Pakistan's Jaranwala Incident A Blot On An Islamic Society
By
New Age Islam Staff Writer
19 August
2023
Blasphemy
Was Again Used As The Ploy To Vandalise Christian Homes And Churches.
Main
Points:
1. One person's
wrong cannot justify the community's persecution.
2. Blasphemy in
Pakistan is misused to terrorise minorities.
3. Islamophobia
in the West fuels anti-Christian sentiments in Pakistan.
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A woman whose home was vandalised, in Jaranwala of Pakistan's Faisalabad
district on August 17. | PTI
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Attacks on
Christians in Jaranwala of Pakistan has once again brought blasphemy as a tool
of persecution of minorities in Pakistan. A Christian man was accused of
blasphemy and his whole community was made to suffer. Christian homes and
churches were vandalised.
Islam does
not approve of persecution of minorities on false charges. But in Pakistan,
only the allegation of blasphemy on the part of a person is enough to be
attacked or killed. No legal process is considered necessary when blasphemy is
involved. Even when the courts acquit the accused, extrajudicial killing is resorted
to punish him.
In
Pakistan, blasphemy has assumed such a wide definition that it even covers
Muslims of opposite sects and they are booked or lynched for alleged blasphemy.
Previously, mentally deranged men or frustrated men were also lynched or burnt
to death from blasphemy when any law does not punish a mentally deranged man.
In Pakistan, Muslims have given the impression that Islam does not spare even
mentally ill when blasphemy is involved. It seems that the whole Pakistani
community suffers from mass hysteria. It expresses its frustration borne out of
economic and political hardships resulting from the wrong policies of the
governments and large scale corruption of Pakistan's politicians.
Recently, a
judge's wife was arrested for torturing a 13 year old girl. This was not an
isolated case. In 2016 too, a judge and his wife had been jailed for one year
for torturing a 10 year old girl. This demonstrates that even people like
judges suffer from violence syndrome and that domestic helps must have been
tortured at a large scale in Pakistan but not all cases come out.
Violence in
the collective psyche of Pakistanis has not been programmed overnight. It has
been made a way of life for the Muslims of Pakistan by the extremist clerics
who issue fatwas of Kufr provoking violence against the 'enemies' of
Islam. A Sri Lankan factory manager in Pakistan was lynched by factory workers
only because he torn out religious stickers from the walls of the factory. He
disapproved of religious stickers in factory premises. He was killed for this
act of 'blasphemy'. No legal process was required to be initiated to prove that
it was really an act of blasphemy. He was not even given the time to explain
his motive behind his alleged blasphemy.
Not long
ago, two lady madrasa teachers slit the neck of their lady colleague after an
argument on sectarian issue. Asia Bibi and Rimsha Masih were Christian ladies
who were accused of blasphemy. Asia had to leave Pakistan even after the court
acquitted her.
The West
has also to take the responsibility for the growing hatred of Christians in
Pakistan. Islamophobia is being promoted and encouraged under the freedom of
expression. The government of Sweden allows burning of the holy Quran under
state protection, knowing well that the Quran is not an ordinary book.
The Muslims
the world over have protested over the burning of the Quran but it has not cut
much ice with the Swedish government. Muslims are attacked only for being
Muslims as Islamophobia has been growing.
Jyllands
Posten published blasphemous cartoons hurting the sentiments of the Muslims.
Charlie
Hebdo published blasphemous cartoons to mock the Muslims.
Films are
made in the West to tarnish the image of Islam and Muslims and to portray a
negative image of their prophet. All this goes on under the protection of the
Western governments. They do not realise that their acts jeopardise the
Christians in Pakistan where they are in minority as they pay the price of
Islamophobic acts in the western world.
Islam,
however, does not approve wrong in retaliation to another wrong because two
wrongs do not make a right. Islam asks its followers not to do injustice even
to the enemies. How can it approve of persecution of women, children and
innocent people on the grounds of an act of blasphemy committed by an
individual. The most unfortunate part is that the clerics who hit the streets
and gather thousands of Muslims on petty issues do not take any concrete steps
to prevent this trend of persecution of minorities over blasphemy.
