How to Use fatwa in a Sentence

fatwa

noun
  • He wasn’t even born when the fatwa happened.
    — Addie Morfoot, Variety, 22 Jan. 2026
  • Maybe the supreme leader's fatwa against the bomb is for real.
    — chicagotribune.com, 30 Aug. 2017
  • Many leading authors took part in protests against the fatwa.
    — Aryeh Neier, The New Republic, 14 Aug. 2022
  • Morten Storm is a marked man, the subject of a fatwa, a call for his death.
    — Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 12 Sep. 2019
  • So, three-quarters of my life as a writer has happened since the fatwa.
    — David Remnick, The New Yorker, 6 Feb. 2023
  • The fatwa is the epitome of this — the world actively wants to kill him.
    — Jackie Strause, The Hollywood Reporter, 30 Oct. 2017
  • Then there is Morten Storm, a marked man, the subject of a fatwa (a call for his death).
    — Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 23 Sep. 2019
  • But this was a low-budget movie and the fatwa that Salman was living under was still in place.
    — Patrick Brzeski, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2019
  • Less than a year after the original fatwa, Rushdie tried to get some of the heat off himself.
    — Patt Morrison, Los Angeles Times, 17 Aug. 2022
  • The declaration, known as a fatwa, raised grave concerns over the right to freedom of expression in much of the world.
    — Scott Wilson, Washington Post, 18 Aug. 2022
  • The group then rescinded the fatwa under pressure from the government.
    — Geneive Abdo, Foreign Affairs, 13 Aug. 2020
  • This was much like the fatwa issued by Iran’s ayatollah on Salman Rushdie.
    — Jordan Castro, Harper's Magazine, 9 Jan. 2024
  • Iran’s hard-line clerics have, however, never disavowed the Rushdie fatwa.
    — Robin Wright, The New Yorker, 14 Aug. 2022
  • Four months after the Rushdie fatwa, Khomeini abruptly died of heart failure, at eight-six.
    — Robin Wright, The New Yorker, 14 Aug. 2022
  • The fatwa also said that killing people by any means, including with bombs and suicide attacks, are sins in Islam.
    — Washington Post, 26 June 2018
  • Shortly before the attack struck, the clerics had issued a fatwa against suicide bombings and urged peace talks to end the Afghan war.
    — Rahim Faiez and Amir Shah, Fox News, 4 June 2018
  • That ability to make history intimate is his greatest talent as an artist; the gift predates the fatwa.
    — Sanjena Sathian, Vulture, 16 Apr. 2024
  • But the fatwa was never lifted, and as recently as six years ago, the regime increased its financial award for anyone who carried it out.
    — The Editors, National Review, 16 Aug. 2022
  • The fatwa fell out of favor with Iran’s rulers in the late 1990s, and Rushdie ended his exile.
    — John Wilkens, sandiegouniontribune.com, 2 July 2017
  • Advertisement Less than a year after the original fatwa, Rushdie tried to get some of the heat off himself.
    — Carlos De Loera, Los Angeles Times, 11 Oct. 2023
  • In response to the fatwa, London cut off diplomatic relations with Tehran.
    — Reza Pahlavi, WSJ, 18 Aug. 2022
  • Just five days before the attack on Rushdie, an Iranian news outlet republished the fatwa.
    — Robin Wright, The New Yorker, 14 Aug. 2022
  • The stabbing marked the latest violent attack on people who were targeted around the world with direct and indirect links to the fatwa.
    — Somayeh Malekian, ABC News, 15 Aug. 2022
  • Iran’s commitment to the fatwa has waxed and waned, with various leaders pledging not to proceed with the order, while others renewed their vows to act on it.
    — The Editors, National Review, 16 Aug. 2022
  • Many imams have issued fatwas against the practice and Christian leaders like Pope Francis have denounced it.
    — Kristina Arriaga, WSJ, 24 Aug. 2017
  • Khamenei had issued a religious edict, or fatwa, against developing nuclear weapons.
    — Jonathan Tirone, Fortune, 8 Mar. 2026
  • The Ulema Council has issued seven fatwas, or religious rulings, on climate change in the past decade.
    — Lindsey McGinnis, Christian Science Monitor, 1 May 2025
  • The West may dismiss this as irrelevant, but to a Shia ayatollah and his followers, a fatwa is a very strong statement.
    — Mishal Husain, Bloomberg, 13 Mar. 2026
  • In 1998, the Iranian government sought to distance itself from the fatwa by pledging not to seek to carry it out.
    — Aya Elamroussi, CNN, 16 Aug. 2022
  • Iran’s current supreme leader, Khamenei, never issued a fatwa of his own withdrawing the edict, though Iran in recent years hasn’t focused on the writer.
    — Carolyn Thompson and Hillel Italie, al, 13 Aug. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'fatwa.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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