Adil Najam
Read this news from The Express Tribune and tell me how this is not idiotic:
KARACHI: A doctor has been arrested on charges of blasphemy in Hyderabad, police said on Sunday. Naushad Valiyani was detained on Friday following a complaint by a medical representative who visited the doctor in the city of Hyderabad. “The arrest was made after the complainant told the police that Valiyani threw his business card, which had his full name, Muhammad Faizan, in a dustbin during a visit to his clinic,” regional police chief Mushtaq Shah told AFP. “Faizan accused Valiyani of committing blasphemy and asked police to register a case against the doctor.”
Shah said the issue had been resolved after Valiyani, a member of the Ismaili community apologised but local religious leaders intervened and pressed for action. “Valiyani had assured Faizan that he did not mean to insult the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) by throwing the visiting card in the dustbin,” Shah said, adding that the police had registered a case under the Blasphemy Act.
Please tell me, who is insulting the Prophet (PBUH) in this case (as in so many others)? Who is the real “threat” to the “Namoos-e-Rasool“?
Using the Prophet’s name in vain and for spreading personal and petty hatred is itself an insult to the Prophet’s (PBUH) message and person. Anyone who cares for “Namoos-e-Rasool” should feel insulted and incensed at how this “namoos” is being ridiculed by the purveyors of hate in the name of blasphemy.
Maybe we should have a law against parents naming their children ‘Muhammad’. Let me confess I have two children whose middle name is ‘Muhammad’ and I sometimes do end up shouting at them or chiding them for not doing their homework. Does this, now, also count as blasphemy?
For Allah’s sake, give me a break. Please! If not me, at least give the Prophet (PBUH) a break!
P.S. For those unable to read Urdu, the verse at the top of this post is from Iftikhar Arif: “Rehmat-i-Syed-i-Lolaak pey kamil eeman / Ummat-i-Syed-i-Lolaak say khauf aata hai.” I hope readers who are better translators than me can provide a translation befitting this verse.
Yes, the mullah is out to kill Islam. Save Islam from the Mullah.
I remember how radical leftists were whining against Hudood law in 2006. A couple of days ago a girl,who was living with her boy friend in an apartment was ganged raped when someone picked her on road. Thanks for leftist radicals, the girl will not be able to get justice since in absence of hudood law, there is no concept of HUD now, now all radicals should come out of their bins and help their “sister” who is seeking their help.
T. S. Bokhari…
The “right” to accuse anyone in an open society is, and should be widely unrestricted. The issue in a functional society rests on police to determine what would be called prima facie evidence. Part of that process is indeed to confirm the bona fides of the accuser to avoid frivolous accusations from consuming valuable law enforcement resources and time. Moreover, although the rights of accusers might not be limited, the consequences of frivolous accusations should be sufficiently severe to deter it.
In all other respects, it would be a problem to limit accusation through curtailment of the right, and writing a law to cover this would be quite difficult. What is less difficult is to legislate the rules and punishments for false accusations made in bad faith.
Islam’s Enemy #1: THE MULLAH
http://aljazeera.com/news/print.php?newid=318549
Prophet Muhammad’s promise to Christians
01/01/2010 02:30:00 PM GMT
“This is a message from Muhammad ibn Abdullah, as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, we are with them…
Dr. Muqtedar Khan
Muslims and Christians together constitute over fifty percent of the world and if they lived in peace, we will be half way to world peace. One small step that we can take towards fostering Muslim-Christian harmony is to tell and retell positive stories and abstain from mutual demonization.
In this article I propose to remind both Muslims and Christians about a promise that Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) made to Christians. The knowledge of this promise can have enormous impact on Muslim conduct towards Christians. Muslims generally respect the precedent of their Prophet and try to practice it in their lives.
In 628 AD, a delegation from St. Catherine’s Monastery came to Prophet Muhammed and requested his protection. He responded by granting them a charter of rights, which I reproduce below in its entirety. St. Catherine’s Monastery is located at the foot of Mt. Sinai and is the world’s oldest monastery. It possesses a huge collection of Christian manuscripts, second only to the Vatican, and is a world heritage site. It also boasts the oldest collection of Christian icons. It is a treasure house of Christian history that has remained safe for 1400 years under Muslim protection.
The Promise to St. Catherine:
“This is a message from Muhammad ibn Abdullah, as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them.
Verily I, the servants, the helpers, and my followers defend them, because Christians are my citizens; and by God! I hold out against anything that displeases them.
No compulsion is to be on them. Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries. No one is to destroy a house of their religion, to damage it, or to carry anything from it to the Muslims’ houses.
Should anyone take any of these, he would spoil God’s covenant and disobey His Prophet. Verily, they are my allies and have my secure charter against all that they hate.
No one is to force them to travel or to oblige them to fight. The Muslims are to fight for them. If a female Christian is married to a Muslim, it is not to take place without her approval. She is not to be prevented from visiting her church to pray. Their churches are to be respected. They are neither to be prevented from repairing them nor the sacredness of their covenants.
No one of the nation (Muslims) is to disobey the covenant till the Last Day (end of the world).”
The first and the final sentence of the charter are critical. They make the promise eternal and universal. Muhammed asserts that Muslims are with Christians near and far straight away rejecting any future attempts to limit the promise to St. Catherine alone. By ordering Muslims to obey it until the Day of Judgment the charter again undermines any future attempts to revoke the privileges. These rights are inalienable. Muhammed declared Christians, all of them, as his allies and he equated ill treatment of Christians with violating God’s covenant.
A remarkable aspect of the charter is that it imposes no conditions on Christians for enjoying its privileges. It is enough that they are Christians. They are not required to alter their beliefs, they do not have to make any payments and they do not have any obligations. This is a charter of rights without any duties!
The document is not a modern human rights treaty but even though it was penned in 628 A.D., it clearly protects the right to property, freedom of religion, freedom of work, and security of the person.
I know most readers, must be thinking so what? Well the answer is simple. Those who seek to foster discord among Muslims and Christians focus on issues that divide and emphasize areas of conflict. But when resources such as Muhammad’s promise to Christians are invoked and highlighted it builds bridges. It inspires Muslims to rise above communal intolerance and engenders good will in Christians who might be nursing fear of Islam or Muslims.
When I look at Islamic sources, I find in them unprecedented examples of religious tolerance and inclusiveness. They make me want to become a better person. I think the capacity to seek good and do good inheres in all of us. When we subdue this predisposition towards the good, we deny our fundamental humanity. In this holiday season, I hope all of us can find time to look for something positive and worthy of appreciation in the values, cultures and histories of other peoples.
— Dr. Muqtedar Khan is Director of Islamic Studies at the University of Delaware and a fellow of the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding.