Blasphemy

A delicate moment

A DUBIOUS character of unclear nationality makes a highly offensive film about Islam and Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in the US. With the help of others who, based on the available footage, had little purpose beyond tastelessly mocking the religion, a portion of it reaches the Arab world on the Internet. Understandably, in a part of the world where many are protective of their faith above all else, these clips spark deep offence. And the protests that follow once again feed into the false and destabilising impression that there is a war between civilisations, raising questions about whether Muslim countries and the West can survive peacefully alongside each other in an increasingly globalised world. The reality is, though, that controversies such as the one over this film or the Danish cartoons or the Quran-burning in Texas are not in fact conflicts between monolithic concepts of ‘Islam’ and ‘the West’. Nor are they attempts by certain countries or governments to destablise others. They are storms brewed by small numbers of incendiary, irresponsible people with little regard for global sensitivities or the consequences their actions can have.

The best way to respond to such actions is to ignore them or to protest peacefully, and that is where

the reaction to the film clips in some Muslim countries could have been different. Attacking American

missions and their innocent employees holds a government responsible for the actions of

independent actors. It chooses violence over the rule of law. And it works against Muslims

themselves, strengthening the paranoid impression that has developed around the world that they

harbour a deep and dangerous hatred of all things non-Muslim. Responding violently to the creations

of fringe elements simply feeds into the false impressions of Islam these elements believe in and are

trying to perpetuate.

But in the days to come it is not just violence, but politics and diplomacy that will also be at stake.

How this plays out will in part depend on how the issue is handled by America and Egypt, where the

president is trying to balance the country’s newly won democracy with his obligations to the outside

world. The US-backed Arab Spring has, as a natural consequence of increased freedom, given more

space to religious conservatives. The way to tackle this increased complexity is for America to

honour sensitivities in the Muslim world and for Muslim countries to keep violence in check. Neither

can afford to let democracy in the region, or relations between America and Muslim countries, be

held hostage to the actions of a group of reckless and insensitive film-makers

Pakistan’s blasphemy law ‘vaguely formulated and arbitrarily enforced’

GENEVA: With Muslim leaders in many countries calling for a global law barring what they call insults to Islam, the main non-Catholic world Christian grouping on Monday said just such a law in Pakistan is used to persecute other religions.

Pakistan’s “Blasphemy Law” has driven the country’s religious minorities – Christians, Hindus and

Ahmadis, a dissenting Islamic group – into “a state of fear and terror”, said the World Council of

Churches (WCC), organisers of a 3-day conference on the law.

“The Blasphemy Law, while purporting to protect Islam and religious sensitivities of the Muslim

majority, is vaguely formulated and arbitrarily enforced by the police and judiciary in a way which

amounts to harassment and persecution,” the WCC said in a position paper.

Pakistani religious figures from those minorities told the conference in Geneva that the law had led

to false imprisonment, mob killings and compulsory conversion to Islam.

A Christian girl believed to be no older than 14, Rimsha Masih, was granted bail in Pakistan earlier

this month and her lawyers are applying to have charges that she burned pages from the Koran

dismissed after a local cleric was detained on suspicion of planting false evidence to stir resentment

against Christians.

Masih’s case has provoked international concern as she could face execution under the blasphemy

law despite her young age and reported mental problems.

The Geneva conference, set up several weeks ago, comes amid protests by Muslims across the

globe over a film posted on the Internet some two months ago which imams have told their followers

insults both the Prophet Mohammad and Islam.

Several protesters have died, and four U.S. diplomats, including the ambassador to Libya, were

killed in an attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi in an echo of earlier violent protests over books

and cartoons published in the West.

Amid the violence, Muslim religious leaders, and one prime minister, have called for an international

legal agreement to criminalise any insult to Islam and other religions, their holy books and their

prophets.

A global law along these lines with the imprimatur of the United Nations was sought for many years

by the 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) at the U.N. Human Rights Council, now

meeting in Geneva.

Every year for more than a decade until 2010 the council, where Pakistan is OIC spokesman, or its

predecessor committee, as well as the UN General Assembly, passed majority resolutions on

resolutions proposed by the Islamic grouping.

But these were not converted into international agreement because of fierce opposition from the

United States, European and some Latin American countries, who argued it would violate free

speech and the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Following diplomatic negotiations spearheaded by the United States when the administration of

President Barack Obama brought it into the council and support for the project waned, the OIC

dropped its campaign two years ago.

“It certainly looks as though they (the OIC) might aim to use this furore over a video everyone

recognises is stupid and pathetic to try to re-launch the ‘defamation’ campaign,” said one Western

diplomat who asked not to be named.

Opponents of any such law say that even without it, Muslim communities in many non-Islamic

countries manage to convince authorities to bend to their demands for banning or shelving literary or

other works dealing with Islam.

Last week it was reported in Britain that a television programme by British prize-winning historian

Tom Holland based on his recent book on the early centuries of Islam had been withdrawn following

threats and protests by Muslims.

In a related development, another book was published in Britain on Monday by author Salman

Rushdie on his experiences after Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989 put a price on

his head over “blasphemy” against Islam in a novel.

At the weekend, an Iranian religious foundation announced it was increasing the reward for killing

the Indian-born Rushdie to $3.3 million, the Iranian Students News Agency ISNA said.

Timeline: Accused under the Blasphemy LawDAWN.COM | 15 hours ago

       2

An estimated number of 1,274 people have been charged under the stringent blasphemy laws of Pakistan between 1986, from when they were included in the Constitution by General Zia ul Haq, until 2010.

Pakistan’s Penal Code Section dates back to pre-partition India when it was introduced in 1860.

Section 295, better known as the Blasphemy Law, deals with religious offences and was meant

to prevent religious violence. Prior to 1986, only 14 cases pertaining to blasphemy were reported.

The blasphemy laws include a death penalty for the defamation of the Holy Prophet and life

imprisonment for the desecration of the Holy Quran.

According to sources, 51 people accused of blasphemy were murdered before their

respective trials were over. However, the death sentence has never been implemented.

1990:

Tahir Iqbal, a Christian convert from Islam and resident of Lahore, was accused of abusing Prophet

Mohammad at the time of Azaan and imparting anti-Islamic education to children he tutored.

Iqbal was an engineer with the Pakistan Air Force before being paralysed and used a wheelchair. He

lived near a mosque in Lahore and his change in religious affiliation had annoyed many. So much,

that the local cleric accused him of abusing the Holy Prophet during azaan.

The case registered against him accused him of abusing the Holy Prophet, imparting anti-

Islamic education to children who came to him for tuition and defiling the Holy Quran by underlining it

with a green marker.

Iqbal was denied bail due to a misinterpretation of the PPC by a sessions court judge on the basis of

his conversion and “since conversion from Islam into Christianity is itself a cognizable offence

involving serious implications, hence I do not consider the petitioner entitled to the concession of bail

at this stage.”

However, the PPC does not recognise conversion as a recognisable offence. Even though his health

condition had been certified by a medical officer, it did not have any affect on the court’s decision

and he died in jail after allegedly being poisoned in July 1992.

1991:

Chand Barkat, 28, a bangle stall holder in Karachi, was accused of blasphemy by another bangle

vendor, Arif Hussain, because of professional jealousy.

Barkat was denied bail for 15 months even though six Muslim witnesses had said in court that they

had no proof he had committed blasphemy. He was finally acquitted in 1993 but had to go into hiding

due to harassment by Muslim neighbours. According to reports, the accuser formed a group that

wanted to kill Barkat after his acquittal which forced him to leave Karachi and go into hiding.

**

Gul Masih, a eunuch from Faisalabad, was charged for using sacrilegious language about

the Prophet and his wives. The complainant was Gul’s neighbor Sajjad Hussain who had a quarrel

with him over the repair of a street water tap.

However, reports suggest that the two resolved the matter on the same day and the complaint was

filed a few days later based on political motives. In an interview, Hussain denies that the matter had

been resolved.

Gul and his brother Bashir were arrested on charges of blasphemy but Bashir was released due to

lack of evidence against him and after villagers went to the police station to protest the innocence of

the Masih family. In court, out of three eye witnesses, only the complainant accused Gul of

blasphemy while the other two denied that they had heard or seen him do anything blasphemous.

