Blasphemy Law aka the Joke
Over the past week, a very famous Pakistani pop-star-turned-televangelist, Junaid Jamshed, found himself to be in some serious hot water after making what is being perceived as a blasphemous comment. There has been outrage from Muslims across Pakistan and the leader of the Sunni Tehreek, Mohammad Mobin Qadri, has demanded Jamshed’s head on a platter (not literally, but pretty close). To say that these people are being totally inappropriate and extreme in their mannerisms wouldn’t be unfair but here’s a curveball, the blasphemy laws in Pakistan allows them to do just that without coming across unreasonable or from my point of view, as downright ridiculous.
For those unfamiliar with the concept of blasphemy, let me first shed some light on the matter. Blasphemy is construed to be an act of insulting and showing contempt to a religion or holy persons or towards something deemed to be sacred. In short, blasphemy is to be disrespectful or speaking ill towards a religion. All major religions, be it Islam, Christianity or Judaism have condemned blasphemy as an eternal sin.
Let me, however, point out that the Holy Quran (Islam) has not identified a worldly punishment for a blasphemous act, whereas, the Christians and Jewish equivalent, Leviticus, has called for a death sentence for anyone convicted of blasphemy. So, on paper (literally), Christianity and Judaism are a lot stricter towards acts of blasphemy when compared to the Islamic stance. And yet, somehow, over 130 non-Muslim countries have no laws against blasphemy while all the major Muslim majority states have blasphemy laws in place. Let me provide more perspective here; the last time anyone was sentenced to death in the United Kingdom for a blasphemous act was in 1697 and here in Pakistan, we are ever ready to announce death sentences for acts of blasphemy. This just goes on to show that we Pakistanis, as a society, are still very much operating in the 16th century. It didn’t help that Zia-ul-Haq, through his Islamization process, broadened the horizon of these laws to make them even more widely implementable and not to mention, stringent.
It goes without saying that I firmly stand against the Pakistani laws against blasphemy. According to Pakistan’s Penal Code, the acts of blasphemy are punishable ranging anywhere from imprisonment to death penalty. Having looked at the Penal Code in more detail than I wanted to, I discovered that it isn’t a matter of if a blasphemous act is committed; it is rather just a matter of time when it’s committed. Going by how broad the blasphemy law is, I could probably get convicted of blasphemy most days. In my case, it is just a matter of when a nut-job reports my actions.
My opposition to the blasphemy law stems from three-fold cause of concern.
Freedom of Speech and Expression
I firmly believe that the law infringes my and everyone else’s right to freedom of speech and freedom of expression. In a country where the government brags that media has the full freedom and liberty when it comes to reporting, they still resist reporting on matters relating to blasphemy. A perfect case in point is the Junaid Jamshed incident where he was caught making blasphemous remarks (just for the sake of pointing it out, those remarks were very offensive to women — ironic that he has such a problem with women but doesn’t mind making tons of money off them through his clothing line) and how the media under-reported the incident. The story actually gained traction through social media. It was a classic case of ‘damned if you do and damned if you don’t’ because there was a no-win situation for the media. If they came out strongly against Junaid Jamshed, the risked coming across as opportunistic, ignorant and petty. On the other hand, if they downplayed the incident, they risked being targeted by extremist wing of the Muslim community.
The GEO Network (the biggest television in Pakistan) paid a very hefty price after having been caught in a blasphemous act involving a popular morning talk show host, Shahista Wahidi (Pakistan’s Ellen De Generes, if you will). The network was under complete shutdown for months as cable operators across Pakistan refused to carry the channel on their networks. After months of exile, when a leading cable operator, World Call, announced, it would allow GEO to be back on their network, the cable operator’s Karachi HQ came under attack and as a result, they decided to remove GEO from their entire network immediately. It took around 6 months for a media giant, GEO Network, to get back to their feet after being derailed by a blasphemous incident.
See, I am in no way advocating that freedom of speech gives anyone the right to disparage any religion, be it Islam or Judaism. There is an absolute need for people to be respectful of others’ religions and there are humane ways of expressing fairness if others aren’t being respectful to one’s sacred beliefs. If people are angry with Junaid Jamshed over his ‘alleged’ blasphemous comment, then they could boycott his clothing line; similarly, if people were mad at Shahista Wahidi for her disrespectful actions towards Islam, then perhaps stop watching her damn show. I mean, no one is forcing people to buy Junaid Jamshed and watch Shahista Wahidi. But, those are just and democratic means of expressing one’s anger. To convict them of blasphemy and give them a prison sentence or a death penalty is not the way to go.
When the Danish cartoonist drew the Prophet’s cartoon, I wasn’t really offended because I don’t really care what a Danish cartoonist draws (I think we made the Danish cartoonist famous across the world by giving more attention than he deserved). But, a lot of people cared and to express their anger, they boycotted Danish products. That is essentially a means of peaceful protest while not coming across totally barbaric and ignorant (while I do maintain that the death threats to the cartoonist were totally out of order and should not be encouraged).
We are in such an extreme society that people who’re in power are scared to speak out against blasphemy laws and those who have done like Salman Taseer (former Governor of Punjab) and Shahbaz Bhatti (former Federal Minister of Minorities) have to be spoken about in past tense.
Our blasphemy laws have made a total mockery of ourselves, our nation and our religion by portraying us as ignorant, barbaric and stuck in the 16th century. In order for us to claim Pakistan a tolerant country and a true democracy, we ought to buy into a very important aspect of it, free speech. People should be allowed to express their opinions, even if they are misguided viewpoints; we have to rise beyond those viewpoints and move past it with grace and humility. Because remember, how we treat others builds a perception of acceptance and openness to people who might not think along the same lines as us. In the end, perception becomes reality and an accepting and polite reality has the potential to serve us Pakistanis and Muslims well.
