Source: christiantoday.com
Pakistan Christians felt increasingly vulnerable following the murders of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer and Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti, both killed because of their support for reform of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws
It is the popular belief among the majority of Pakistani Muslims that they are duty bound to murder anyone who insults the prophet Muhammad. It is not just Muslim clerics and scholars who believe this, but also regular citizens, politicians, journalists, lawyers and even judges. Many Muslims are ready to be sacrificed for the honour of Muhammad, and also similarly to kill anyone who insults him.
Justice Nazir Akhtar, addressing a gathering of the Ahle Sunnat religious organisation in Lahore, said that undoing the blasphemy laws would be treason even if done by a majority in parliament. He became famous as a sitting judge when he told a social gathering that blasphemers should be killed and not brought to the court of law.
Malik Mumtaz Qadri, a bodyguard, was… continue reading at christiantoday.com
Categories: Ahmadiyyat: True Islam, Asia, Islam, Pakistan
Islam does not propose capital punishment for blasphemy.
There is no verse in the Holy Quran suggesting killing of blasphemers.
However, murder is a capital offence and the Holy Quran says that more than once.
By this logic the Mullahs deserve the punishment and not someone accused of blasphemy.
Blasphemers can be charged for slander or other related charges, in my opinion. But, there should be a prerequisite of someone attempting to deliberately cause civil unrest by foul and indecent language to insult.
In other words we do not need religious penal codes but codes that already exist in almost every country.
No one can be held liable for holding opinion against Islam or the Prophet Muhammad, may peace be on him, which all non-Muslims hold by definition.
So it’s not in the Quoran doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. In 1987, the Federal Shariah Court revised the law to declare that blasphemy was punishable only with death and that no lighter punishment could be awarded.
Accordingly, in 1990, the alternate punishment of life imprisonment was withdrawn, due to which death became the only penalty for the crime of blasphemy. This move opened up a floodgate for extremism and terrorism which the government was unable to subsequently control. The fact that the law is so vague—the clause ‘any imputation, innuendo, insinuation, directly and indirectly,’ can be interpreted in incredibly loose ways—means that all sorts of speech can be prosecuted under it.
Indeed, there have been many instances in Pakistan which manifest the extremism that has been supported by this law. For example, Punjab governor Salman Taseer, who supported reforms to the blasphemy law, was assassinated in December of 2010 for his opposition to the current law.
And the case of Asia Bibi, a Christian who was put on death row for allegedly insulting Islam, has captured worldwide attention. In other words, the dangerous effects of this law are not merely academic—they are all too real. – See more at: http://www.reviewofreligions.org/5002/what-is-the-punishment-for-blasphemy-in-islam/#sthash.hQn8h49E.dpuf
Whatever Zia Shah sahib has written above is perfectly true and need not any addition.
1. It is sure that there is no punishment for blasphemy in Quran.
2. There may be something in the Hadith about it but capital punishment cannot be awarded on he basis of Hadith alone. Proof for capital punishment must come from the Quran.
3. Similarly, matters of Halaal and Haraam are decided in the Quran, not in the Hadith. Proof for Haraam and Halaal must also come from the Quran.
4. Any peaceful non-belligerant person who does not believe in Muhammad should have no fear. Every one is free to believe or disbelieve peacefully.
5. Abuse of the prophet Muhammad is not good at all. But it happened even in the life time of the prophet Muhammad s.a.w.s. He did not take any action about it and did not allow any one to take revenge.
6. There was one person in Madinah who constantly abused the prophet. He was a hypocrite. When he died, the prophet attended (led) his funeral prayers and even gave his own shirt in which that dead man was to be covered (buried).
7. The muslim religious leaders are misled on many counts, including stoning for the adulterers and apostates. There is no death penalty for any such thing. Apostasy is not a crime at all.
8. Under such bad beliefs, the religious leaders want to grab power and want to rule the world. God forbids. They are far away from the peaceful, lovely teachings of Islam.
9. According to the philosophy of Socrates, too much love of something spoils the show. The Muslim leaders are showing too much love for the prophet in some unimportant matters. They should learn to advance on better sides and become gentle minded.
Then Ghulam – if what you say is true and that truth is what you practice, why isn’t this shouted from the heavens? Why isn’t Sharia, murders and punishment for apostasy, and so on, condemned by the alleged majority of peace loving muslims? I don’t see it; I don’t hear it.
I see it with my own eyes the senseless and endless murders of muslim upon muslim. Silence is acceptance. Actions speak louder than words and in the muslim community – you see lots of action and no words of condemnation.
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@Ghulam Sarwar; I have copied and pasted your words to a notepad document and saved them to my archive. That is how much I am impressed with your words. Were that more Muslims realize what you and the Ahmadiyah community stand for. Kudos to you. I also salute Dr. Shah for his constant words of wisdom concerning these issues. Americans fear and loathe the concept of Shariah law in large part to such ideas of these harsh punishments that are nothing more than personal ideology put forth by individuals with a personal agenda.