Bigotry has always flourished in South Asia. It has worsened whenever state actions have supported it overtly or covertly. In India, the states that enacted anti-conversion laws have witnessed more communal violence than those where local legislatures refused to interfere in religious matters. Sri Lanka experienced religion-based violence when its anti-conversion laws were being debated in its parliament in recent years. Once the draft law was dropped, communal violence disappeared.
The state has not only the obligation to stay neutral in matters of religion, but also to ensure that freedom of thought and conscience of all individuals is protected. Pakistan’s laws and the behaviour of those in authority, on the other hand, are oppressive for non-religious citizens, dangerous for the country’s religious minorities and cruel to its populace at large.
Almost everyone agrees that the laws protecting religious sensitivities are frequently misused, yet the right-wing mullah spits fire at any suggestion of punishing those responsible for filing false charges of blasphemy. If all laws are misused, then why single out offences against religion, they argue. That may be the case but it is also true that the laws on blasphemy have a far greater potential of being exploited and deployed as a lethal tool to terrorise the public than anything else on the statute books.
The users of this law have not even spared mentally challenged individuals. Four mentally challenged women accused of desecrating the holy Quran are still languishing in Central Jail, Lahore. Many others were only able to secure bail from the Supreme Court after years of incarceration.
Religiosity is suffocating in Pakistan. It invariably stokes the fire in driving society to religious extremism. Respect for every faith is desirable, but it loses its value if it is aimed at playing to the gallery. Why must every official duty, function or utterance begin with a religious ritual? Surely, the Almighty cannot be impressed with our public display of faith in Him.
Duplicity in matters of religion is not confined to Pakistan, but it hurts the most in societies where debate on religion is asphyxiated and preachers of hate have become keepers of faith. This is precisely what the laws on blasphemy have achieved.
Also read: The most controversial rulings by the superior judiciary
It is well documented that a vast number of complaints about blasphemy only surfaced after the laws on it prescribed harsh punishment for certain forms of blasphemy. The law offers a bandwagon for faith-based zealots to ride and bond together in seeking revenge as well as publicity.
Thus far, successive parliaments have made no changes in the blasphemy law that imposes mandatory death penalty even when the alleged blasphemers may have committed the crime unwittingly and/or unintentionally. The executive and the legislature have placed the entire burden on the courts to administer justice in blasphemy cases where the law is very obviously flawed, but overturning accusations under it is risky.
In the past, a high court judge was killed for acquitting a 16-year-old Christian boy and his co-accused in a blasphemy case, notwithstanding the fact that a number of leading criminal lawyers had pleaded for acquittal while assisting the court. Recently, radical religious groups have reprimanded the Supreme Court for upholding the punishment for Mumtaz Qadri, the murderer of Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer. No action has been taken against them for their public censure of the highest court in the country.
We must acknowledge that the judgements that have acquitted an obviously innocent person falsely accused of blasphemy have been few and far in between. The low level of religious tolerance present in Pakistan’s judiciary can easily be measured by the fact that Qadri was defended by a former chief justice of the largest high court of the country – the Lahore High Court – and a retired judge of the same court. While scores of lawyers volunteered to defend Qadri, only a couple agreed to take up the prosecution brief against Taseer’s assassin.
We may fight terrorism through brute force, but the terror that is unleashed in the name of religion can only be challenged through moral courage. Every fair-minded person holding a position of authority must support the few who have stood up against the injustice being perpetrated in the name of blasphemy.
Photo: Protesters at a seminary in Karachi raise slogans in favour of blasphemy laws
This was originally published in Herald's Annual 2016 issue. Through a selection of photographs, the Herald took a look at some of the events and developments that were extremely significant in 2015.To read more, subscribe to Herald in print.
Comments (19) Closed
Fear and doubt make some ideologies work, one of which is the ideology that we have adopted.
While the majority of the article deals with Pakistan, the claims about anti conversion laws in India causing violence is not based on facts. Anti conversion laws were introduced specially against persons offering monetary inducements to convert & a lot of poor people were getting exploited as they converted & got only a small part of the promised money. This resulted in disputes & violence following which certain states passed anti conversion laws specifically prohibiting monetary inducements. All over India, people are free to change religion but monetary inducements, use of threat etc is prohibited. I do not know from where Ms Jahangir gets her data but it is factually flawed.
Hi Asma, This is a quality summary of the issue.
I am impressed with your collection of events. Jinnah said that Religion is not a matter for the State to indulge in. But people heard only those things which they wanted and suited their business.
If these so-called guards of religion are not controlled by the law enforcement agencies then the persecution of minorities will be carried out in greater numbers than at present. Most of the cases so far had nothing to do with Blasphemy but were due to personal reasons and rumors.
Religion has been used as a tool by the State and by religious bigots most often in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. In India fortunately there are more saner voices and these people fail to anchor themselves for too long in the society and more often than not are pushed to the fringes. Unfortunately Pakistan is still debating her raison d'etre. In such a situation it is only too easy for the clerics to influence the masses since the civilian leadership is on shaky grounds and in the tussle between the politicians and the Army, the bigots are being wooed by both sides.
Why would you start the article referring South Asia, pointing out things are also bad in India and Sri Lanka? I completely agree with the stand the author is taking here but why use the token 'India is also not doing well' argument everywhere?
An apt headline for this article. It says it all.
Hats off to you Ms. Asma. However, is anyone at the helm of the affairs listening? Most likely not. Otherwise, our interior minister would not have come to the rescue of Maulana Aziz.
Salutations! A very sane voice.
Fear is created for a reason, panic is created for a reason, psychological warfare is created for a reason... Folks, we, a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market, is a nation that is afraid of its people.
"Every fair-minded person holding a position of authority must support the few who have stood up against the injustice being perpetrated in the name of blasphemy."
It is regrettable how this law has been misused. The law must be changed to make sure that innocent and ignorant people are not penalized.
We need to take the route of education and persuasion in our society. Public opinion needs to change in our country to bring any change in policy.
An excellent, brave and honest article, good work Ms. Asma Jahangir. I was so disillusioned and disappointed when I saw lawyers were standing on both side of the walk way as the murderer Mumtaz Qadri was brought in the court, throwing roses on him and promising to fight his case for free. On top of that the former chief justice of Lahore high court decided to represent him. These people who are supposed to up hold the law and justice not only defending but even praising this criminal action of a self confessed brutal killer. When I saw that I had lost all hopes for Pakistan, my faith restored in my country only when people like Ms. Jahangir and many others started protesting against this murderer and when the Supreme Court up held his death sentence.
Kudos to the writer for writing this article.
My only comment is if one is believing and following a God then why so much anger and unhappiness towards anyone?
Many in the young generation in Pakistan today supports extremist religious views which is dangerous for the future of Pakistan.
When Nawaz Sharif said he will make Pakistan modern and livable for minorities in Pakistan, all the Islamic parties started bashing him. This is today's Pakistan we are living in.
@jawad
The generation of Zia's time has extremist religious views, the man destroyed the fabric of Pakistan and Pakistanis let him do that. I have returned after more than four decades in Europe; oh! how Pakistan has changed for the worse during that time.
@AHA Well said