Epigraph:
And He has already revealed to you in the Book that, when you hear the Signs of Allah being denied and mocked at, sit not with them until they engage in a talk other than that; for in that case you would be like them. (Al Quran 4:141)
Without freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom & no such thing as publick liberty without freedom of speech, Benjamin Franklin, 1722. For TMT collection on Free Speech, click here
Source: The Morning Call
By Ahmad Chaudhry, D.M.D, M.D., who lives in Lower Nazareth Township, is president of the Lehigh Valley Chapter of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association.
The tragic attacks on Charlie Hebdo have once again focused light on a dark and difficult issue for many Muslims. The issue is blasphemy. Charli Hebdo’s insulting cartoons of Prophet Muhammad represent to Muslims a clear example of blasphemy. To some extremists, it rose to the level of offense that mandated death.
Though Islam forbids any worldly punishment for blasphemy, let alone death, too many Muslim-majority countries have clear blasphemy laws contradicting this view. For example, Pakistan, a country of 200 million Muslims, defines one form of blasphemy in its criminal code as the “use of derogatory remarks, spoken, written, directly or indirectly, etc. [that] defiles the name of Muhammad.” This offense carries “mandatory death and fine.”
In Iran, Ayotollah Khomeni called for the killing of Salman Rushdie for his book, “The Satanic Verses.” Khomeni’s fatwa gained worldwide prominence in 1989. In 2009, an Iranian songwriter, Mohsen Namjoo, was sentenced in absentia to a five-year jail term for apparently insulting the Quran with his lyrics.
The list of Muslim-majority countries that enforce blasphemy laws is a staggering 70 percent. These nations include Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Iraq, Malaysia and the most populous Muslim country, Indonesia.
Categories: Blasphemy, Free speach, Free Speech, Freedom
Death for blasphemy in the Old Testament
zia sha i would like to correspond with you please foward me your persopnal email info this is ebrahim matwad calling from south africa.
to all: I am writing to see who can recommend a tutor that is willing to teach me Quran Recitation, at low cost or free inshallah. I am a new revert , and am disabled, so online tutoring would be perfect inshallah.
This article is about blasphemy in relation to Islam, so why post an extract from the OT?