Is criticizing Blasphemy Law a Blasphemy?

Watching thousands of people including Ulmaas (religious scholars), political and religious leaders in funeral of Mumtaz Qadri has made so many of us confused. Mumtaz Qadri was hanged on Feb 29th, 2016 for committing the crime of killing sitting Governor Punjab Salman Taseer on January 4th, 2011 in Islamabad. The society is divided between Pro-Qadri or Anti-Qadri stance. A large number of people think Qadri is a hero and Shaheed while others believe he committed a crime and he deserved this punishment. Lets go back in history and try to find out the answers of few key questions on this issue.

According to the supporters of Mumtaz Qadri which include religious ulmaas too, Salman Taseer committed the blasphemy of Prophet PBUH, he deserved this treatment and Mumtaz Qadri by killing him fulfilled his religious duty for which he is Shaheed and hero of Islamic Ummah. Now lets try to find out if Salman Taseer really committed blasphemy and even if he did was it justified to kill him like this?

This all started with Salman Taseer raised his voice in support of Asia Bibi, a Christian who was being trialed for blasphemy and trial was moving towards a death penalty for her. She was being trialed under article 295-C of Pakistan Penal Code which reads:

Use of derogatory remarks, etc., in respect of the Holy Prophet:

Whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representation or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly, defiles the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine.

Salman Taseer started his campaign against blasphemy law and more specifically article 295-C in Pakistan Penal Code which ironically comes from British Penal Code of 1860 which Lord Macaulay got drafted on behalf Govt of India. At first, article 295-C suggested life imprisonment or death penalty for anyone commits the crime but in 1991 Federal Sharia Court removed the option of life imprisonment and suggested fixed death penalty. Salman Taseer termed Blasphemy Law written in PPC as Black Law and this became the reason of a big campaign against him on print, electronic and social media mostly carried out by those who did not even know what PPC is and what Blasphemy Law states?

Religious scholars started bashing Salman Taseer almost everywhere declaring him Gustakh-e-Rasool (SAW), Murtid (one who retracts from Islam), Agent of US and Israel and countless other blames. This flamed the emotions of general public. People started rallying against him and even though he explained so many times on media about his stance, one morning he was killed by his own guard.

Now the question arises; Is calling any law written in Pakistan Penal Code a blasphemy? Is pointing towards weaknesses in our justice system a blasphemy? Should someone be killed if he asks a law written in PPC to be amended because it is being misused widely specially against religious minorities by powerful segment of society? The answer is simple, big, NO. Criticizing any law written in PPC is not a blasphemy. And this instance was stamped by none other Supreme Court of Pakistan

Criticising blasphemy law not blasphemous: Justice Khosa

It is a fact that no verse in Quran and no authentic Hadith of Prophet (PBUH) points towards death penalty for anyone who commits blasphemy. Therefore we would have to move towards opinion from Fiqah. The greatest Imam of Fiqah Hanifia, Imam Abu Hanifa at various places established that the ‘blasphemers who ask for a pardon would be spared the death penalty’. Imam Ibn-e-Abidin also discussed about blasphemy being pardonable offense in his book (Radd al Muhtar ala al-Dur al Mukhtar).

‘If a dhimmi (non-Muslim) insults the Holy Prophet, he will not be killed as punishment. A non-Muslim is not killed for his kufr (denying the Prophet) or shirk (polytheistic beliefs). Kufr/Shirk are bigger sins then sabb e rasool. — (Therefore non-Muslims will not be killed for sabb e rasool.)’ [Al Saif al Maslool]

Another weakness in blasphemy law is of no mention about the distinction between Muslims and Non-Muslims. There is a fatwa by over 450 Ulmaas of sub-continent which was published in Fath-al-Mubeen declaring that non-Muslims can not be killed blasphemy. The same was suggested by another great scholar Maulana Maudidi which happens to be a founder of one of the biggest religious parties of Pakistan; Jamat-e-Islami.

There is also no mentioning in the law that if someone committed blasphemy repeatedly or was it a single offense. Whether there was consent and will involved or was it a mistakenly act or whether the act of blasphemy was religiously motivated or politically moved.

In the case of Asia Bibi, according to the details she is not guilty of multiple offense of blasphemy, moreover she has also begged pardon multiple times before court. We have seen above that if this case had been presented before scholars like of Imam Abu Hanifa, Mualana Abdur Rasheed Gangohi, Maulana Ahmed Raza Khan Barelvi, Maualana Maudidi, etc; they would never have given death penalty to Asia Bibi.

Now ask yourselves whether or not this blasphemy act is debatable and has capacity of improvement and whether or not this law is used against religious minorities specially in suppressed areas? And whether asking for this law to be amended is a Blasphemous Act?

If you answer is still yes, then according to the fatwa of Jamia Binoria, one never has to take law in his/her own hand and take matter before court and lets courts decide about it.

Qadri was being paid to protect Salmad Taseer. He was on duty. If he believed Salman Taseer was doing blasphemy, he should have first resigned from his job, asked to apology from Salman Taseer, taken him to court and let courts decide his fate. If we allow anyone like Qadri to become Judge, Jury and Execution himself, then we definitely are inviting anarchy to hit our society.

Calling any law in Pakistan Penal Code is not a blasphemous act. And no one has any right to take law in their own hands when we have a justice system in Pakistan. If your answer is that our justice system is corrupt that is why this murder is justified, then you are also doing a blasphemy because our justice system also has that article 295-C which Salman Taseer was criticizing. May Allah guide us.

P.C: The facts mentioned in this article have mostly been taken from the research work by Arafat Mazhar, founder of Engage. He has done some great work on this topic and has also published a detailed five series of columns in Dawn