Ram Puniyani: Charlie Hebdo cartoons and blasphemy laws

The murder of an 18-year-old Muslim boy of Russian origin by French school teacher Samuel Paty opened the Pandora’s Box all over. Three people were killed in Nice a few days later, and again in France. In a few Muslim majority countries, such as Bangladesh, there were protests against France and in many of them there was a boycott of French goods.

In the one side, the French President identified himself with the slain teacher and pledged to fight political Islam, and on the other, the President of Turkey, Erdogan, made a negative statement on the French President, who withdrew the ambassador from Turkey. In several nations, French products are being boycotted. Many Muslim countries are raising their voices against the French President at yet another level, and demonstrations are taking place in Pakistan, Bangladesh and others.

All of this is the sequel to the extremely condemnable murder of Paty, who taught freedom of expression in his class and used the Charlie Hebdo cartoons as an example. Only to remember the proceedings in the courts related to the murder of cartoonists in Charlie Hebdo (2015). The cartoons derogatory to the Prophet Mohammad were republished by the paper in this context. The cartoons connect terrorism with the Prophet and Islam.

This was in a way in the backdrop of 9/11, after which the term ‘Islamic Terrorism’ was invented by the US media and popularized. Their office was targeted when Charlie Hebdo published those cartoons, killing nearly 12 cartoonists. It was Al Qaeda that took responsibility for this attack.

One recalls that in a few Madrassas based in Pakistan, where the Salafi version of Islam was used to indoctrinate Muslim youth, Al Qaeda itself was initially promoted and the syllabus of indoctrination was prepared in Washington. The US pumped $8,000 million to indoctrinate the future recruits of Al Qaeda. The US also provided this outfit with 7000 tons of armaments.

In the last few decades, the rise of terrorism has dominated the global scene, especially in West Asia. The control of oil resources in this area is an outcome of politics. Extremist trends have seen a new peak within Muslims. Blasphemy laws have been implemented in many nations, and some Muslim countries have made blasphemy punishable by death. Pakistan, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria are among them.

In our pakistan, the death penalty for blasphemy was introduced after the Islamization of Pakistan was intensified by Zia regime. At the same time, in many of these countries, popular opinion has shifted to extremist versions of Islam. We saw how she was framed for blasphemy in the case of Asia Bibi and Governor Salman Taseer of Punjab (Pakistan) was put to death when he met Asia Bibi to demonstrate his protest against this law.

Historians of Islam tell us that until two centuries after the Prophet Mohammad, there was no such blasphemy law in Islam. It came during the rule of the Abbasid, at the beginning of the 9th century. It was to strengthen the hold on power of the ruling dynasty. Similarly, a military ruler also introduced this law in comparatively recent times, Zia UL Haq, to strengthen his own authoritarian rule. The object of this was just to legitimise under the garb of a ‘Islamic State’ his regime.

This was an effort to expand its hold on society by the military dictatorship. The definition of apostate (Kafir) runs parallel to it and all non-Muslims, and interpretations of Muslims that vary from the ruling sections are therefore so labelled and are liable to be killed. In Pakistan, Muslims such as Ahmadiyas and Shiyas are the main victims of this law. Christians and Hindus are both, of course, on the firing line of this definition and the blasphemy laws.

Islamic scholar Zeenat Shaukat Ali quoted the Koran extensively in one of the engrossing webinars on the topic on October 25, organised by Muslims For Secular Democracy, to conclude that the holy book does not prescribe violence against those who do not subscribe to the holy book  (To you your religion to me mine).

Javed Anand, moderator of the webinar, pointed out in a refreshing way, “We are here to condemn in unequivocal terms, no ifs and buts, not only the person responsible for this barbaric act, but all those who played some role in instigating the crime, as well as all those who seek to justify it. Not only are we here to condemn the slaying of Mr.Paty, but also to seek the abolition of apostasy and the banishment of blasphemy all over the world.”

This is in tune with many of Asghar Ali Engineer’s interpretations of Islam; one of Islam’s outstanding scholars who points out that Prophet Mohammad was so spiritual that he would never ask for revenge for insults against his own self.  An incident from Prophets Life, the Engineer narrates. An old woman used to throw garbage at him every time he walked that way. She was not there to throw the garbage one day at that spot. The Prophet straightaway went to see her and inquired about her well-being, she felt ashamed of herself and embraced Islam.

There is a need to explain why, in modern times, the intolerant trends in Islam are more prevalent. While history is also full of Muslim rulers who used these principles to increase their power, there is an added dimension to the phenomenon in present times. An elected regime was overthrown in Iran in 1953 by the Mossadegh regime, as it was about to nationalise the oil companies dominated by the US-UK nexus.

His regime was overthrown, leading the fundamentalist Ayatullah Khoemini to come to power in due course. Later, with the Russian occupation of Afghanistan, America purposely began to allow Islamic groups to follow intolerant versions of Islam. Mujahidin, Taliban, Al Qaeda training was part of the same process.

Finally, with US continued intervention in West Asia, attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq brought intolerant groups to the fore to be more powerful, leading to acts such as Paty’s murder. The discussion and debate over rejection of concepts like blasphemy and ‘kill the kafir,’ is the need of the hour for a saner world.

From some news agency