AVOID HARM IN ISLAM! CRUELTY TOWARDS THOSE WHO CRITICISE IT

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Most Muslim-majority countries—specifically 32 of them—are repressive with regard to freedom of expression, condemning criticism of Islam through the crime of blasphemy, including:

• Death penalty, such as in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran, Somalia, Afghanistan, Sudan, Pakistan, Mauritania, Yemen, or the United Arab Emirates.

• Lengthy prison sentences and flogging, such as in Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Qatar, or Mauritania.

Even Tunisia, one of the most secularised and liberal Muslim countries, criminalises it with a prison sentence.

The crime of blasphemy includes any type of critical comment about Islam, as well as expressing opinions or speaking about topics that do not align with it. For example, in Iran, Hashem Aghajari, a university professor, was sentenced to death for blasphemy simply for calling for religious reforms and stating that Muslims were not “monkeys” who should blindly follow the teachings of clerics.

This offence is also applied to non-Muslims, as has been the case with:

• Munir Masih and Ruqqiya Bibi, a Christian couple, found guilty in Pakistan for touching the Qur’an without washing their hands and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

• Hector Aleem, a 51-year-old human rights activist, brutally beaten and tortured, accused of blasphemy after opposing the destruction of a church.

• Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, known as Ahok, Governor of Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. This Christian of Chinese-Indonesian origin was accused of blasphemy during his campaign for re-election as governor in 2016, when he made a comment about the use of the Qur’an in politics.

Specifically, he referred to verse 5:51, which some interpret as meaning that Muslims should not choose non-Muslims as leaders. Ahok suggested that certain clerics were using this verse to deceive Muslim voters into not supporting him.

His comment was recorded on video and went viral, sparking massive protests by conservative Islamic groups. He was found guilty of blasphemy and sentenced to two years in prison.

In some cases, a blasphemy accusation can lead to extrajudicial violence by the community. In quite a few countries, both Muslim and Western, freethinkers critical of Islam are threatened, assaulted, and killed. Some have to flee and even require protection in Western countries and live in undisclosed locations, such as Salman Rushdie or Hirsi Ali.

All of us who are critical of Islam would be thrown into prison or even tortured, lynched, and murdered. This is therefore a genuine tyranny, wholly contrary to the basic rights of freedom of expression and to the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The basis of this legal and social dictatorship is found in the Qur’an and the Hadiths:

QUR’AN

Qur’an 33:57

“Those who offend Allah and His messenger—Allah will curse them in this world and in the Hereafter. He has prepared for them a humiliating punishment.”

HADITHS AND OTHER ISLAMIC WRITINGS

In the Hadiths (biographies containing the sayings and deeds of Muhammad, which are considered by traditional Islam to be the second pillar of that religion) and other Muslim texts, there are many examples of people in his time who were critical of Islam and its Prophet. Most of these people were killed with his blessing, and no punishment or compensation was imposed on the murderer.

Abu `Afak: Muhammad asked his followers to kill this man for making negative comments about Muhammad and Islam.

Tabarani, Daraqutni: Muhammad had told his followers, “Whoever curses a prophet, kill him.”

Abdullah bin Ubai (bin Salul): Muhammad asked his followers to kill this man for making “evil” statements about Muhammad’s family.

Ka’b bin Ashraf: Muhammad asked his followers to kill this man for writing inflammatory poetry about Muhammad and Muslim women.

Asma Bint Marwan: Muhammad asked his followers to kill this woman for composing inflammatory poetry about Islam and Muslims.

The blind man’s enslaved mother: When Muhammad learned that one of his followers had stabbed and killed his Umm walad (a concubine with whom he had fathered a child) for making disparaging comments about Muhammad, he declared that “no retaliation should be paid for her blood.”

LET US DO SOMETHING TO ERADICATE THIS TYRANNY!

Fortunately, there are increasingly more modernist Muslims who oppose this legal and social dictatorship typical of traditionalist Islamism. They question the validity of the Hadiths and other writings drafted several centuries after Muhammad’s death, and interpret the Qur’anic verse Qur’an 33:57 not as a condemnation of criticism of Islam. Read more…

Let us help them spread this more flexible and tolerant perspective within Muslim communities and influence politicians to repeal blasphemy laws. How can we support them?

1.- By signing this campaign.

2.- By sharing this signature campaign and this article with as many people as possible. Read more…

3.- By persuading the Muslims you know of the value of a respectful, accommodating, and liberal Islam.

If you do so, you will help achieve a kinder Islam, free of cruelty.

Thank you for laying a few (or even many) bricks to build a better world,