Turkey's Religious Affairs Directorate Ends Online Fatwas After Embarrassing Posting

Turkey's Religious Affairs Directorate announced on Friday that it is closing down its online fatwa service after public outrage over a online fatwa discussing whether a man having lustful feelings for his daughter would religiously invalidate his marriage with the girl's mother. According to Today's Zaman, a Directorate spokesman says: "Such a fatwa has never been issued by our High Council on Religious Affairs."  The fatwa was removed from the Directorate's website.  An investigation into the incident has begun, but explanations so far are confusing, suggesting that the posting of the fatwa may have been a purposeful attempt to embarrass the Religious Affairs Directorate, perhaps by followers of the Gülen movement within the state bureaucracy.