A Mentally Ill Mob of Muslims Kills a Mentally Ill Muslim Man in Pakistan: No Ulema Condemned the Incident; Perhaps They Can't; Allegations of Blasphemy Makes All Muslims Go Crazy
Allegations of
Blasphemy Makes All Muslims Go Crazy
Main Points:
1. Mushtaque was mentally ill for fifteen
years.
2. He pleaded innocence before the mob.
3. This was the second incident of mob lynching
after December 3 lynching of A Sri Lankan.
4. Pakistan government issues a formal
statement of condemnation.
5. Religious circle remain silent on the
incident.
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By New Age Islam Staff Writer
16 February 2022
Police
officers stand outside a mosque on Sunday, a day after a mob lynched a man in
Tulamba Village, in Mian Channu, Punjab. — Reuters
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Once again in Pakistan, an innocent Muslim Man was killed by
an unruly mob over the allegation of desecration of Quran. A mob of mentally
ill Muslims killed a mentally ill Muslim Man named Mushtaque in village Dear in
Khanewal district of Punjab in Pakistan on Saturday evening. He was tied to a
tree and stoned to death. The police had arrived at the spot well on time and
taken Mushtaque in custody but the mob snatched him from the police. After that
the police remained silent spectator to the gory murder.
The victim's family has said that Mushtaque had been
mentally ill for about fifteen years. He would often go missing and would go
abegging and eat whatever he got.
On the fateful evening, the custodian of the local mosque
reportedly saw Mushtaque with burning pages of the Quran and seemingly trying
to pages another Quran. He raised an alarm and people coming for evening
prayers caught him and beat him to death. According to him Mushtaque pleaded
innocence to the mob before being killed.
The Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan condemned the incident
in strong words and added that the case would be dealt with the severity of law
and that his government had zero tolerance against anyone taking the law into
his own hands.
Maulana Tahir Ashrafi, PM's special representative
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Maulana Tahir Ashrafi, PM's special representative on
religious harmony said in a televised press conference that it was not the
religion of their prophet to kill under your interpretation of religion.
Shireen Mazari, Federal Minister for Human Rights also
condemned the incident and demanded punishment to the culprits.
All this makes us believe that Pakistan's government has
taken the incident seriously and will do something that deters religious
fanatics of his country from perpetrating such un-Islanic acts in future. But
on practical level all the statements by the PM and his ministers and advisors
appear to be a hogwash. The truth is that the incident has not stirred the
national conscience and has passed as a regular and common incident.
Muskan Khan
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The reason for this inference is that though the PM, his
federal minister and his religious advisor have formally condemned the incident
and senators Sajid Mir and Ejaz Ahmad Choudhury formally condemned the incident
in the Senate, no Ulema true to their salt have said anything about the
incident leave aside condemning it. When the pages of two major Urdu newspapers
Jang and Nawa-e-Waqt are flipped through, no columns by the regular columnists
are found condemning the incident or discussing the incident from Islamic point
of view. Instead women's wing of both Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam and Jamat-e-Islami
Pakistan eulogise Indian student Muskan's bravery. JUI women's wing even
organised a rally in which women shouted Muskan Zindabad, hijab Zindabad and
Bharat Murdabad. But conspicuously they did not say a word on the lynching of a
mentally ill man of their own country by the Muslims.
Ironically, the Minister of Waqf and Religious Affairs, Syed
Sayeedul Hasan said in a programme on Tuesday two days after the lynching that
steps were being taken under the guidance and inspiration of PM Imran Khan and
Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar to make Punjab a state like Madina. There
cannot be a bigger blasphemy against the prophet of Islam than this. It was in
Punjab that on December 3 last year, a Sri Lankan Hindu was killed and then
burned by a mob for alleged blasphemy. In the Punjab actually Muslims and
non-Muslims both are unsafe from religious fanatics and the government claims
that they are taking steps to make Punjab a state like Madina.
About ten years ago, a man who was a hafiz-e-Quran was burnt
to death after being lynched for inadvertantly dropping the Quran on the
earthen oven in his home. Some pages of the Quran had got burnt despite his
effort to save it. But the angry mob of Muslims had dragged him out of the
police station and beaten him to death. After that they had set at his body on
fire.
Lynching of Muslims and non- Muslims for alleged blasphemy
are common in Pakistan. According to the report of a think tank Centre for
Research and Security Studies, in Pakistan 1415 cases of blasphemy have been reported
from 1947 to 2021 out of which 18 women and 17 men have been killed
extra-judicially. Salman Taseer, the former Punjab governor was killed by his
bodyguard because he was demanding repeal of blasphemy laws of Pakistan which
propose death sentence for a convict. Incidentally very few convictions have
come but religious organisations provoke Muslims to kill those acquitted by the
law.
The blasphemy laws of Pakistan are generally used by the
majority Sunni Muslim community to intimidate the minority communities and
sects and to settle personal scores. Rights activists and liberal Muslims of
Pakistan have demanded a repeal of these Draconian laws but the governments of
Pakistan have succumbed to the pressure of militant religious organisations and
clerics.
In Pakistan, majority of Ulema are of the view that even a
Muslim can be killed for blasphemy. So the common belief of Pakistani Muslims
is that anyone accused of blasphemy should be killed without waiting for the
completion of the judicial process. Even if the courts of law acquit them,
Muslims should not acquit them.
In recent years Punjab of Pakistan has become a hotbed of
religious and sectarian extremism. Religious scholars keep spreading sectarian
and religious hatred among Muslims in the garb of spreading the message of
Quran and Sunnah.
Therefore, despite the strong words of the PM of Pakistan
against the lynching, there is no hope of the culprits being brought to book as
the blasphemy laws will be applied to the victim and the culprits will be freed
under the pressure of militant religious groups with which these fanatics are
associated