Anti-Blasphemy Terrorist Beheadings In Nice And Paris: Muslims Must Foil The Eulogising Of These Killers As ‘Ghazis’! Don’t Expect Even Sufi Ulema To Go Beyond Ritual Condemnation and Look Into Roots of Terrorism in Islamic Theology
New Age Islam Special Correspondent
29 October
2020
France has
suffered yet another terrorist incident in which an attacker with a knife
killed three people and wounded several others at Notre Dame church in the
French city of Nice today. The Mayor of Nice described this deadly stabbing as
an act of “terrorism”. According to Mayor Christian Estrosi, those who were
killed included a woman and the caretaker at the basilica and that the suspect
had repeatedly cried 'Allahu Akbar' (God is greatest).
Now there
should be no dilly-dallying in honestly recognising the fact and identifying
theological motivation behind this as well as the earlier gruesome terror
incident in France, the beheading of a teacher in Paris. Both were inspired by
an anti-blasphemy radical Islamist ideology and must be condemned in the
strongest possible terms. But after we have expressed solidarity with France
and the French people fighting for ‘freedom of expression’, let us now dig
deeper into the ideological motivations of such terror incidents which remain
equally critical to Europe as well as the Indian subcontinent with worrisome
implications.
The sole
motive of the anti-blasphemy killer is the extremist Islamic Prophetology, an
inherent Islamic doctrine of defending Prophet’s honour which promotes the
belief in the necessity (wujub) of executing a blasphemer even at the hands of
a non-state actor. In this theology, such killings are considered legitimate
and even expected of a common Muslim taking the law into his own hand.
At a time
when an anti-France and ‘anti-Macron’ wave is flooding across the Islamic
world, India has actually backed its ally France and President Emmanuel Macron,
whom Pakistan, Turkey, and many other Muslim countries and organisations have
not just severely condemned but also supported a public boycott of French
products. In India, from the fundamentalist organisations like Jamaat-e-Islami
Hind (JeIH) and Popular Front of India (PFI) to the soft-core Islamic
organisations such as World Sufi Peace Mission and individuals like Shahi Imam
of Fatehpuri Jama Masjid Mufti Mukarram, Mauala Mohsin Taqwi of Shia Jama
Masjid (Kashmiri Gate), Islamic orator and former MP Maulana Ubaidullah Khan
Azmi have all weighed in against France. They have vehemently denounced the
French President against what they called ‘anti-Islam remarks’ and the
insulting caricatures of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) being publicized in France.
But none of them had the temerity to turn inward and recognise the problem
within. Not even as a note of caution!
The
question now is: why so many Muslims around the world, including even in a
multi-religious country like in India, tend to believe in death penalty for
blasphemy that too by non-state actors in a secular nation state like France?
The answer lies in those Islamist organisations and individuals who exploit
this sensitive issue to control the masses and further their relgio-political
ends. This is precisely why, during the last few years, there has been an
increasingly profound and deep traction for the extremist anti-blasphemy
narrative through various Urdu magazines, social media posts and proliferated
Islamic literature in India and across the border. Look at the recent trends of
anti-blasphemy killings and their theological justifications based on
Namus-e-Risalat (protecting Prophet’s honour) and Khatm-e-Nabbuwat (Finality of
Prophethood) in India and Pakistan:
On August
11 this year, violent clashes took place in the Indian city of Bangalore
following the appearance of an inflammatory Facebook post on prophet Muhammad
(pbuh). Some Muslims in Bengaluru reportedly provoked by the PFI resorted to
wanton violence in protest against a reported incident of blasphemy against
Prophet Mohammed (pbuh). Later, strict legal action against the perpetrators
were demanded by a few Muslim intellectuals and human rights activists. But no
one among them tried to closely look at the root of the problem. It was
actually inspired by an immediately earlier incident in Pakistan. Khalid
Khan—now increasingly popular as ‘Ghazi Khalid’ in social media across
Indo-Pak— shot dead an American citizen accused in a blasphemy case in a
Pakistani courtroom on July 29, 2020. Thereafter, the anti-blasphemy killer was
instantly turned into an Islamic ‘warrior’ [Ghazi] catapulting from Pakistan to
an Indian Islamist section on social media. Since then, ‘Ghazi Khalid’ is
trending on several Islamic social media groups, particularly in Urdu, to the
extent that he’s become the Facebook display picture of many and virtual rose
petals are being showered on him. A large section of Islamic social media
groups celebrated the anti-blasphemy killer. Some even eulogised him as the
‘real Ertugrul Ghazi’.
