What is a fatwa?

Hello and I am very new here and askign questions about Islam.

I have read about this fatwa or fatwah or whatever it's called and I am curious, why was there no fatwas issued and carried out again those who want to attack the world trade center or those who want to bomb trains in London?

I saw that guy Al Jazero again on CNN and he was doing some report from a rally in middle earth and there was someone yelling about Denmark (because of those cartoons I guess) but this guy was saying that Europe will have it's 9/11 and I wondered what he meant by that? If Islam is a religion of peace what is that guy thinking?

And why does a religion of peace even have a so-called fatwa?

And if they're going to have a fatwa, shouldn't they use it on the guy yelling about "Europe will have it's 9/11" ? Wouldn't that be a person to use a fatwa on?

Anyway, I've seen some people here making claims that the media is somehow against Islam and is running propaganda and I've really got to say, and I'm trying not to be rude ehre, but that is absolutely the dumbest thing I have ever heard. The media says Michael Jackson is a child molester and that catholic priests molest boys but you don't see the ayone bombing things in the name of the Catholic church and you see Michael Jackson dressing up like a woman. Now I know that newspapers print a lot of lies, like that picture of Muhammed with a bomb for a turban, I'm sure that was a lie and probably no one bombs in the name of Islam. Most terrorists are probably Mormons anyway. What I think happened is, a lot of terrorists were Mormons and they just dressed up like they were Muslim, i.e. they put on turbans and such, then did their bombings or airplane hijacks so people thought they were Muslim when in fact they were not. This would explain why the media and the newspapers print that Muslim terrorists do things. Because usually the newspaper is wrong and they print lies.