Pakistan Lynching: Muslims Should Call Out Their Own Theology
By
Arshad Alam, New Age Islam
18 February
2023
Without Making
Parts of Our Theology Redundant, This Problem Will Not Go Away
Main
Points:
1. Another man
was lynched in Pakistan, this time for desecrating the Quran
2. Nearly 89
people have been killed in this fashion till last year
3. Those who
argue that this is not about Islam are part of the problem; they should be
called enablers of such incidents
4. Only by
accepting that our theology sanctions such killings will we be able to do
something about it
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A mob stormed the Nankana Sahib Police station, dragged man accused of
blasphemy, and lynched him. (Screengrab)
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As I
watched the video of the Pakistani man lynched few days ago, I could not but
come to the painful realization that something is rotten in that society. A
man, beaten to death, dragged through the streets and then set on fire seems to
be a page out of medieval punishment. The horrific images though are from this
year; the man being punished in this brutal fashion is accused of blasphemy, a
term which can be stretched to include almost anything and everything with some
imaginative interpretation. Blasphemy is punishable with death in Pakistan, as
it is in many other Muslim countries of the world. According to the Centre for
Research and Security Studies, a Pakistani think tank, 18 women and 71 men were
killed extra-judicially over accusations of blasphemy till last year. A
majority of such cases have come from Punjab, where the Barelvis have made
blasphemy into a political issue. If anyone is still under the illusion that
Barelwis are moderate, they should just see what they are doing in many parts
of the world.
Only last
week, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan had released a report underlining
an alarming increase of cases related to blasphemy. Despite similar reports
arguing that in most cases, the accusation is the result of personal vendetta,
very little has been done in order to raise the bar of evidence regarding
blasphemy related cases.
Even if the
report’s suggestion is implemented and the bar is raised, it will do little to
curb the menace of public lynchings. Ordinary Pakistanis seem to be convinced
that if the accused goes through a legal trial, then he or she might be let
off. And indeed, this has been the case; many accused of blasphemy have been
let off by the courts for lack of evidence. It appears that for the ordinary
people of Pakistan, the legal process does not matter at all. An accusation of
blasphemy is enough for these people to pounce on the victim and rob him of his
dignity, human rights and even his life. Asiya Bibi was lucky that her case
went to court and received international attention; eventually she was freed.
The Sri Lankan Hindu, Priyantha, was not so fortunate. His own workers killed
him and consigned his body to flames.
This case
was no different. Muhammad Waris, a man in his thirties, was accused of
desecrating the Quran. He was taken into police custody but a murderous mob
kidnapped him from there, killed him and set his body on fire. Any analysis
which understands this problem as a failure of the Pakistani police to
implement the rule of law is simply bogus. This is a clear case of majoritarian
will being imposed on state institutions, as it happens in other South Asian
countries. We need to understand that even those police personnel who were
supposed to protect the victim, are themselves part of the Islamic system.
Hence, their action or inaction should be understood in the context of
increasing Islamic fanaticism in Pakistan.
The video
is extremely gory to say the least. What is most problematic is the
participation of local population in this act of religious lynching. It is as
if everyone wants to have a share of the piety, each one present there is
convinced that killing this man was an act of supreme devotion to Allah. This
is a generation which has been fed on a kind of Islamic education which
transforms people into unthinking robots. Worse, they were acting like zombies,
devoid of a soul, very much like the undead. As if they have been emptied of
all their rational faculties and they are just following the orders of someone
who is whispering into their heads. One can see even children participating in
this religious frenzy. One shudders to think what kind of adults they will
become and what kind of citizenry Pakistan is going to eventually get.
Sorry to
say, but in the civilized world, this no longer happens. In many ways, medieval
Europe was as brutal, but as a collectivity, today they see such things with
righteous indignation. What differentiate the Europeans from us is precisely
that they have moved beyond religion. Religion is no longer a cradle to the
grave arrangement for them. In conducting their daily lives, they have made
religion largely redundant and irrelevant. For an average Muslim though, this
is far from comprehensible. We are yet to evolve intellectually in order to
realize that one can lead perfectly normal live without the aid of any
religion.
Also, as a
community we are intellectually dishonest because we are still in denial of the
effects of giving so much power to Islam over our lives. How else should we
understand the claim, after every such brutal incident, that this is not Islam;
those indulging in such behavior do not understand the true meaning of this
religion. We are being told, almost on a loop, that Islam is about peace and
tolerance. This is pure nonsense. And pure hypocrisy. Religions talk of peace
but they also talk of violence; Islam is no different. Those burning the body
of Muhammad Waris were Muslims and they were doing this they believe that it
was the right thing to do according to the precepts of Islam. They burnt his
body because it is also part of Muslim belief that by doing so, a person will
be condemned to hellfire for all eternity.
There is a
long history of killing for blasphemy in the Muslim world and it starts with
the prophet of Islam himself. According to narrations within Islamic
traditions, Muhammad ordered the killing of some who had disparaged against him.
For this reason, he even forgave a Muslim who killed his pregnant slave because
she had disrespected the prophet. Islam in many ways is about following the
prophet; if Muhammad himself sanctioned these killings, are we in any position
to say that this is un-Islamic? It might have been a matter of contention if
these records were not part of our tradition. The fact remains that our most
hallowed Ulama have recorded these narrations and now they are part of Islamic
theology. And that’s why there is consensus that anyone who disparages Islam
must be killed.
Islam is
therefore fundamentally implicated in any blasphemy related killing. Muslims
would do well not to escape this discussion. It is only through an acceptance
that this is a problem within our society that we can do something about it. As
Muslims, we must declare unanimously that such proclamations do not apply to us
any longer.
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A regular contributor to NewAgeIslam.com, Arshad
Alam is a writer and researcher on Islam and Muslims in South Asia.
URL: https://newageislam.com/radical-islamism-jihad/pakistan-lynching-muslims-theology/d/129138
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