The
mainstream Muslims in India and Pakistan strongly believe in Khatm-e-Nabbuwat
(finality of Prophethood) and Tahaffuz-e-Namus-e-Risalat (protecting Prophet’s
dignity). Therefore, they hold that anyone desecrating or claiming Prophethood
is a blasphemer and must be killed. Tellingly, the killed American citizen in
Paksitan Naseem Ahmad had allegedly proclaimed himself to be a Mujaddid
(Islamic reviver) and Mahdi (Messiah).
As a result of similar alleged proclamations, over 62 people have been
killed in Pakistan since 1990, according to a report by Centre for Research and
Security Studies. The textbook example of an anti-blasphemy killer is Mumtaz
Qadri—who killed governor of Punjab in Pakistan Salman Taseer. He continues to
enjoy the status of a Pir (saint) for many Sunni Muslims in India and Pakistan
and his grave is venerated by thousands.
In fact,
the dominant Islamic theology expects Muslims to behave in a violent way when
it comes to defending or protecting the Prophet’s honour being desecrated in
any situation or society. Though the Quran is ambiguous regarding the penalty
for blasphemy, certain hadiths from Sahin al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim (the two
topmost authentic hadith collections) are often quoted to legitimize the
execution of someone known as a ‘blasphemer’. Consequently, common Muslims tend
to lose all rational faculty when Prophet’s dignity (namus-e-risalat) is in
question.
Certainty,
many progressive Muslim scholars have also come up with an alternate
theological interpretation of the related hadith texts which talk of killing an
apostate or blasphemer. They argue that those hadiths should be contextualised
and located in a specific situation in which the alleged apostates as well as
blasphemes had indulged in a ‘sedition’ against the state and thus their
execution was as a traitor rather than as apostate or blasphemer. They
extensively quote from the same hadith collections of authentic reports on how
Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) disapproved of violence against someone who abused or
insulted him. There are numerous stories of how Prophet (pbuh) forgave those
who disparaged him both in Mecca and Medina. However, all these alternate
narrations remain in the textual domain of the modern Islamic scholars. They do
not become part of or the final basis of the consensus theology.
In the
social media as well as in the real world, the Muslim imagination and actions
are largely shaped by the medieval Islamic jurists or the present-day clerics.
Unless they are not confronted with the strong alternative interpretations, the
minds of common Muslims are unlikely to be challenged on the issue of
blasphemy. An entire social ecosystem has developed within a large section of
Islamic community on social media where those who kill a ‘blasphemer’ are
eulogised as ‘Ghazi’. Islamic slogans in Urdu like “Gustakh-e-Rasool Ki Saza
Sar Tan Se Juda” (blasphemer’s punishment, beheading) have been doing the
rounds. Contrast this slogan with the utterances of the Chechin perpetrator of
the Paris beheading and the knife attacker in Nice, France. We never know when
and where such slogans will translate into an act of terror.
As a note
of caution, Indian Muslims must understand this evil design and foil the
present and future attempts of those in India and Pakistan who are constantly
trying to eulogise the murderers like the 18-year-old Chechen Abdullakh Anzorov
who beheaded a teacher in Paris, or the 17-year-old Ghazi Khalid Khan who
murdered an American citizen in Peshawar. Such terror empathisers who turn an
immature and misguided youth into an instant Islamic ‘hero’ are actually the
real culprits who vilify the peaceful atmosphere of a democratic country. Just
ask yourself why PFI or SDPI (Social Democratic Party of India) jumped into the
Bangalore protest and hijacked it? The reason is not difficult to see.
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/radical-islamism-jihad/anti-blasphemy-terrorist-beheadings-nice/d/123305
New
Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism