Tag: Blasphemy

Just Another Day

By this time most papers have stated the obvious about what went wrong on Friday (Youm-e-Ishq-e-rasool Day declared by Government against the blasphemous film) along with the perceived causes. Subjects dealt with included freedom of speech vs. hate speech, Terry Jones and background of filmmaker Nakoula Bassey Nakoula, provocation and our response, and to top it all off, shock and disgust at the violent nature of protests.

The analysis of what went down and why, at least in most of the English media, confirmed my long standing suspicion. I live in a different Pakistan.
In the Pakistan that I inhabit, violent protests erupted just a few months ago due to load-shedding and people actively hunted for MNAs. It resulted in many deaths along with damage to property. In recent memory mobs have burned people for blasphemy, while earlier the fate of two brothers in Sialkot was even harsher.

Needless to say, if the people catch you while committing a crime, real or perceived, you will be lucky to make it to the cops. What about the learned people? Those who are above the masses, the ones not only setting standards but also enforcing them? Our police, one of the most brutal and vicious in the world, kill the odd chap via torture in custody, and are generally very macho. Our lawyers beat down anyone they can get their hands on. Our politicians torture kids. Hell, even our doctors don’t mind a scuffle!

That’s the lighter side of my Pakistan. Wasn’t it pleasant?

The rough side is actually a little disturbing. Insurgencies plague Balochistan and KPK-FATA, terrorism at large, sectarian killings in Gilgit and Quetta. Our right wing political parties are the bad guys, while the three supposedly liberal parties slaughter over a thousand people every year.

My Pakistan is one where violence isn’t widespread; it’s a part of daily life, with or without religion.

Now, can you imagine what would happen if these Pakistanis were invited en masse onto the streets by say, the government of the time? Given a full day off to vent their frustration? And what if the government and the many leaders who invited these guys to protest didn’t show up themselves? Piling angry young people onto the streets without anyone to lead them, without any direction, without any indication whatsoever of what exactly are they supposed to do. What would that lead to?

Enough of my Pakistan though.

Let us come back to the media’s and elite’s Pakistan. I have to say I am as appalled as you are over what happened on Friday. How dare those happy, peaceful and content people come out, uninvited, on the streets like headless chicken and cause such unheard of mayhem. Not to mention the harm done to our good reputation in front of the whole world.
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Viewing these events in isolation from the daily life in Pakistan is intellectually dishonest at worst and lazy at best.

Viewing the reaction of the Muslim world to that video as a whole is just wrong. It was violent in some countries, peaceful in others. How they reacted had to do with the makeup of those particular societies and the guidance received from political and religious leaders and of course, media coverage.

In our society violence has pretty much been institutionalized, it is the rule here and not the exception. It is what we do, it is who we are. The less said about the political and religious leaders the better, and the media feeds off sensationalism and Bahria Town adverts.

Therefore, I could find anything shocking about Friday. An angry people, with a nasty bout of anti-Americanism and deadly disdain for blasphemy, let loose on the streets. How many ways could that have turned out? Also, the fact that PPP are an incompetent shameless lot of opportunists who find new ways to hurt the country is the least surprising of all things imaginable. This was not an anomaly. It wasn’t an ugly episode in our otherwise peaceful national life. It was just another day, albeit made worse by a chaotic, utterly useless government.

So the elite should stop reacting with such marvellous shock. And please, please stop mocking the mob. If you are privileged enough to have a voice, use it to address the larger disease, not selective symptoms. The ones responsible for law and order and the ones who claim to be our leaders, they are responsible for not just the violence on Friday, but the daily horrors Pakistanis outside the Red Zone have to deal with.

Freedom of Speech, really?

Solid argument in Huffpost from Geoffery R Stone (A distinguished professor of Law at University of Chicago) that even if what you say in public is inflammatory and incite violent reaction, you cannot be blamed for it because of this idea called ‘freedom of expression’ (according to the first amendment of the US Constitution).

I wouldn’t go into much detail describing the hypocrisy reflected by such laws and other statements made by Sec. Clinton and government officials especially when you compare it with the all the fuss same media pundits created over nude photos of a princess of Royal family. But it’s just that when you seriously threaten, prosecute and force to shut down some publisher for pushing what you consider indecent, why so dud and lifeless on what 1.6 Billion people and one of the largest religious communities on globe considers, not only indecent but also severely punishable. What I want to discuss is the hypocritical posture of EU & the West on such issues, sensitive to Muslims; Blasphemy being on the top.

