Islam and Freedom of Expression: There Is No Mention Of Blasphemy In Quran, Let Alone Any Punishment For It
By Irfan Engineer
November 8,
2020
It is
generally believed that Islam is a backward religion, reinforcing the beliefs
of medieval period, if not of the ancient period, it is conservative and even
fundamentalist in its outlook, and it motivates its followers to be intolerant
and violent.
Islam, it
is further believed, is incompatible with modern values and political systems,
including, secularism, freedom of religion, human rights and democracy. Samuel
Huntington suggested that there would be civilizational clash between the west
and Islam.
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Also Read:
Blasphemy, Islam and Free Speech
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The recent
spate of violence in France further reinforces this belief. The latest bout of
violence began with brutal beheading of Samuel Paty (47), a school teacher, who
showed the cartoons caricaturing Prophet Mohammad, which were published in
Charlie Hebdo, a satirical magazine, to his students in order to explain the
value of freedom of expression.
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Also Read:
Islam and Free Speech: A Reply to A. Faizur Rahman
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Paty was
beheaded by an 18-year-old Chechen Muslim youth Abdullakh Anzorov who was
allegedly in contact with the jihadists in Syria. The brutal and inhuman
beheading led to French President Emmanuel Macron defending “the French way of
life” wherein freedom of expression was sacred. Macron went much beyond
condemning the inhuman beheading of Paty which has been condemned by most
Muslims, including the ‘French Council of the Muslim Faith’ and categorised it
as a terrorist attack.
“Islamists
want to take our future,” Macron said, adding, “They will never have it.”
Macron blamed Islamists and posited the beheading as a threat from Islamists in
general to the French way of life. This escalated the conflict to an
undesirable level.
On November
2, a lone 20 year old heavily armed attacker – Kujtim Fejzulai – shot down four
people in central Vienna’s nightlife area known as the Bermuda Triangle:
Seitenstettengasse and nearby Morzinplatz, Salzgries, Fleischmarkt, Bauernmarkt
and Graben. Islamic State (IS) claimed the responsibility for the attack.
Austrian
Chancellor Sebastian Kurz claimed that the attack was “on our way of life.”
However, he made it clear that, “This is no fight between Christians and
Muslims, or between Austrians and migrants. This is a fight between
civilization and barbarism.” He urged citizens to remember that “our enemy is
never all those belonging to a religion, our enemy is never all the people that
come from a particular country” but rather “our enemy is extremists and
terrorists.” ( Bennhold, Eddy, & Schuetze, 2020)
Erdogan,
the President of Turkey, who is nurturing an ambition to revive the Ottoman
Caliphate and become leader of the Muslim world, although with little success
due to dipping popular support and growing economic crisis in his country,
escalated the conflict further by asking that Macron get his mental health
check-up done.
Pakistani
Prime Minister, who is facing massive demonstrations in his country and charge
of being a ‘selected PM’ by the military rather than elected by the people of
Pakistan, also saw an opportunity in posing as a defender of Islam. Former
Malaysian PM, Mahathir Bin Mohamad said that Muslims had a right to kill French
millions.
On October
30, there was a further attack on Christian worshippers in the French city of
Nice killing 3 people allegedly by a Tunisian who had arrived a night before,
according to BBC. The terrorists shoot and scoot, while the brunt of their
attacks is faced by the ordinary Muslim residents who live in peaceful
co-existence with others and practice their faith.
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Also Read:
Embrace What Is Different:
Quran and Hadith Stress on Building an Inclusive Society
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However,
the retaliatory violence by the state and the non-state actors on the Muslims
helps the terrorists as it leads to polarization and ghettoization of the
community. The ghettoization of the Muslim community living with a sense of
insecurity is fertile ground on which the jihadist step in with their
propaganda and can cut off the community from other sources of information,
ideas and knowledge.
The murders
of Samuel Paty and the three Christians in the city of Nice must be condemned
absolutely and without any reservations or pointing to any contributory factors
whatsoever, particularly by all the Muslims as the attacks invoked their faith.
Is Islam a
violent, intolerant, backward looking, fundamentalist religion as the jihadist
represent it to be? Do all Muslims support killing of non-Muslims on grounds of
religion whether for blasphemy or any other reason?
The answer
to all these questions is a big NO.
Overwhelming
majority of the Muslim world have not supported the beheading. Do Erdogan,
Imran Khan and Mahathir Mohamad represent the sentiments of their countrymen?
The demonstrations against Imran Khan are continuing, Erdogan has not been able
to leverage his popularity and Malaysian opposition which advocates for Islamic
law are unpopular.
The Arab
countries, Iran and Indonesia with largest Muslim population have not come out
in support of the attack, and even condemned it. Muslim political leaders and
the civil society across the board in India have condemned the attack.
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A very
miniscule minority among Muslims believe that Islam requires the faithful to
not only follow the sharia law as propounded by them, but also enforce it upon
non-Muslims at gun point. Revenge and retribution, even targeting innocent
persons, using violence and terrorism is a legitimate method, and establishment
of a caliphate their political objective. They target not only non-Muslims, but
also Muslims and strike fear in their hearts.
Shias and
Ahmadiyas in Pakistan, women in the entire Muslim world and others whom they
proclaim to be non-conformist Muslims are their targets too. The Sunni Muslims
too do not have choice to follow their Islam as they deem right. A section of
western media uses these violent incidents to represent it as a threat to
“western” or “modern way of life” and to the world order and peace by
amplifying its potential threat.
The spate
of mob lynching and communal riots in India may have killed more than the
terrorist attacks in the entire world, but that is treated as a ‘minor law and
order’ problem or freedom of religion problem that does not warrant ‘we’ and
‘they ‘divide’, although it is also threat to the freedoms, democracy and rule
of law. Gun wielding teenagers have killed more Americans in schools and other
places than the Muslim terrorists. However, the “threat to American way of
life” is perceived only from the “jihadists” and Islam in general.
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Islam And The Freedom Of Religion
The Quran
on the other hand is a book for guidance of the entire humanity and gives
freedom of religion or beliefs. Only the all forgiving, merciful and
compassionate God can judge the conduct of human beings, not any human agency.
To God alone humans are called upon to turn to for guidance and not to any
human agency, institution or state.
There isn’t
enough space to recall numerous verses in the Quran that are about freedom of
religion and recall the rich traditions and debates. We would mention a couple
of verses in the passing. The central values of Islam are truth (Haq) justice
(Adl), compassion (Raham), merciful (Rahim), most forgiving (Ghafoor) and
wisdom (Hikma).
The most
righteous are the ones who do justice in their dealings with everyone. Quran
(5:8) states – “O believers! Stand firm for Allah and bear true testimony. Do
not let the hatred of a people lead you to injustice. Be just! That is closer
to righteousness…”. Hatred for anyone belonging to any religion is not being
just and therefore not being righteous. Quran (5:32) lays down that if you kill
any innocent, it is as if you kill entire humanity, and saving one life is like
saving entire humanity – it may be the life of a person belonging to any
religion or faith or even a non-believer.
In several
verses, Quran enjoins the believers to do good and forbids evil deeds – “Amr Bil Maroof Wa Nahi ‘Anil Munkar”
(3:111). There is no compulsion in religion, Quran (2:256) lays down – truth
stands out from error. In chapter 109, Quran addresses those who reject faith
and tells them – “To you your way and to
me mine.”
There is no
mention of blasphemy in Quran, let alone any punishment for the offence. The
Prophet himself faced a lot of insults during his lifetime. A woman would throw
dirt on him regularly. He would peacefully pass by without a word. When the
prophet Muhammad learnt that she was sick and bed ridden, he visited her and
prayed for her speedy recovery. Due to lack of space, we are just mentioning a
few instances from the Islamic history to recall the rationalist thoughts in
Islamic history.
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Also Read:
The False Binary of the Secular versus Islamic Needs to Be
Broken
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During the
Umayyad period, there was a rich debate between the two broad schools within
Islam – the Jabariyas and the Qadariyas. The followers of Jabariya School
believed that all events and activities are predestined, they are just played
out here in the world. The Umayyad rulers patronized the Jabariya school which called
upon the faithful to submit to the rulers as fate was predestined and the
Ummayad Caliph was merely implementing the measures and policies already
predestined, including their luxurious lifestyle and the poverty of the rest.
The
Qadariya school on the other hand disputed this notion and argued that God
guided human beings as to what was the righteous path (Sirat Al Mustaqeem) and left it to the individuals to be guided by
God or by the Satan. God then left it to the individuals to discern what was
the righteous path based on the revealed scriptures and tread on that path or
entirely ignore that guidance.
Quran
describes God as compassionate, merciful and just, argued the Qadariya
followers, and it would go against the Quranic revelation if God were to pre-determine
the conduct of the human beings and then punish them for their misbehaviour and
misdemeanours. The Abbasid period (750-1258) was known as the Golden period of
Islam when the books of knowledge from all over the world, including India and
Greek philosophy were translated in Arabic and collected in Baghdad in a grand
library called House of Wisdom, or Bayt
al Hikmah.
