Ewa Górska

There has been an academic interest in fatwas regarding abortion since the 1980s (Anees 1989; Rispler-Chaim 1993, 2003; Faúndes, Barzelatto 2006). With the globalisation of ummah – the Islamic community – and the expansion of the internet, online fatwas have started to provide normative answers to inquiries from Muslims from all over the world. Van den Branden and Broeckaert researched non-voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide expressed in English e-fatwas (2009, 2011). Using their approach and framing e-fatwas in the context of Roy’s view on the virtual Islamic community (2000, we have selected and analysed eighty English Sunni e-fatwas on abortion. On the level of structure, these e-fatwas are very similar – often rooted in the Quran and Sunna but not classical jurisprudential discussions on the subject. On the level of content, they do not deviate from Islamic jurisprudence, which does not encourage abortion but permits it in particular circumstances during specific stages of fetal development – generally, before four months or 120 days of gestation. In the light of our study, English Sunni e-fatwas on abortion constitute an important part of Islamic bioethical teachings and thus deserve further research.

Arab customary conflict resolution and the alternative Western approach to dispute resolution are both the result of a similar way of administering justice – a restorative justice paradigm. Thus, we argue that it is not a new or a strictly western concept given that its fundamental values or even structures have existed in the customary laws of different cultures, like Arab culture, for centuries. In this article, we compare Western restorative justice institutions with the Arab customary conflict resolution process (sulh) used in contemporary Palestine.