attacks. The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth may seem like a straightjacket for Colleague Larry Shore but for me it’s liberating.