Deoband’s War on Television Fury over a Fatwa

Abstract

In 2004 the Dar ul-’Ulum at Deoband, India’s largest Islamic seminary, issued a fatwa declaring watching television, including Islamic channels, impermissible. Issued by Mufti Mahmud ul-Hasan Bulandshahri, a senior scholar at the Deoband madrasa, the fatwa declares that television is forbidden to Muslims because it was principally “a means for [frivolous] entertainment.” Sikand explores the debate about television and islam that was caused by this fatwa.1