Source: Human Rights First

By Joelle Fiss

Over the weekend, hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshis marched in the streets, calling for the death penalty for two bloggers who allegedly insulted Islam. Yes, you read correctly. That’s hundreds of thousands of protesters, according to press reports. Under the law, bloggers can be jailed for up to 10 years for defaming a religion. That’s apparently not enough for many Bangladeshis.

As often happens in blasphemy cases, the accusations of boil down to political score settling. The bloggers wrote that senior members of theJamaat e Islami, the largest Bangladeshi Islamic party, should receive the death penalty for crimes committed during the 1971 independence war. In response, Islamists invoked the country’s blasphemy law and called for the bloggers to be killed.

Under Section 295A of Bangladesh’s Penal Code (1860), any person who has a deliberate or “malicious” intention of hurting religious sentiments is liable to imprisonment.  There have been previous attempts by the Jamaat e Islami to create a law authorizing the death penalty for blasphemy, like Pakistan’s. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina firmly rejected calls to strengthen blasphemy laws, reaffirming that “this country is a secular democracy.” But Hasina defended the law in the current form.

It’s obvious that the secular Bangladeshi government is facing pressure from hardline Islamist politicians and public protesters. But what’s missing in in the debate is how allegations of blasphemy have caused outbreaks of violence and instability.  As examples from Bangladesh and other countries show, violent extremists use accusations of blasphemy to advance their own political agendas.

Blasphemy laws also stifle discussion and dissent in the public sphere and allow governments to prevent the peaceful expression of political or religious views. These laws also create problems for religious minorities who are often deemed heretical by a nation’s majority or state-backed religious establishments.

So rather than justifying the legal status-quo in order to avoid the worst-case scenario of further criminalizing blasphemy, we urge the Bangladeshi government and civil society to debate the risks of existing blasphemy laws.

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The Muslim Times’ Editor’s comment

We applaud Bangladesh for at least fighting any worsening of human rights on the issue of blasphemy.  We do hope that status quo will improve gradually with a concerted effort of those supporting secularism in the public domain, over time.