Unfair to Minorities
Over the past two decades, there have been over a thousand convictions under the umbrella of blasphemy laws and more than half of those convictions have been handed to minority citizens. Let me put this in perspective — Pakistan’s minorities comprise of less than 3% of the overall population and yet, they’ve been convicted to over 50% of the sentences handed out for blasphemy. Yes, I’m sure some of the people would be thinking that of course, Muslims aren’t going to be disparaging their own religion and so, their likelihood of being convicted is less (they aren’t non-existent though; Salman Rushdie’s conviction shows that Muslims aren’t immune to the law). But, here’s a catch, the blasphemy laws in Pakistan and other countries, apply to all faiths and not just Islam. So, under our blasphemy law, a Muslim cannot legally say anything against Christians or Jews or any religion for that matter.
Let’s face it, Muslims in Pakistan are nowhere near tolerant enough to not have misguided views regarding Christianity, Hinduism or Judaism. The only difference is that they are not convicted of their actions. I could name people who’ve spewed garbage about other religions in public and yet, somehow, they continue to be a part of our society as if they have done nothing wrong. Hell, half of the Friday sermons in mosques across Pakistan contain some sort of hate speech towards the Jews or Christians or Hindus. In my world of free speech, all those people are entitled to say what they feel they want to say, but we are not in my world of free speech; we are, instead, in a land where blasphemy laws exist and yet, somehow, not enough Muslims are convicted. If that is not unfairness and double standards, then I don’t know what it.
The truth of the matter is, I know what it is like to be a minority; it can be very isolating and it can encompass one with a feeling of seclusion. But, what got me through my years in England as a minority was how well they treated me. The Brits treated me and my beliefs with utmost respect and in spite of the beliefs I held, they made me feel welcome and made me feel like I was home. I think that is the same sort of courtesy we owe our minorities. Instead of marginalizing them with petty blasphemy laws, we ought to accept them and their beliefs. The idea should be to make them feel part of the 100% of Pakistan rather than the 3% of the minority status that they currently hold claim to. A repeal of our blasphemy laws isn’t going to make that happen but, it sure will be a one very positive step in that direction.
Islam is a Religion of Forgiveness
If you ask the world, they’ll tell you that Islam is a religion of violence and extremism. But, that is perception and not reality. The reality is that Islam is a religion of forgiveness and it preaches peacefulness. The only reason it doesn’t look it is not just because of the terrorism issues that the Islamic faith has faced over the past couple decades; it is because everywhere you see Islam, there is always some sort of violence going around. Yes, the war on terrorism is one side of the story. But, there’s the other side where Muslims are always outraged. Some times its because Asia Bibi said something blasphemous (I believe she is totally innocent and support her cause publicly) or the Danish cartoonist drew Prophet Mohammad or Innocence of Muslims was not blocked on YouTube or French banning the hijab (I am against that but I also believe Muslims have no right for outrage as they’ve banned women from wearing “indecent” clothing too). I strongly believe that Muslims across the board have lost all those wars because we only made ourselves look bad and caused disruptions (in most cases, violent disruptions) for ourselves only.
How will the world ever see a forgiving side of Islam, if we’re just not ready to forgive people for instances that don’t even directly affect us? As per Islam’s definition, blasphemy is an eternal sin; one that a person will be punished for by Allah himself in the afterlife. There is a reason why Allah doesn’t specify a worldly punishment for blasphemy in the Holy Quran. If the Almighty wants to forgive it, then that is between him and the person committing the sin. Why does the entire Muslim fraternity need to step in?
Yes, if the sin is committed towards anyone other than Allah, then the forgiveness has to come from that certain individual and not Allah. Therefore, if someone disparages the Prophet Mohammad, then it is a matter of forgiveness from the Holy Prophet. The Muslim clerics claim that since the Prophet is not alive and could not forgive the individual, it is their civic duty to take the matters into their own hands and hand out a death penalty. I find that logic to be a total sham and one without logic. I am of the belief that under that situation, the circumstance has to go through a ‘What Would the Prophet Do?’ test. Knowing how the Holy Prophet conducted his life out, it would be no surprise that he’d forgive an individual for a crime they have committed against him. Remember, this is a man who was stoned in Taif by disbelievers so much that blood was pouring out of his shoes; when he returned to Taif after having taken over the reins of the town, he didn’t lay a finger on anyone who treated him with disrespect.
It is this kind of forgiveness which is the essence of Islam. By acquitting people of blasphemy, we’re taking this essence away and making our religion promote hatred towards people who don’t hold the same views as we do. It was this message of peace, acceptance and forgiveness what attracted people towards Islam back in the day. Today, none of those qualities hold true. It is no wonder why people across the world look at Muslims with suspicion and fear because that is how we’ve portrayed ourselves lately.
In order to get to that same Islamic glory from back in the day and make sure Pakistan achieves some sort of normalcy and decency, we need to fix the perception that people hold of us; because, perception becomes reality. A small step towards fixing that perception would be to repeal our blasphemy laws. These laws go against everything Islam stands for, be it the message of forgiveness or protection of the minorities. If someone disrespects our religion or holy person, the Muslims should know that the Almighty take care of it himself. And if we do have an urge to show our displeasure, there are peaceful and more effective means of doing so than charging individuals of blasphemy.
At present, our blasphemy laws are a total joke and so, I, in good conscience, could not and will not stand by them.
