Destroying Places of Worship of the 'People of The Book' And Burning Their Holy Books Are Also Acts of Blasphemy: Will Pakistan Include This Crime Too in Its Anti- Blasphemy Laws Now?
By
Dr. Mohammad Ghitreef, New Age Islam
22 August
2023
Will Any
Leader, Scholar or Jurist Dare to Call Insulting the Religious Sentiments of
Christians as A Violation of The Law of Blasphemy?
Main
Points:
1. Ulema say that what happened is
wrong, yet the culprits will be rewarded Godly because their intention was
good.
2. 1 Blasphemy laws cover anything from
burning the sacred Bible to destroying churches.
3. Those responsible for the false
accusations must be brought to justice and punished appropriately.
4. Law enforcement agencies are busy
calming down and normalizing the situation.
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Photo: Hindustan Times
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What
happened in Jaranwala town of Faisalabad, Pakistan, is a clear violation of
human rights, minority rights, the law of the land, and an apparent offense
against the most discussed about blasphemy law.
However,
there is no uproar and brouhaha on the part of Muslim religious zealots and
ulema on this point!
Christians
are regarded as Ahle Kitab (people of the book) according to Quran. Quran even
called upon them to a common platform which is the oneness of God common to all
three Abrahamic religions; Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.
قل يا اهل الكتاب تعالو إلى كلمة سواء بيننا وبينكم ان لا نعبد إلاالله ولانشرك به شيئا
Say,’
People of the book, let us come to an agreement: that we shall worship none but
God and that we shall associate no partner with him”. Ale Imran verse:64)
Christians
believe in one God; they believe in Jesus, who is the most reverend prophet in
Quran. They believe in the Holy Bible (the New Testament). Nobody can deny
that. The point is that the existing blasphemy law regards anybody who attacks,
damages, insults, or defiles any sacred book (Quran, the Bible, the Torah (Old
Testament) or desecrates any prophet. (Jesus, Mohammad or Moses et al.) an
offender and committer of a criminal act of blasphemy.
Now what
happened in Jiranwala? An enraged mob led by a hard head semi-illiterate qari
and imam of nearby mosque with the activists of radical TLP, swarmed and
attacked a Christian locality in the morning hour of 16 August in the aftermath
of 14 August celebrations (in Pakistan), setting on fire more than 20 churches,
burning 700 houses, and looting them. What did they do wrong? Salim Masih, a
fourth-grade government employee, and his 12-year-old son are accused of
blasphemy. Ironically, both the boy and his father are illiterate, so who would
be such a fool as to put his picture next to the torn-apart pages of the Quran
and write his address while insulting the Quran? Will the country's system,
which is constitutionally bound to treat everyone equally, be able to identify
the individual who really penned offensive remarks on the Quran's pages before
conspiring to accuse two innocent Christians and incite disturbances in the
town? Clearly, the purpose of the false
accusations was to settle a personal score. As is customary in such situations,
the cops merely watched. If the cops had been quick and attentive, the tragic
incident may have been prevented.
Now some
ulema say that what happened is wrong, yet the culprits will be rewarded Godly
because their intention was good; protection of the prestige of the prophet! What
is the beauty and consistency of their reasoning! Now politicians and ulema are
busy condemning this heinous crime with usual ifs and buts.
Law
enforcement agencies are busy calming down and normalizing the situation. The
government has announced to rebuild of the burned-down churches, but more than
700 victims are left at the mercy of their fate. What about their
rehabilitation? Muslim organizations who are well funded by some Gulf entities
will do something for them or not? Civil society in the country is so weak,
scared, and marginalized.
Surely
there will be many arrests, and surely, all the arrested people will be
exonerated by the courts on the ground of lack of evidence, etc. People will be
back to their routines. And after a while, the same incident will take place in
another area, as the record shows. The vicious cycle will go on without any
hindrance. Ulema and certain intellectuals claim that these tragedies occur
because governments repeatedly fail to prosecute and execute the blasphemers.
After a
protracted trial, governments and the judiciary are obligated to liberate them
since it is impossible to execute someone who was imprisoned on blatantly bogus
charges. Because the clerics seize millions of mosques as their fiefdoms or states
under state where their writ is definitive and the civil government has no say,
mullahs supported by the army are in charge of that world.
Citing
outdated and useless fatwas, they praise the cursed murders like Alamuddin
Mumtaz Qadri and others. Their followers are in millions, and the vast majority
of media hosts and Yu tuber liaisons adhere to these clerics who are busy
building a mindset among the common masses that, in the case of blasphemy,
taking the law in one’s hand and punishing the culprit instantly is not an
offense according to shariah rule. When in every village, a bigoted mullah is
training innocent small children and taking the oath on the slogan: Gustakhe
Nabi Ki Aik Saza Ser Tan Se Juda Ser
Tan Se Juda. How can things be changed?
In the
religiously fervent current situations of Pakistan, wherein it is a commonplace
fact that an accused of blasphemy is the most hated person, who will be
deprived of all human rights, who will not find any legal help, the judge will
be scared to conduct a fair and free trial in his case and deliver a just
verdict, one who commits such crime must be mad!
The clerics
and religious zealots must think about their double standard if they are in
their senses and have an iota of conscience and reason. How can they raise a
voice of protest on the burning of the Quran in Sweden or elsewhere when they
are mobilizing unruly mobs that are setting churches on fire and burning the
sacred Bible?
Justice
Qazi Faiz Isa, who will be the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan
in less than a month, visited the Christian locality of Jaranwala along with
his wife on 20.082023, inspected the damaged houses and expressed solidarity
with the victims. On the occasion, he also took food packets to the homes and
people who lost all resources in the tragedy and admitted that this donation is
like a drop in the ocean and more needs to be done for the victims.
In fact, he
set very good example yet the question is why politicians and even the MNA of
the area were not able to visit the affected colony and try to heal the wounds
of the victims?
We Indian
Muslims frequently have real concerns about how unfairly and unjustly our
police, national media, and political parties treat the Muslim minority. Muslim
nations like Pakistan must consider how ethically they can defend the human
rights of Kashmiris or Muslim minorities in India if they fail to care for
their own minorities, including Christians, Hindus, and Ahmadis.
Several
churches were destroyed in Jaranwala and during this time several copies of the
Bible were desecrated. If the country's justice system is the same for
everyone, will the police be directed to institute blasphemy cases against all
the people involved in this riot, if blasphemy is a crime, then all the rioters
of Jaranwala were involved in this crime. Will any leader, scholar or jurist
dare to call insulting the religious sentiments of Christians as a violation of
the law of blasphemy as they generally do when comes to Muslim sentiments and
move the system accordingly?
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A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Dr.
Mohammad Ghitreef is a Research Associate with the Centre for Promotion of
Educational and Cultural Advancement of Muslims of India, AMU Aligarh.
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