In June 2008, Asiya Bibi, a Pakistani farm worker and mother of five, fetched water for others working on the farm. Many refused the water because Asiya was Christian. The situation got ugly. Reports indicate Asiya was harassed because of her religion and the matter turned violent. Asiya, alone in a hostile environment, naturally would have attempted to defend herself but was put in police custody for her protection against a crowd that was harming her.
However, that protection move turned into one that was to earn Asiya a death sentence. A case was filed against her under sections 295-B and C of the Pakistan Penal Code, claiming that Asiya was a blasphemer. Her family will appeal against the judgment in the Lahore High Court.
The Asiya case raises the fundamental question of how Pakistan’s minorities have been left unprotected since the passage of the blasphemy law.
There may have been no hangings on account of the law but it has facilitated the spread of intolerance and populist rage against minorities, often leading to deaths. There is also a direct link between the Zia-ist state’s intolerance against minorities and the rise of criminal treatment of Ahmadis.
Cases have ranged from the Kasur case to the more recent Gojra case, from the mind-boggling row of cases between 1988-1992 against 80-year-old development guru Dr Akhtar Hameed Khan, to the case of the son of an alleged blasphemer, an illiterate brick kiln worker who was beaten to death by a frenzied mob.
Although doctor sahib faced prolonged mental torture, he was saved from the maddening rage that has sent to prison, and in some cases devoured, many innocent, poor and hence unprotected Pakistanis.
There is a long list, prepared by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, of unjust punishments handed down to Pakistani citizens whose fundamental rights the state is obliged to protect. Beyond punishments, minorities live in constant fear of being lethally blackmailed by those who want to settle other scores.
Yet most political parties have refrained from calling for the law’s repeal or improvement in its implementation mechanism.
When, in the early 90s, I asked Nawaz Sharif sahib to criticise the hounding of Dr Khan, his response was a detailed recall of the story in which Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) went to ask after the health of a non-Muslim woman who repeatedly threw garbage over him. He condemned what was happening but said politics prevented him from doing so publicly. Later, General Musharraf, advised by other generals, reversed his announcement of changing the law’s implementation mechanism. Small crowds protested against it. Among politicians, very few exceptions include the PPP parliamentarian Sherry Rehman and, more recently, the ANP’s Bushra Gohar, who asked for its amendment and repeal.
Already sections of the judiciary have been critical of flawed judgements passed by lower courts in alleged blasphemy cases. Recently in July, Lahore High Court Chief Justice Khawaja Sharif quashed a blasphemy case against 60-year-old Zaibunnisa and ordered her release after almost 14 years in custody. According to the judgment, the “treatment meted out to the woman was an insult to humanity and the government and the civil organisations should be vigilant enough to help such people.” Surely the Bench should know the plethora of abuses that Pakistan’s minorities have suffered because of an evidently flawed law.
A message more appropriate, perhaps, would be to repeal the black law that grossly undermines the Constitution of Pakistan and indeed the teachings of Prophet Muhammad, one of the most tolerant and humane law-givers humankind has known. This environment of populist rage, fed by the distorted yet self-serving interpretation of religion principally by Zia and a populist mixing of religion and politics by a politically besieged Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, must be emphatically challenged. A collective effort to roll back these laws must come from parliament, the lawyers’ forums, the judiciary, civil society groups and the media.
This was originally published in The Express Tribune.
Hina et al
Look how you flared up at my little ‘instigation’, not to speak up of Muslims who get enraged when someone abuses their Prophets or other religious personalities. It is you and the like of you who depict the true nature of religious bigots…
Shame on you for saying you do not know the True Meaning of the holy Quran! This means you haven’t read it or are simply trying to twist its facts..
Tell me what you did not understand about the Quranic clear cut tenets?? Follow the Law of your Religion unless you try to throw stone at other “”laws”…
Jao ja kar paye bhoono!!
ghar mein baithay choohay choohia
logoan ko kartay hein gumrah! aha!
If Islam is being defiled anywhere in the world , it is because of ‘Good Muslims’ like you.
BiBi you also seem a victim of Western propaganda and I am not surprised at all. Islam is not being defiled because of “Good Muslims” you are referring, Islam is being opposed due to Islam itself because Islam literally challenged the monopoly of Capitalism and so called Justice system laid by “Children of Israel” in US and other West Countries. West don’t have any issue with “Ritual Islam” neither they have issue Muslims are preached about the religion or not..this is why you would never heard they stopped any Tableghi in Western world. The main threat for them is Islam as a system rather a religion only because Islam as a political system gives equal right to every one. Those Thorah and Bible followers know ISLAM more than you learnt at home or any other Muslim and they were frightened via their books that the religion of Muhammad(saw) is going to demolish every evil they put forward after the death of their Prophets(AS). They have read their books and then experienced Islam itself which made them to oppose it one way or other.
Go and read text of Bible and Torah and read the hadiths of Muhammad(sAW) and Quran, why do they have so much fear from madrassah and madrassah students? because they know their real “Enemies” lie their. They know that the “great fight” which they refer as “Armageddon” and we call “ArMajdoon” would be between those “madrassah terrorists” and them and they know the result as well. They have resources like media to pollute kids like you who later preach “Peace” ignorantly one way or other without having any knowledge of Islam and Quran.
Please, go and learn basics and don’t try to fool yourself by being a Western mouthpiece. Every nation has good and bad,just few centuries back Christians were more violent than Muslims. Go and read about them. Go and read about things you want to discuss.
Mouth Commandos from their drawing rooms busy in being “Holier Than Thou” and trying their best to be women rights champ.
Obaid,you need to learn ground reality,instead of throwing remarks from your room, come in ground and experience the reality. Go and first read about Hudood Ordinance. I am not a lawyer but on same forum I did refute a “professional” lady lawyer who made a grave mistake to refer the text of Hudood law which later turned against her and made the reason of her public embarrassment. So better learn basics then discuss about the matter rather citing me news of the sources.
Don’t make fruitless attempts to hide your hatred against a religion by covering yourself behind laws. . I am quite aware of what kind of filthy thoughts anti-religious fascis t posses for a religion.
@Sarah: What are you smoking on? Since when NATO and Liberal forces turned to Talibans that you are referring burning Quran?
Imagine there’s no Heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one
Imagine by John Lennon
ISn’t burning a Quran blasphemy because it is desecration of the Quran. If it is, should not Taliban and Taliban supporters be tried under blasphemy laws as others have suggested?