Freedom of Expression you say? Let’s be objective now!

1.   In the Parliament of EU a resolution was adopted in last decade which enforces punishment by Law, against anyone propagating racist and/or prejudiced speech. The target of the Resolution was holocaust denial. As a pretext (and in some countries the aftermath) of this resolution was the adoption of holocaust denial laws. Such Laws are present in Austria, Germany, France, Belgium, Czech Republic, and many more European countries. So today, in majority of eastern European countries and some West European countries too, you can be sentenced to prison for up to 15 years or fined a hefty amount or both on merely your words denying or diminishing the severity of Holocaust in your speech or writings. From 1999 to present, dozens of people have been sentenced prison or fined. Dr. Robert Faurisson PhD. a professor of French Literature at University of Lyons France was dismissed from his post, fined 7500 Euros criticized & discredited worldwide by mainstream media for his articles published in Journal of Historical Review. In these articles he denied (with evidence) the existence of Hitler’s famous “Gas chambers” and some other facts related to holocaust. This was one of the most important cases of Holocaust denial. Apart from this, there were dozens of cases where such ‘blasphemous’ people were thrown in to jail for up to 5 years.

2.  Acknowledging the fact that US and UK do not have Holocaust denial laws because of same Freedom of speech, this entity is still not absolute. The prominent exception where such freedom is exempted is SLANDER. So it’s ridiculous that a community which protects its politicians and celebrities from slandering cannot comprehend the same idea for a personality Muslims hold more beloved than their life by faith. It’s still a big question mark on the standards of the so called developed world the majority of which has laws protecting citizens and inhabitants from hateful speech to stop them from developing inflammatory reaction and keeping peace. Nevertheless, it is the same west, which allows mudslinging on the most-beloved and most-respected personality in the history of the world realizing all these facts and labels the agitated as Intolerant, Retrogressive, Dark Age-ions. I don’t want to impose labels but such an absurd mentality can only be expected from an extremely bigoted state of mind. But again, maybe it is a matter of hidden prejudice especially if history (of dark ages) is accounted for.

I have an impression which is based on reality that probably, world peace is no longer important for the West.

Lifeline for Muslims

(O Prophet), We have surely bestowed upon you good in abundance.So offer Prayer and sacrifice to your Lord alone.Verily your enemy alone has been cut off from the roots. (Sura Al-Kosar: ch:108, v-1-3)

Love of Prophet  is indeed a matter of life and death for Muslims. Love of Prophet is something for which each and every Muslim is very emotional. Pseudo-liberals can never understand this because it’s about  love of Prophet. Not something to be measured with intellect but something to be felt with heart.

Many will not read beyond this line and will tag it as another piece preaching love of Prophet. I feel pity for those who are silent to keep their liberal attire intact, or are asking other Muslims not to show their sentiments. They have not only lost their own identity, they are pretty much confused about their very purpose of existence in this world. I don’t want to generalize but certainly those who have taken oath for defense of United States and other western countries will definitely have an inclination to keep their nationalities secured and hence keeping mum over the blasphemy.

Hazrat Omar Bin Khattab once said to the Prophet SAWW, O Prophet of Allah, I love you more than anything except my life, and the Prophet SAWW said, No one can be a true believer unless he loves me more than his life.

True, we should propagate love because our Prophet was Rahmatul lil alameen. It is also correct that we need to be peaceful in our reactions. But we need to ponder upon this question that why does this so called ‘freedom of speech’ always target Prophet Muhammad SAWW. The fact is that there are laws for statements against Jews, racism etc but when it comes to Prophet, every Tom, dick or Harry has freedom of speech. This is what is irritating Muslims.

The movie in question is not worth watching. It may be an utter failure in technical filmmaking terms. But I simply cannot buy the idea that the movie was made because of ‘lack of knowledge’ of the filmmaker. No, it was a planned effort to check whether Muslims will react or not. A cheap tactic to gain popularity may be, but a litmus test to check the commitment of Muslims.

For those who say that Prophet forgave a lot of blasphemers; I would like to quote the incident of Ka’ab Bin Ashraf, a Jew who was a blasphemous poet. He used to ridicule the Prophet of peace SAWW in his poetry and Prophet ordered his murder. This is reported in Sahi Bukhari by Hazrat Jabir Bin Abdullah (RA).

Prophet SAWW asked that who will tackle Ka’ab bin Ashraf? He is desecrating Allah and Prophet, so Muhammad Bin Muslimah (RA) stood up and asked, ‘O Prophet of Allah, May I kill him if you like’ and Prophet SAWW said, ‘Yes’… (Bukhari)

So it is evident that blasphemer shouldn’t be roaming around freely. All Muslims should unite to protect the sanctity of Prophet SAWW. In current scenario, the issue is USA is protecting the blasphemer as a state by calling his action as ‘freedom of speech’. This is a very grave situation. That’s why all the protests are logical and legitimate. Ambassadors and diplomats have immunity all around the world, but protesting in front of the diplomatic missions to record protest against a country is a democratic right. The solution is only one. Proper legislation against blasphemy of all Prophets. Thats how mobs and people can be contained. In the absence of laws and without their proper implementation, people will take laws into their hands; this is mob-mentality. We need to act sensibly to come out of this situation.

I am not in favour of burning public and private properties in protests, but I am certainly in favour of peaceful protests and proper legislation for blasphemy. These protests should be aimed to show our love for Prophet and not to destroy the property of innocent people. It is also a great chance for us to tell the world about teachings of Prophet Muhammad (SAWW).

Much can be written on this topic. Iqbal summarized it beautifully in his poem ‘Ibless ki Majlis-e-Shoora’ in which Satan tells his executive council

وہ فاقہ کش کے موت سےڈرتا نہیں زرا

روح محمدؐ اس کے بدن سے نکال دو

The target of satanic forces is very clear. They know that  it’s the love of Prophet Muhammad, which has kept Muslims bonded till now. If this bond is broken, Muslims will be no more different than others. Therefore, they attack this bond clearly. This is a lifeline for Muslims. It is a driving force which is keeping all of us in one direction. That’s why when anyone challenges this bond, entire Muslim community rise for the defense of this lifeline. And this is very evident in current protests. But the liberals and American slaves cannot understand.

And last but not least, true love of Prophet (SAWW) will be evident only when we follow his Sunnah in true letter and spirit in every walk of life. Allah says in Quran,

‘’Say, [O Muhammad], “If you love Allah, follow me, Allah will love you and forgive you your sins. And Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.” [Al-Qur’an 3:31]

Responding to Profanity

It was indeed shocking news of what happened as the aftermath of a released preview of a profane film which has left the Muslims in a state of sadness and shock across the world. As horrific and offensive as the video might be, nothing justifies the sort of violent acts we have seen in Egypt, Libya and Yemen. Nothing is worth the cost of a human life and as a Muslim, I firmly believe that there is no honour or faith in committing such violence, and we all unequivocally oppose the senseless violence in different parts of Muslim world.

This video also gives a glimpse of the fragile relationship and misunderstandings between the Muslim world and West/United States. It is evident from this film that to create further rifts and misunderstandings between different cultures, it is not necessary to commit an act of violence. Films like these, unfortunately, may have a much more negative effect in bringing any positive change in common understanding and further deepen the gulf.

As a Muslim, I would like to remind Muslims of the character of Prophet Muhammad. He was a man of peace and mercy, and thus engaging in such violence and senseless killing is truly mismatched with his legacy and teachings.  It is high time that Muslim should not only remember his teachings, but also follow them in the face of hostility. It is imperative for Muslims to ignore cheap attempts for publicity by hateful bigots. While they have every right to protest this profanity by resorting to violent reactions Muslims are not only harming innocent lives but also falling in the traps set by bigots.  It must be crystal clear that in order to defend and promote the personality of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him), one should not resort to those means which the Prophet himself never approved of or allowed.

To move in a positive direction and avoid further backlash, it is necessary that the West and U.S should take some concrete steps in terms of introducing certain regulations. There are already laws in place in many western countries, which legally punish Holocaust denial, anti-Semitic expressions, hate speeches, homophobic statements, racial slurs and even blasphemy against Christianity. Looking at the negative potential of such acts, is it not time to come up with such legislation? Beyond legislation or regulations, such unfortunate events really bring forth the need for constructive dialogue between religions, cultures and civilizations.

The movie is very offensive, but Muslims should be offended in a positive way. We should speak up against this evil in a rational way. We should always keep in mind the right way of dealing with evil in all situations:

“Good and evil cannot be equal. Repel evil with what is better and your enemy will become as close as an old and valued friend, but only those who are steadfast in patience, only those who are blessed with great righteousness, will attain to such goodness.” (Quran 41:34-35)