“The ruling showed the sacrifice of women and obedience to her husband” is what Saudi Arabian grand mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah was claimed to have said. The reports said that the fatwa allowed a man to eat his wife’s body parts if he is suffering from “severe hunger.”

However, in a statement released on behalf of the Grand Mufti via the Saudi Press Agency, the cleric said: “The fatwa attributed to us is wrong. It is nothing but lies…It has been circulated to distort the image of Islam, which has elevated and granted a dignified status to men and women without exceptions.

Before the religious authorities issued a denial, reports of the alleged fatwa circulated the world’s news sites. “The truth is that this is fabricated and made up from its basis,” said Khalid ben Abdel-Rahman El-Shaye, assistant secretary general of the Global Commission for Introducing the Messenger, affiliating to the Muslim World League.

“These ill thoughts cannot come from any Muslim, regardless of a great scholar who Muslims refer to from around the world. It was made up to create confusion and damage.” The Saudi cleric had previously claimed that all churches should be destroyed under Islamic law. In February, another religious leader confidently told an audience that the earth does not revolve in space.

Footage emerged of a student asking Sheikh al-Khaibari whether the Earth was moving or stationary. The Saudi Sheikh confidently told the young academic the Earth is “stationary and does not move.” Supporting his theory, the Sheikh used an example involving air travel: “We go to Sharjah airport to travel to China by plane, clear?”