AFP (File Photo)

Despite that, judge Talib Hussain Baloch sentenced him to death in 1992, making his case the first

in Pakistan where the accused was put on death row. Baloch said in his judgement, “since Sajjad

Hussain (the accuser) is a young man of 21, a student of B.A. and a true Muslim with a beard on his

face and a good outlook, I find no reason to disbelieve him.”

Bashir was unable to find a job after this incident and reports say that Gul was tortured in prison. He

was eventually acquitted but had to seek asylum in Germany.

1992:Eighty-year-old philanthropist, Akhtar Hamid Khan, a Muslim, was arrested for allegedly committing blasphemy during an interview with an Indian journalist. Later, Khan was arrested

again for blasphemy because he wrote a children’s poem that was interpreted as insulting the

Prophet and his family.

Khan was a prominent social activist accredited with the Orangi Pilot Project and recipient of many

international awards. He was first charged with blasphemy when a former employee, who had been

fired, alleged that he had made blasphemous remarks in an interview. The only evidence for this

was an inaudible audio recording, which was later declared unauthentic by the court.

Khan was accused of blasphemy for a second time when an Islamic cleric, Maulana Ehteramul Haq

Thanvi said that a children’s story written by Khan was insulting Ali, the son-in-law of the Holy

Prophet. The story, titled ‘Sher aur Ahmeq’, talks about a child who raises a lion. After he was

charged, Khan clarified in an interview that the story was based on General Zia-ul-Haq and Zulfiqar

Ali Bhutto.

In 1992, both the cases against Khan were withdrawn on the federal government’s orders. Several

Muslim clerics examined the evidence against him and concluded that he had not committed any

sort of blasphemy.

**

Naimat Ahmar, 43, was a Christian teacher in Faisalabad. Naimat’s collegaues, unhappy with his

professional success, convinced a student, Farooq Ahmed, that Naimat had committed blasphemy

and urged him to take the law into his own hands.

Ahmed believed Naimat had uttered insults against the Prophet and stabbed him to death. He was

jailed for 14 years and was reportedly praised in prison for his act.

A woman holds a placard during a rally in Lahore. – Reuters (File Photo)

**

During the same year Bantu Masih, 80, and Mukhtar Masih, 50, were arrested on the allegation of

committing blasphemy. Bantu was stabbed eight times at a Lahore police station and at the hospital,

the police reportedly convinced him not to file a case against his attacker in order to escape

blasphemy charges. However, he succumbed to his injuries shortly. Mukhtar was tortured to death in

police custody.

1993:

In February, Anwar Masih hailing from Samundri, Punjab was arrested for alleged blasphemy after a

quarrel with a shopkeeper. Masih had converted to Islam twice before converting to Christianity

again and the case against him was filed by Haji Mohammad Tayyab, a local leader of the Anjuman

Sipah-e Sahaba (ASS), who had heard about the quarrel.

Masih was accused of insulting Islam during an argument with Mohammad Aslam, a shopkeeper.

**

S alamat Masih, 11, Manzoor Masih, 38, and Rehmat

Masih, 44, were accused of writing blasphemous remarks on a wall belonging to a mosque. The complaint was filed by a parayer leader at the mosque who alleged that they had written

insulting remarks about Islam on paper and thrown them inside the local mosque and later also

written on the walls on the mosque.

Salamat Masih and Manzoor Masih were completely illiterate but despite that all three were arrested

in May. The imam of the mosque said that he had removed the writings on the wall because they

were blasphemous.

Salamat was released on bail as he was a minor and Manzoor and Rehmat were realeased on bail

in January 1994.

Manzoor was shot dead outside the District and Sessions Court after exiting a hearing in April.

Salamat and Rehmat got injured but survived. In February 1995, Salamat and Rehmat were given

the death sentenced but were later acquitted by the Lahore High Court, based on the objectionable

material since Christians were not familiar with Arabic, they would not know how to write the name of

Allah in Arabic. They subsequently fled the country after receiving death threats.

In 1997, Justice Arif Iqbal Bhatti was assassinated in his chambers at Lahore High Court allegedly

for defending Rehmat and Salamat Masih. In 1998, police arrested a man Sher Khan, who

confessed to having killed the judge because he had acquitted Rehmat and Salamat Masih.

However, Khan mysteriously disappeared from police custody.

**

In November 1993, Riaz Ahmad, his son, and two nephews from the Ahmadi community were

arrested in Mianwali District for their blasphemous remarks. In 1997, the Supreme Court granted bail

to Ahmed, his son and nephews.

1994:

Hafiz Farooq Sajjad, a Muslim, was stoned to death after a Quran in his house caught fire. The local

mosque announced that a Christian had burned the Quran and a mob gathered outside Sajjad’s

house.

Sajjad was beaten by the mob after which the police came and took him into custody. However, the

mob reached the police station and pelted Sajjad with stones, eventually setting him on fire. The

police had fled for safety by this point.

1995:

In July of 1995, Catherine Shaheen, a teacher in Lahore, was denied her salary as she was accused

of blasphemy. Although she was not formally charged, Shahaeen has been in hiding since then.

1996:Ayub Masih, a brick layer, was arrested when his neighbours accused him of propagating

Christianity and inviting people to read Salman Rushdie’s “The Satanic Verses”.

A Muslim neighbour filed the charge against him saying that during a private conversation, Masih

had said Christianity was better than Islam and praised Rushdie’s novel. According to Masih, he

was falsely accused so his land could be taken away.

In 1997, the complainant shot at Masih outside a court in Sahiwal but no harm was done.

In 1998, Masih was sentenced to death but in April his sentencing was suspended after the suicide

of Bishop John Joseph. Joseph committed suicide to protest against Masih’s sentence.

In 1999, he was attacked in jail by four other people sentenced to death but no action was

taken against the attackers.

In 2002, Masih was acquitted after his lawyer argued that the charge was based on verbal testimony

with no supporting evidence.

2000:Younus Shaikh, a physician, was charged with blasphemy on account of remarks that students

claimed he made during a lecture.

According to reports, during a lecture Shaikh said the Prophet Mohammad was not a Muslim until he

was 40 years of age when he received the first message from God.

A judge ordered that Shaikh pay a fine of 100,000 rupees and be executed. Shaikh asked for a

retrial and was acquitted in 2003 and fled to Europe for safety reasons.

2002:

A 55-year-old Muslim cleric, Muhammad Yousuf Ali, was allegedly shot dead by a member of Sipah-

i-Sahaba in Lahore prison after being accused of committing blasphemy.

Ali had been vocal in condemning religious violence and the case against him was filed by a militant

group who disagreed with his views. He had been sentenced to death in August 2000.

**

Illustration by Faraz Aamer Khan

In July of the same year, additional sessions judge in Lahore imposed death penalty and a fine

of Rs500, 000 on Anwar Kenneth, a former officer of the Fisheries Department, in a blasphemy

case. He was found distributing a brochure titled Gospel of Jesus and claimed to be a prophet.

Reports suggest that he was mentally unwell.

2003:

Samuel Masih, a Christian, was arrested for allegedly defiling a mosque by spitting on its wall.

While in police custody Masih contracted tuberculosis and was sent to Gulab Devi Chest Hospital for

treatment. He was killed by a police officer, Faryad Ali, who was one of the guards escorting

him. He used a hammer to kill him in the presence of other officers and claimed that it was his duty

as a Muslim to kill Masih.

According to Masih’s family, they were informed of the death two days after it happened. Ali was

arrested under formal murder charges.

**

Police arrested Anwar Masih, a Christian and charged him under Section 295 after a

neighbour reported to the police that Masih had insulted the Holy Prophet.

The case against him was registered by Naseer Ahmed who had converted from Christianity to

Islam. There was reportedly some enmity between the two since before.

Masih was acquitted in 2004 and had to go into hiding.

**

Munawar Mohsin, journalist from KPK working for Frontier Post, was sentenced to life imprisonmentfor writing an article on blasphemy which triggered nationwide protests.

He wrote a letter titled “Why Muslims hate Jews” which allegedly criticized Islam. The Frontier Post

issued an apology but a case was registered against the journalist anyway. In addition to life

imprisonment, Mohsin was also fined Rs 500,000.

