Only a court can decide on the basis of evidence, not emotion, as to whether a certain act amounts to blasphemy or not. Is the concept of reward and punishment not the essence of the holy Quran and Islamic jurisprudence?
Source/Credit: Daily Times | Pakistan
By Yasser Latif Hamdani | May 19, 2014
Four incidents have occurred that should give us pause as a nation because the very sanctity of Islam has been threatened by unthinking mobs and self-styled doctors of faith. I say this responsibly, not as a liberal — whatever that means — but as a humble student of Islam and its law. The first incident was the murder of Rashid Rehman, a lawyer representing the accused in a blasphemy case. The second incident was a frivolous case against the lawyers of Jhang under 295-A whereby 68 lawyers were accused of blasphemy because they were protesting against a police officer whose name happened to be Umar. The third incident is that of the qawaali on a morning show. Finally, there is the gruesome murder of an Ahmedi because he had objected to vilification of his faith and community through stickers put up by a shopkeeper.
The purpose and intent of the blasphemy law is to ensure that the religious feelings of any section of Pakistani society are not outraged. Therefore, blasphemy under the law can be of several kinds. First and foremost is any imputation that seeks to denigrate the name of the holy Prophet (PBUH) with the specific intent to cause grievous hurt to Muslims in general. The second kind of blasphemy is the denigration of Islam’s holiest books and personages in any way that outrages the sentiments of Muslims. The third kind of blasphemy is malicious denigration of any holy personage or figure of religion, or a religion or religious community. It is about time we added a fourth kind of blasphemy to this list, i.e. incitement to violence in the name of Islam to achieve other more worldly ends, which is so patently obvious in the way the blasphemy allegation is thrown about by certain unthinking television anchors.
It is the state’s foremost responsibility to do adl or justice, equally and without fear. In the case of the Ahmedi who was murdered, a case of blasphemy should have been registered against the shopkeeper who was targeting the Ahmedi community and calling for violence against them. Unfortunately, the police in Sheikhupura seem to have entirely misapplied the blasphemy law and, in the process, failed to protect the accused. Who is going to account for this terrible miscarriage of justice?
The use of the qawaali on the morning show of a private television channel for a wedding may have been in poor taste for some, given that the bride in question was Veena Malik, but it must be pointed out that this is a common practice at weddings to remind the faithful of that most holiest of marriages. Are we now going to make subjective likes and dislikes determine the most important question of blasphemy in this country? In this case, we know that the channel that raised this issue had itself used the same qawaali in a similar programme in a similar way, not once but multiple times.
The case against the lawyers in Jhang is perhaps the strangest. Just think of the extension of this logic and its possible consequences both past and present. For example, should Ayub Khan the dictator have taken Fatima Jinnah and her followers to court arguing that Miss Jinnah’s followers had blasphemed against Hazrat Ayub Ansari when they used non-parliamentary language for Ayub Khan while using his name?
Finally, the holy Quran and sunnah lay down principles of equity and justice. Article 10-A of the Pakistani constitution crystallises these principles in the form of fair trial and due process. Murdering a lawyer for the ‘crime’ of representing a blasphemy accused therefore is in and of itself a grave violation of Islam’s holy law. Only a court can decide on the basis of evidence, not emotion, as to whether a certain act amounts to blasphemy or not. Is the concept of reward and punishment not the essence of the holy Quran and Islamic jurisprudence? Would then the extra-judicial murder of any person accused of blasphemy not equal, in and of itself, an act of blasphemy?
The time has come for the government to legislate on this issue forcefully. First and foremost, the state of Pakistan, being constitutionally an Islamic Republic, must become the exclusive guardian of the Islamic principles of Namoos-e-Rasalat (PBUH), i.e. honour of prophethood. It should, with an iron hand, clamp down on groups that seek to appropriate these Islamic concepts for their own short-term benefit. Indeed, all false and frivolous accusations of blasphemy should also be punishable as blasphemy. Secondly, the ‘divines’ who sit in the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) and in the Federal Shariat Court (FSC) may be called upon to define blasphemy concisely. Blasphemy — being a serious offence — should be construed narrowly so as to cover only those malicious and scurrilous comments made deliberately to outrage the feelings of a religious group.
Intent should form the basic requirement as per the hadith “Ina Amal u Biniyaat” or “actions are judged by intentions”. Finally, the possibility of tauba (repentance) should never be ruled out. Repentance under Islam is not the same as an apology. The doors of repentance must always be kept open under Islamic jurisprudence. A Muslim blasphemer by definition becomes an apostate. The cure for apostasy is to revert. That door of reversion to Islam should never be closed to anyone. The matter after repentance (or alternatively reversion to Islam) becomes one between man and God. Given that blasphemy is a heinous crime under our law, all doors to rectify the matter should remain open, having faith in divine justice and the idea of the merciful God that is embodied in Islam.
Finally, no one should be allowed to take any law into their own hands. This practice must be rooted out with an iron hand or we will continue to see disorder and chaos, which no modern state can afford.
Read original post here: Islamic ideals of justice and fair play
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