Greek
philosophy influenced the Islamic theologians which gave rise to two schools of
theology within Islam – the Asharites and the Mutazilites. The Mutazilites were
rationalists. They believed in the createdness of the Quran as temporal and not
eternal and uncreated. They held that good and evil are objective and that the
moral values of actions are intrinsic to them and can be discerned by human
reason. The Asharites on the other hand believed that the Quran was uncreated
and eternal. The Mutalizilies argued that the reward and punishment which God
metes out must be merited by creatures endowed with free will. With regard to
our acts in this world, God creates in us the power to perform an act but we
are free to choose whether or not to perform it.
In India
Sir Syed Ahmed Khan (1817-1898), a reformist and a rationalist philosopher, in
his commentary on Quran wrote that there could be no contradiction between the
word of God (Quran) and work of God (natural world). Exploring and
understanding laws of nature was the domain of science and equally necessary.
Maulana Shibli Nomani (1857-1914) on the other hand explained that science and
religion operated in two different circles.
One
explored natural laws and the other moral laws. Science would measure weight of
air e.g. and the energy generated from nuclear fusion and fission. However, for
what purpose to deploy that energy was the domain of religion – whether to
prepare destructive bombs or to harness it for better purposes. The moral laws
and life after death was the religious domain. They were not contradictory.
Muhammad
Iqbal, the poet philosopher gave series of lectures in Lahore arguing for
ijtihad and rejuvenation of Islam. Each generation had to understand Islam with
its own experiences and views. These are some of the rational heritage of
Islam.
This rich
heritage is product of freedoms and liberties which are part of tradition of Islam.
The covenant of Medina which was the constitution of the first state
established by the Prophet granted freedom to practice religion to the
Christians, Jews and Muslims in accordance with their traditions. The first
Caliph after the Prophet was elected by consensus and so were the other three
rightly guided caliphs.
It is only
with the Umayyad and subsequent dynasties and empires that the illiberalism,
closing the doors of ijtihad or reinterpretation and dynamism in understanding
the Quran was lost. Dynamism in knowledge and Quranic interpretation was
considered a threat to the dynasties.
It is during this period that the term jihad
was used more for the political wars between dynasties and not for striving to
be guided by the righteous path of justice and taking care of the neediest in
society.
As change
in religious beliefs could signal revolt and rebellion against the dynasty,
religion and religious doctrines were forced on the populace and blasphemy laws
were promulgated to protect the regimes. Gradual colonization of the Muslim
world and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the first world war led to
colonization of large part of the Muslim world under the west. The Muslim world
did not emerge from the colonization and went into a conservative shell to
protect its beliefs. It is time to come out of the shell, embrace knowledge,
continue the rich heritage and openness and work for the betterment of the
humanity and moral teachings of Islam.
There are
intolerant, extremists, fundamentalists and violent people in every religious
community. Muslim community also has its share. However, in case of
non-Muslims, the entire community is not blamed for the act of extremist
individuals. Any act by a Muslim extremist, which should rightly be condemned,
attracts global coverage in media holding the entire community responsible for
the offence subtly through the prominence accorded to it, length of coverage,
choice of words and headlines.
In India we
have our share of extremists – the cow vigilantes who lynch innocent Muslims to
death if they are transporting animals, and often force them to proclaim
victory to Lord Ram against the teaching of their faith. The Chechen youth, the
jihadists and the cow vigilantes are not only against freedom of expression and
democracy, they act against the teaching and values of their own religion.
Let us come
together and condemn all such inhuman brutal and violent actions irrespective
of to which religion the offender belongs. Law must take care of such offences
rather than castigating the entire community.
Let
religious ideas be diverse and let all of them be expressed with sensitivity
and humility so that it leads to greater understanding of truth. If they are
expressed in offensive manner, sensible people should leave it to the law to
deal with it if it constitutes any offence. Graham Staines wife Gladys Staines
forgave those who killed her husband and two sons who were sleeping in a
station wagon on the basis of false accusations. They are more of heroes of
humanity than the killers of Samuel Paty.
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Irfan Engineer is the Director of Mumbai-based
Centre for Study of Society and Secularism.
Original Headline: Islam, freedom of religion
and recent Jihadi attacks
Source: The Counter Current
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-ideology/islam-freedom-expression-there-no/d/123458
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