Pakistan's Jaranwala Incident A Blot On An Islamic Society

By New Age Islam Staff Writer 19 August 2023 Blasphemy Was Again Used As The Ploy To Vandalise Christian Homes And Churches. Main Points: 1. One person's wrong cannot justify the community's persecution. 2. Blasphemy in Pakistan is misused to terrorise minorities. 3. Islamophobia in the West fuels anti-Christian sentiments in Pakistan. ------ A woman whose home was vandalised, in Jaranwala of Pakistan's Faisalabad district on August 17. | PTI ------ Attacks on Christians in Jaranwala of Pakistan has once again brought blasphemy as a tool of persecution of minorities in Pakistan. A Christian man was accused of blasphemy and his whole community was made to suffer. Christian homes and churches were vandalised. Islam does not approve of persecution of minorities on false charges. But in Pakistan, only the allegation of blasphemy on the part of a person is enough to be attacked or killed. No legal process is considered necessary when blasphemy is involved. Even when the courts acquit the accused, extrajudicial killing is resorted to punish him. In Pakistan, blasphemy has assumed such a wide definition that it even covers Muslims of opposite sects and they are booked or lynched for alleged blasphemy. Previously, mentally deranged men or frustrated men were also lynched or burnt to death from blasphemy when any law does not punish a mentally deranged man. In Pakistan, Muslims have given the impression that Islam does not spare even mentally ill when blasphemy is involved. It seems that the whole Pakistani community suffers from mass hysteria. It expresses its frustration borne out of economic and political hardships resulting from the wrong policies of the governments and large scale corruption of Pakistan's politicians. Recently, a judge's wife was arrested for torturing a 13 year old girl. This was not an isolated case. In 2016 too, a judge and his wife had been jailed for one year for torturing a 10 year old girl. This demonstrates that even people like judges suffer from violence syndrome and that domestic helps must have been tortured at a large scale in Pakistan but not all cases come out. Violence in the collective psyche of Pakistanis has not been programmed overnight. It has been made a way of life for the Muslims of Pakistan by the extremist clerics who issue fatwas of Kufr provoking violence against the 'enemies' of Islam. A Sri Lankan factory manager in Pakistan was lynched by factory workers only because he torn out religious stickers from the walls of the factory. He disapproved of religious stickers in factory premises. He was killed for this act of 'blasphemy'. No legal process was required to be initiated to prove that it was really an act of blasphemy. He was not even given the time to explain his motive behind his alleged blasphemy. Not long ago, two lady madrasa teachers slit the neck of their lady colleague after an argument on sectarian issue. Asia Bibi and Rimsha Masih were Christian ladies who were accused of blasphemy. Asia had to leave Pakistan even after the court acquitted her. The West has also to take the responsibility for the growing hatred of Christians in Pakistan. Islamophobia is being promoted and encouraged under the freedom of expression. The government of Sweden allows burning of the holy Quran under state protection, knowing well that the Quran is not an ordinary book. The Muslims the world over have protested over the burning of the Quran but it has not cut much ice with the Swedish government. Muslims are attacked only for being Muslims as Islamophobia has been growing. Jyllands Posten published blasphemous cartoons hurting the sentiments of the Muslims. Charlie Hebdo published blasphemous cartoons to mock the Muslims. Films are made in the West to tarnish the image of Islam and Muslims and to portray a negative image of their prophet. All this goes on under the protection of the Western governments. They do not realise that their acts jeopardise the Christians in Pakistan where they are in minority as they pay the price of Islamophobic acts in the western world. Islam, however, does not approve wrong in retaliation to another wrong because two wrongs do not make a right. Islam asks its followers not to do injustice even to the enemies. How can it approve of persecution of women, children and innocent people on the grounds of an act of blasphemy committed by an individual. The most unfortunate part is that the clerics who hit the streets and gather thousands of Muslims on petty issues do not take any concrete steps to prevent this trend of persecution of minorities over blasphemy. The government also does not show any will to stop this unIslamic trend. Only formal statements by the politicians and some clerics will not make any difference. This will change only when the ulema collectively wake up the issue of blasphemy and redefine it in the light of global political and geopolitical circumstances. The United Nations needs to take concrete steps to prevent the growth of Islamophobia in the West and to ensure the protection of minorities in Pakistan in particular and in the world in general. Pakistan needs to come out of this mass hysteria but the question is: How? There are tons of interpretations and fatwas by eminent Islamic scholars and jurists who have proved that even Muslims can be killed for blasphemy. Books have been written on the topic and the verses of the Quran have been manipulated to prove that any one whether Muslim or non-Muslim can be killed for blasphemy and any Muslim can take the law into his own hands if an allegation of blasphemy is brought against any one. No legal process is required to be initiated. No court is required:; no defence is required and the accused does not deserve an opportunity to defend himself. In these circumstances, there is little hope that the Jaranwala incident will stir the collective conscience of the Muslims, particularly the clerics of Pakistan. This incident will also go into oblivion like hundreds of others and the minorities in Pakistan will have to live with all this while the world looks on. ------ View From Dawn: After The Attack On Christian Homes, Will Pakistan Stand Up To The Mob? Dawn.com Aug 17, 2023 Unless both state and society decide on a practical way of tackling extremism, and go beyond clichés and condemnations, the monster of obscurantism will continue to devour Pakistan’s vitals. Another shameful incident was witnessed on Wednesday in Faisalabad’s Jaranwala area when a mob torched several churches, ransacked Christian homes and vandalised a graveyard. The apparent provocation for this assault was blasphemy, as the house of a Christian man allegedly involved in the offence was razed. Clearly, in Pakistan, evidence is not required where the issue of blasphemy is concerned, and mobs take it upon themselves to dispense “justice”. This is the second such event in recent days; just a few days ago, a teacher in Balochistan was murdered because of blasphemy allegations against him. There has been the usual round of denunciation by the political elite, including the interim prime minister. Yet the question is: do the rulers – politicians and establishment – as well as clerics and prominent society figures have the courage to confront this madness? Past precedents do not inspire confidence as murders, riots and lynchings in “defence” of religion testify. This is not a situation that developed overnight; it has been decades in the making. For over 40 years, the state has itself been either promoting obscurantism, or using sectarian and religious fanatics as proxies. The result of these failed policies is before us, as these same forces have now begun to influence the general populace by framing the narrative. Our power elite has been silent as blasphemy laws have been misused to settle personal scores, occupy property, or terrorise minorities. In fact, the last parliament had tried to bulldoze, without any proper debate, an amendment that would have “strengthened” the blasphemy law. Can we then complain if episodes such as Jaranwala unfold with disturbing regularity? Violence in the name of religion is indefensible in any context, but in Pakistan, the blasphemy laws have been misused with impunity by vested interests. However, it is also true that in the “civilised” West, the appalling trend to attack the sacred symbols of Islam feeds into a vicious circle of bigotry and Islamophobia. In fact, extremists, such as the ones involved in the Jaranwala outrage, use these despicable acts to point out the hatred the ‘Christian’ West allegedly harbours towards Islam, and channel their vitriol at local minority communities. The fact is that both in the West and in Muslim states, efforts need to be intensified to counter the forces of religious bigotry. The attacks on Islam’s sacred symbols – indeed, the revered symbols of all faiths – in the West must stop, while Pakistani society must bring to justice all involved in such grotesque violence, and begin an internal reckoning that exorcises the demons of obscurantism tearing this country apart. ---- This article first appeared in Dawn. Source: View From Dawn: After The Attack On Christian Homes, Will Pakistan Stand Up To The Mob? 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