Death to those who disagree
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
ISLAMABAD - Punjab provincial governor Salman Taseer, assassinated on Tuesday,
paid the ultimate price for his criticism of Pakistan's harsh blasphemy law,
yet like many prominent classical and modern Islamic jurists, he was simply
giving his view on a delicate issue, and other such people were not killed for
expressing an opinion.
Several religious decrees had been issued by clerics and prominent religious
personalities calling for Taseer's murder, they have also publicly condoned his
killing. Yet Pakistan, where more than half of the electorate is secular,
refused to take action against the clerics. It has also done nothing to censure
some lawmakers who earlier were against the blasphemy law but
stayed silent after Taseer's death.
Taseer Tweeted shortly before his murder, "I was under huge pressure sure 2 cow
down b4 rightist pressure on blasphemy. Refused. Even if I'm the last man
standing." Taseer's criticism of the blasphemy law - which in many cases
imposes the death sentence - can in no way be viewed as a reason for him to be
killed; it was merely his opinion.
He termed the law "black", saying it did not reflect Islamic teachings and
wrongly interpreted Islamic law in order to victimize people. Taseer's view,
whether right or wrong, was made with conviction, and that is why he was not
afraid of death threats from religious decrees.
The right to disagree
Muslim history is full of events over which learned people have given
controversial opinions. Their views were rejected by the majority of Muslim
jurists and scholars, but they were not condemned to death.
While the overwhelming majority of Muslim jurists and scholars interpret the
incident of Karbala over 1,300 years ago as a defining moment in Muslim history
and mark it as the first movement for the revival of Islam, a segment of the
Salafi school of thought interprets Karbala - where the Prophet Mohammed's
grandson Hussain bin Ali along with his family were massacred - as a political
power struggle rather than a battle of truth, and they consider Hussain was
wrong and emperor Yazid Bin Mauvia right.
The interpretation of Yazid's righteousness was debated in Muslim academia and
the majority declared it as a wrong opinion. Yet nobody issued decrees of
heresy against those holding the minority viewpoint of that historical
incident.
Similarly, Taseer, being a Muslim, had a right to give his opinion on the
interpretation of a law that he saw as being used to victimize people rather
than to reflect Islamic thinking. Taseer last year supported a Christian mother
of five, Asiya Bibi, who had been sentenced to death for blasphemous remarks
made against the Prophet Mohammed, and petitioned for her release.
Deafening silence
Taseer's murder has been widely applauded by rightwing elements, whose views
appear to be politically motivated rather than driven by any ideology. Further,
the secular and liberal majority of the country has mostly been silent, and the
government too has not said a word against those who have openly lauded
Taseer's killing.
Some lawyers showered the confessed killer - security guard Malik Mumtaz Qadri
- with rose petals when he arrived at court on Wednesday, and an influential
Muslim scholars group praised the assassination of a person who dared oppose a
law that orders death for those who insult Islam.
"Whoever killed him [Taseer] is a pious man and will go directly to heaven," a
former parliamentarian and the leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami, Asadullah Bhutto,
said soon after news of the killing broke.
Haji Hanif Tayyab, a former federal minister, commented on a television
channel, "Whoever loves the Prophet shouldn't be saddened by Taseer's death."
Thousands of Facebook users have welcomed Taseer's death as a strike against
reformers of the country's tight blasphemy law, while more than 500 clerics and
scholars from the group Jamat Ahle Sunnat said no one should pray or express
regret for his killing. The group representing Pakistan's majority Barelvi
sect, which follows a brand of Islam considered moderate, also issued a veiled
threat to other opponents of the blasphemy law.
"Opponents [of the law] are as guilty as ones who commit blasphemy," the group
warned in a statement, adding that politicians, the media and others should
learn "a lesson from the exemplary death".
Jamat leader and former member parliament Maulana Shah Turabul Haq Qadri paid
tribute to the murderer for his "courage, bravery and religious honor and
integrity".
Anti-blasphemy campaigners have been stopped in their tracks.
Tahira Abdullah, a renowned human-rights activist and highly vocal in the media
against the law, has turned off her cell phones and left her Islamabad
residence because of a possible threat to her life.
Another prominent campaigner, a lawmaker from the Pakistan Muslim League,
Quaid-e-Azam Marvi Memon, is avoiding the media. Lawmaker Sherry Rahman, who
moved a private bill against the blasphemy law, has increased the strength of
her security squad from four guards to 16 and largely limited herself to her
Karachi residence.
On Thursday, Karachi's liberal affluent elite were busy in socialite clubs
discussing whether Pashtun security guards should be fired and replaced with
Goan Christian guards, yet no one dared raise the issue of why sections of
society can get away with so brazenly applauding the death of someone trying to
right what he saw as wrong.
Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief and
author of upcoming book Inside Al-Qaeda and the Taliban 9/11 and Beyond
published by Pluto Press, UK. He can be reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com
(Copyright 2011 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
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