Pakistan: Female Madrasa Teacher Killed for Blasphemy; Muslims must discard the theology behind anti-Blasphemy laws in several countries
By Arshad Alam, New Age Islam
31 March 2022
Till The Time Blasphemy Is On the Statute, Such Killings
Will Continue
Main Points:
1.
A female madrasa
teacher in Pakistan was killed by her colleagues over accusations of blasphemy.
2.
The accused were
told in someone else’s dream that the victim had to be ritually slaughtered.
3.
There were doctrinal
differences between the victim and the accused, although the precise nature of
this difference is not known yet.
4.
Not just Pakistan
but the whole Muslim world should resolve to abrogate the theology of
blasphemy.
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(Representational
Photo)
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A 17-year-old female madrasa teacher in Pakistan was killed
for blasphemy by three of her colleagues. The incident occurred in Dera Ismail
Khan District, known for its regressive religious mores and values. The three
accused have told the police that one of her relatives, a minor, saw in her
dream that the victim committed blasphemy and that in the same dream, Prophet
Muhammad ordered to kill her. The very next day, these three teachers slit the
throat of the victim and left her to die. The accused and the victim all teach
at the local madrasa called Jamia Islamia Falahul Banat.
This is not the first case of blasphemy killing in the
Islamic emirate of Pakistan, nor will it be the last. But what is certainly
novel is the use of dream to justify an act of religious murder. Dreams have
been used for other purposes like seeking political legitimacy or even climbing
up the caste ladder, but using it to commit murder may possibly be the first.
It is troubling that the girl who was killed was a minor and hence should have
been handled differently even if there was a proven case of blasphemy against
her. What is also troubling is that the accused, one of whom is a minor, are
all of young age which tells us the extent to which religious extremism had
satiated Muslim minds.
Every time such a horrendous incident happens, Islamist
apologists line up to defend blasphemy laws by arguing that the motive behind
such murders are mostly personal and hence have nothing to do with Islam. By
all standards, this is a religious killing. The accused were told in someone
else’s dream that the victim had to be ritually slaughtered. And they certainly
did so, obeying what they thought was the command of the Prophet. Slaughtering
is perhaps the most favored method of Islamic terrorists the world over.
Whether it is ISIS in West Asia or in Europe, they have all ended up
slaughtering their victims and have publicized it as an Islamic punishment. In
this case also, it was the accused who told the police about their gruesome
act. In other words, they were publicly proclaiming that they had killed the
blasphemer as an act of religious obligation. In their minds, this was an act
of supreme piety, fulfilling a command from the Prophet himself. Those in
denial that Islam has a problem at its hands must now wake up as even women are
now becoming active agents in this maddening rush to slaughter deviants.
The reports suggest that the victim was a follower of
Maulana Tariq Jameel, a well-known Islamic preacher in Pakistan. Differences of
opinion on religious issues led to the accusations of blasphemy which
ultimately led to this murder. It might be possible that these were doctrinal
differences but that such differences should lead to murder is hardly
surprising. After all, haven’t our Ulama have been at each other’s throat over
allegations of blasphemy and kufr since the establishment of Islam? More
recently, in the South Asian context, differences between Shias and Sunnis have
led to bombs being exploded at mosques. The Ahmadis have been forced not to
call themselves as Muslims by the dominant majority. Within Sunnis, the rivalry
between the Barelvis, Deobandis and Ahle Hadees have not just led to fatwas of
Kufr against each other but also violent dismembering of each other’s bodies
and sacred spaces. Why does it shock us when these girls exhibit the same
violent behaviour over theological differences? After all, the first apostasy
wars were led by the first caliph Abu Bakr which is hailed as an exercise which
saved Islam from its doom. If the foundation of Islam is based doctrinal
violence, why blame contemporary Muslims, who are just emulating their
religious heroes?
Certainly, condemnations of the killing have come from all
quarters including the Wafaq e Madaris, the apex body of madrasa education in
Pakistan. But clearly there is much more that needs to be done. The Pakistan
religious establishment has to sit up and take notice at what is being done to
Islam in the name of blasphemy. And it is not just the religious clerics who
are responsible for this; the Pakistani establishment is perhaps more to blame
for this mess. Despite so many killings over blasphemy, including some from the
political fraternity, neither the military nor the political establishment has
had the courage to speak up against it. If they think that it will not reach
them, they are sadly mistaken. The killings have touched the poor as well as
rich and politically connected. Till the time blasphemy remains on the statute
books, there will be no viable solution to this religious problem. The Pakistan
establishment has earned some praise in their effort to launch an effective
counter-terrorism operation. But the gains seem to be washed away by the
growing internal extremism which has singed all sections of the Pakistani
population.
At the larger level, this is not just an issue for Pakistan
but for the whole of the Muslim world. At a time when other religions have
internalized modern notions of democracy, pluralism and dissent, Islam
continues to be defined for its penchant for killing blasphemers and apostates.
If today, people have begun arguing that Islam cannot be reformed, it is thanks
to Islamic percepts that sanctions killing in the name of ‘protecting’ religion.
Muslims are prone to accuse others of Islamophobia, but they do very little to
dispel such thought through their actions. Ultimately, it is upon the Muslims
themselves to come out in large numbers and say loud and clear that blasphemy
and all its related theology need to be abrogated wholesale.
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A regular contributor to NewAgeIslam.com, Arshad Alam is
a writer and researcher on Islam and Muslims in South Asia.