2005:In August 2005, an anti-terrorist court found Younus Sheikh guilty of disrespecting the Quran

after he wrote a book ‘Shaitan Maulvi’ which mentioned that the concept of stoning to death after

committing adultery does not exist in Islam. The judge imposed a fine of Rs 100, 000 rupees and

sentenced him to lifetime imprisonment.

**

Illustration by Faraz Aamer Khan

In November, Pervez Aslam Chaudhry — a lawyer known for defending alleged blasphemers — was

allegedly charged with flinging a matchstick on an Islamic school and was assaulted outside the

Lahore High Court. He had previously been threatened and assaulted also.

2006:Qamar David was arrested after some Muslims claimed that they received blasphemous text

messages from him. He was given a life imprisonment sentence in 2010 and passed away in jail in

2011 due to a cardiac arrest according to reports.

**

In September, Shahid Masih was accused of tearing a book which contained Quranic verses. He

was beaten by a police officer while in jail and acquitted in 2007 after no evidence was found

against him.

2007:Martha Bibi from the district of Kasur was accused of making derogatory remarks against the Holy

Prophet. Reports suggest that the complaint was filed by contractors who did not want to pay her for

materials they had bought from her. She was released on bail.

**

Salamat Masih, aged 45, along with four other Christians was charged with blasphemy for

desecrating posters featuring Allah’s name.

**

In April, Sattar Masih, 28, was assaulted and sentenced for alleged blasphemy in Kotri city. He was

arrested after a mob stormed his house but later in January 2009, the accusations were found

baseless and he was released.

**

In May, nursing school at PIMS was shut down and seven members of the staff suspended after

students from Jamia Hafsa accused them of desecrating Islamic posters.

Muhammad Imran was arrested from Faisalabad for allegedly burning the Holy Quran. He was

tortured for three days and later kept in solitary confinement.

2008:

An Ahmadi, Altaf Hussain, was arrested for alleged desecration of Holy Quran from Kabir Wala town

of Khanewal.

**

In April, Jagdesh Kumar, 25, was beaten to death by Muslim workers in a factory located in

Karachi. He was accused of making blasphemous remarks.

2009:

Punjab police arrested a labourer along with four students belonging to Ahmaddiya community. They

were accused of writing prophet’s name on walls a Sunni mosque’s washroom.

Two Christians, both elderly men from Faisalabad, Punjab, were acquitted by the Lahore High Court

in April.

**

Following the alleged desecration, an angry mob torched 75 houses owned by Christians. At

least seven Christians were torched alive during the riots.

File Photo

**

In August of 2009, an angry mob broke into the house of an old woman in district Sanghar. She was

accused of desecrating the Quran.

2010:In July, the Lahore High Court ordered the release of 60-year-old Zaibun Nisa, a woman who was jailed in 1996 on a charge of blasphemy on a complaint that the Quran had been defiled

because of the lack of evidence.

**

Members of the Pakistan Christian Democratic alliance march during a protest in Lahore on December 25, 2010, in support of Asia Bibi. – AFP

Asia Bibi, the first Christian woman arrested and sentenced to death by hanging on a charge of

blasphemy. Asia was accused of committing blasphemy after an argument at the farm where she

worked.

Asia is still in jail and the case has sparked international reactions.

2011:

Salman Taseer (File Photo)

In January 2011, Salman Taseer was assassinated by his bodyguard for voicing his opinion

on blasphemy law and supporting Asia Bibi.

In March, Shahbaz Bhatti, federal minister for minority affairs was assassinated.

People rally to condemn the death of Pakistan’s government minister for religious minorities Shahbaz Bhatti during a rally in Lahore. – AP

**

Shahid Nadeem, a school teacher in Faisalabad was accused of tearing up pages from Quran.

2012:A mentally unstable man was torched alive for alleged blasphemy near Bahawalpur in July. The

mob took the man from a police station where he was under custody on blasphemy charges after

burning pages from the Quran.

**

Rismha Masih was accused of blasphemy and arrested by the police from a village near

Islamabad. Rimsha was arrested because she was allegedly burning pages from the Quran.

However, a cleric, Hafiz Mohammad Chishti was later arrested for framing her by planting pages

from the Quran in her bag.  Her trial is underway.