Killing For Blasphemy: Anything But Islamic
By Taj Hashmi
11 April, 2015
Countercurrents.org
Yet another blogger was hacked to death for alleged blasphemous postings against Islam, in Bangladesh. Islamist fanatics killed Oyasiqur Rahman (27) with meat cleavers for his vitriolic anti-Islamic postings on 30th March in broad daylight, on a crowded street in Dhaka. This happened five weeks after the killing of blogger Avijit Roy, in the similar manner, for the similar reason. While police (who were in close proximity) miserably failed to save Roy’s life and arrest his killers, this time they managed to arrest two of the three assailants with the help of bystanders.
Two other Bangladeshi freethinkers got killed at the hands of Islamist zealots-cum-terrorists in the past – Humayun Azad and blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider (aka Thaba Baba) – for blasphemous writings against Islam in 2004 and 2013, respectively. Islamist fanatics in Bangladesh would have killed Daud Haider and Taslima Nasrin for their anti-Islamic writings. As the Bangladesh Government could not ensure their safety, both of them had to leave the country in absolute haste, Haider in 1973 and Nasrin in 1994.
However, we just cannot single out Bangladeshi Muslims to be the most intolerant in this regard. Unlike Pakistan, despite Islamists’ and the Jamaat-e-Islami’s persistent demands, there is no Blasphemy Law in Bangladesh. However, thanks to the persistent Islamization and Arabization of the popular Islamic culture in Bangladesh, many Bangladeshi Muslims have tacit support for killing for blasphemy against Islam. The prevalent media fatigue and the lack of mass protest against killing for blasphemy in the country may be mentioned in this regard. Pakistan and several Muslim-majority countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Afghanistan and Iran have draconian Blasphemy Law. A brief appraisal of the Blasphemy Law in Pakistan may be an eye-opener for many.
Pakistan’s Blasphemy Law is a legacy of a British colonial law introduced in 1860, but very different from the original act. While Pakistan’s Blasphemy Law carries a potential death penalty for anyone who insults Islam, the maximum punishment under the 1860 law ranged from one year to 10 years in jail, with or without a fine. The British law made it a crime to disturb a religious assembly, trespass on burial grounds, insult religious beliefs and intentionally destroy or defile a place or an object of worship. General Zia’s Islamist military regime in Pakistan took full advantage of the Hate Speech Law, which was an amendment to the 1860 Act (Section 295 - A) made in 1927.
Zia ul-Haq’s administration added a number of clauses to the Law between 1980 and 1986 to further Islamicize Pakistan, marginalize the Ahmadiyya community, and persecute opponents in the name of Islam. More than 1300 people – mostly non-Muslims – were accused of blasphemy during 1987 and 2014 for alleged desecration of the Qur’an and insult of the Prophet; more than 100 people were killed for committing “blasphemy”; 50 “blasphemers” got killed during their trials; and fanatics also killed Punjab Governor Salman Taseer and a Federal Minister Shahbaz Bhatti for their opposition to the Blasphemy Law in the recent past. Further amendments to the Law provided life sentence for desecration of the Holy Qur’an, and death penalty for blasphemy against the Prophet of Islam. The Law provides protection to only Islam and its scripture. In sum, many Pakistanis – especially members of non-Muslim minority communities and liberal Muslims – are potential victims of the draconian Blasphemy Law or murder by over-enthused “protectors of Islam”.
We know millions of Muslims throughout the world came out on street, publicly demanding death for Salman Rushdie for his grossly offensive and blasphemous writing against Prophet Muhammad, his family, and the Holy Qur’an in The Satanic Verses, soon after the publication of it 1988. In February 1989, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini issued the famous – or “infamous”, as one might take it – fatwa-to-kill not only Rushdie but also all those involved in the publication of the book for blasphemy against Islam. Although Rushdie escaped violent death for blasphemy (and the Iranian government withdrew the fatwa years after Khomeini’s death), Hitoshi Igarashi, the Japanese translator of The Satanic Verses, was not that lucky. Fanatics killed him and two other translators survived murder attempts, narrowly.
Despite worldwide condemnation of the fatwa, intolerant Muslims throughout the world welcomed the proclamation, killed many “blasphemers” and have not since looked back. However, considering the fatwa unjust for not allowing the accused an opportunity to defend himself in a court of law, some Muslim scholars opined that a Muslim could kill anyone who insulted the Prophet only in his presence – while he was alive – not after his death. However, as Khomeini has spelled out, the supporters of the fatwa believe that even if a blasphemer repents and becomes a pious Muslim, it is incumbent on every Muslim to kill a blasphemer of the Prophet.
Meanwhile, Islamist zealots have killed several European writers, filmmakers and cartoonists for defiling Islam, its Prophet and the Holy Qur’an, their latest victims being people associated with the Leftist satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris, for publishing satirical and offensive cartoons of the Prophet during 2006 and 2012. On 7th January 2015 two Islamist gunmen entered the Paris headquarters of the magazine and killed 12 people, including the cartoonist. During the attack, the gunmen shouted, “Allahu Akbar” (“Allah is Great” in Arabic) and “The Prophet is avenged”.
In the backdrop of growing intolerance among uneducated and highly educated Muslims globally – having no qualms with killing blasphemers of Islam – we must not misconstrue this bigotry as a post-Rushdie or post-9/11 development. One is tempted to cite the example of the killing of Rajpal, the Hindu publisher of Rangeela Rasool (The Promiscuous Prophet), a book written in Urdu (and later in Hindi) by an anonymous Hindu writer in Lahore, in 1929. One Ilm-uddin, an illiterate Muslim carpenter, killed Rajpal in April and was hanged in October 1929. Around 60,000 Muslims attended his funeral in Lahore, and Poet Iqbal carried the funeral bier and placed the body into the grave. He and several Muslim leaders glorified Ilm-uddin as a hero, martyr, and defender of Islam.
Although killing for blasphemy of Islam was allegedly sanctioned by Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), as we find in numerous so-called Sahih or “authentic” hadises by Bukhari, Muslim and Abu Dawood (many of them contradict the Qur’an and the spirit of Islam); and as evident from the Rangeela Rasool episode in British India, Muslim support for killing for blasphemy predates Khomeini’s fatwa against Rushdie. However, the Qur’an does not prescribe any punishment for blasphemers of Islam in this world, let alone death penalty. And we know the Qur’an supersedes the Hadis literature and Shariah law. One may cite the following Qur’anic verses in this regard:
“Indeed, those who abuse Allah and His Messenger - Allah has cursed them in this world and the Hereafter and prepared for them a humiliating punishment [after death]” [33:57]; “…when you hear people denying and mocking the signs of Allah, do not sit with them until they engage in a talk other than that …” [4:141]; “And do not insult those whom they [idol worshippers] worship beside Allah, lest they, out of spite, revile Allah in their ignorance.…” (6:109).
In sum, insensitivity to killing for blasphemy is a sign of weakness, not strength. Those who favour killing for blasphemy are incapable of engaging the critics of their religion with reason; people devoid of respect for dissenting views are not yet ready for liberal democracy. Blasphemy could inspire people to defend one’s faith with reason, which could be a bold step toward the “Dialogue among Civilizations”, as former Iranian President Muhammad Khatami introduced the concept in response to Huntington’s provocative theory of the “Clash of Civilizations”.
The writer teacher security studies at Austin Peay State University. Sage has recently published his latest book, Global Jihad and America: The Hundred-Year War Beyond Iraq and Afghanistan.
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