The
government also does not show any will to stop this unIslamic trend. Only
formal statements by the politicians and some clerics will not make any
difference. This will change only when the ulema collectively wake up the issue
of blasphemy and redefine it in the light of global political and geopolitical
circumstances. The United Nations needs to take concrete steps to prevent the
growth of Islamophobia in the West and to ensure the protection of minorities
in Pakistan in particular and in the world in general.
Pakistan
needs to come out of this mass hysteria but the question is: How? There are
tons of interpretations and fatwas by eminent Islamic scholars and jurists who
have proved that even Muslims can be killed for blasphemy. Books have been
written on the topic and the verses of the Quran have been manipulated to prove
that any one whether Muslim or non-Muslim can be killed for blasphemy and any
Muslim can take the law into his own hands if an allegation of blasphemy is
brought against any one. No legal process is required to be initiated. No court
is required:; no defence is required and the accused does not deserve an
opportunity to defend himself. In these circumstances, there is little hope
that the Jaranwala incident will stir the collective conscience of the Muslims,
particularly the clerics of Pakistan. This incident will also go into oblivion
like hundreds of others and the minorities in Pakistan will have to live with
all this while the world looks on.
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View
From Dawn: After The Attack On Christian Homes, Will Pakistan Stand Up To The
Mob?
Dawn.com
Aug 17,
2023
Unless both
state and society decide on a practical way of tackling extremism, and go
beyond clichés and condemnations, the monster of obscurantism will continue to
devour Pakistan’s vitals.
Another
shameful incident was witnessed on Wednesday in Faisalabad’s Jaranwala area
when a mob torched several churches, ransacked Christian homes and vandalised a
graveyard. The apparent provocation for this assault was blasphemy, as the
house of a Christian man allegedly involved in the offence was razed.
Clearly, in
Pakistan, evidence is not required where the issue of blasphemy is concerned,
and mobs take it upon themselves to dispense “justice”. This is the second such
event in recent days; just a few days ago, a teacher in Balochistan was
murdered because of blasphemy allegations against him.
There has
been the usual round of denunciation by the political elite, including the
interim prime minister. Yet the question is: do the rulers – politicians and establishment
– as well as clerics and prominent society figures have the courage to confront
this madness? Past precedents do not inspire confidence as murders, riots and
lynchings in “defence” of religion testify.
This is not
a situation that developed overnight; it has been decades in the making. For
over 40 years, the state has itself been either promoting obscurantism, or
using sectarian and religious fanatics as proxies. The result of these failed
policies is before us, as these same forces have now begun to influence the
general populace by framing the narrative.
Our power
elite has been silent as blasphemy laws have been misused to settle personal
scores, occupy property, or terrorise minorities. In fact, the last parliament
had tried to bulldoze, without any proper debate, an amendment that would have
“strengthened” the blasphemy law.
Can we then
complain if episodes such as Jaranwala unfold with disturbing regularity?
Violence in the name of religion is indefensible in any context, but in
Pakistan, the blasphemy laws have been misused with impunity by vested
interests.
However, it
is also true that in the “civilised” West, the appalling trend to attack the
sacred symbols of Islam feeds into a vicious circle of bigotry and
Islamophobia. In fact, extremists, such as the ones involved in the Jaranwala
outrage, use these despicable acts to point out the hatred the ‘Christian’ West
allegedly harbours towards Islam, and channel their vitriol at local minority
communities.
The fact is
that both in the West and in Muslim states, efforts need to be intensified to
counter the forces of religious bigotry. The attacks on Islam’s sacred symbols
– indeed, the revered symbols of all faiths – in the West must stop, while
Pakistani society must bring to justice all involved in such grotesque
violence, and begin an internal reckoning that exorcises the demons of
obscurantism tearing this country apart.
----
This
article first appeared in Dawn.
Source: View
From Dawn: After The Attack On Christian Homes, Will Pakistan Stand Up To The
Mob?
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-society/pakistan-jaranwala-blot-islamic-society/d/130483
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