Blasphemy laws have been used to target some of the most marginalized people in society. By ignoring the longstanding call to repeal the blasphemy laws, Pakistani authorities continue to create a permissive environment for brutality.
By Nazarul Islam
Pakistan’s uptick in blasphemy accusations has continued to underscore the urgency with which the draconian laws that enable abuse, and risk innocent lives.
It is tragic how the broad, vague and coercive nature of the blasphemy laws in this country have violated the rights to freedom of religion and belief, including opinion and expression.
These laws have also been used to target some of the most marginalized people in society, including children, individuals with mental disabilities, members of religious minorities, and poorer people.
However, a recent incident in Sialkot, an industrial city in Pakistan indicates that the snare is widening to include artists, human rights defenders, and foreign workers as well. A Sri Lankan factory manager in Pakistan was mercilessly beaten to death and set ablaze by a mob.
Pakistani authorities need no more evidence to see how dangerous the blasphemy laws are—they are often abused to make false accusations that can, and have, led to unlawful killings and even whole communities in the past, have being attacked and their homes burnt.
Our memories are very short – Perhaps because we in Pakistani society continue to live on a day to day basis. We cannot visualize where we like to see our children placed, in a year, five years or ten years. Remember Tahir Ahmad Naseem, who had been charged with blasphemy and was shot at least six times, while being presented at a trial court?
Punjab Governor’s bodyguard Mumtaz Qadri was celebrated after he killed his employer – and the person he was supposed to protect – Governor Salmaan Taseer, for defending Asia Bibi.
The fear and violence that often follows a blasphemy accusation makes it easy to forget that the people of Pakistan do not have to be beholden to vigilantes who flagrantly abuse these laws. By ignoring the longstanding call to repeal the blasphemy laws, Pakistani authorities continue to create a permissive environment for brutality.
The growing extremism in Pakistan surrounding blasphemy is not purely a domestic issue. It has international implications—ones that have been especially obvious in the controversy surrounding the French satirical magazine, “Charlie Hebdo,” which last year reprinted cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad.
The cartoons were deemed blasphemous by the TLP and prompted anti-France protests throughout late 2020 and early 2021.
In April, however, ahead of a planned demonstration, meant to pressure Islamabad to expel the French Ambassador over the cartoons, Pakistani authorities made their move against the TLP, and arrested its new leader, Saad Hussein Rizvi, Khadim Hussain Rizvi’s son.
But Saad’s arrest only made matters worse. Thousands of the TLP’s supporters took to the streets across the country, clashing with police in riot gear. At one point, the TLP even held six security officers hostage at a party headquarters in Lahore.
Three days into the violence, the French Embassy in Islamabad advised French nationals and companies in Pakistan to temporarily leave the country. Soon after, Imran Khan addressed the nation in a feeble attempt at damage control, warning that expelling the French ambassador would hurt Pakistan more than it would France.
But in the same address, Khan empathized with the group’s cause. “I assure you, we have the same goals,” he said. “We all want an end to incidents of blasphemy that disrespect our Prophet. Only our methods are different.”
If even the prime minister has to express sympathy for the TLP’s cause, then it is not shocking that the extremist group has so much street power. It also certainly doesn’t help that the TLP has received extensive support from other mainstream political parties, which are increasingly using criticism of blasphemy as a campaign tactic, according to Arafat Mazhar, director of the Engage Pakistan research collective.
Although the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) has long been an important symbol in Pakistani nationalism, the TLP has been very successful in distorting religion and love for the Prophet to justify extrajudicial violence, Mazhar said in an interview. The vigilantes are then immortalized—like Qadri, Rizvi’s hero, whose grave is now a shrine.
Therefore, a person who challenges this rhetoric is deemed a blasphemer, and the TLP is always one tweet away from galvanizing its popular support to bring entire cities to a standstill.
On the other hand Pakistani government has continued to face pressure from international actors. In late April, the European Parliament adopted a resolution expressing concern at the continued abuse of the blasphemy laws in Pakistan. This has exacerbated existing religious divides and thus fomented a climate of religious intolerance, violence and discrimination.
There is absolutely no doubt that the resolution points out—that the blasphemy laws are increasingly wielded, as a weapon against vulnerable minority groups.
The state’s failure to reform the laws and stem the tide of intolerance in Pakistan is only making matters worse, particularly since individual lawyers and activists cannot take up the cause without risking death.
And then there is hope, a light at the end of tunnel. One person outside of Pakistan—determined to make a difference, though, happens to be Mashal, Naseem’s daughter, is now campaigning for justice for her father, and drumming up support in her college classes.
Her online petition, which calls for the U.S. and the United Nations to help in reforming the blasphemy laws and securing the maximum sentence for Naseem’s killer, has drawn more than 54,000 signatures. As a result, Mashal herself now faces the same vitriol that led to her father’s murder—most often through hateful tweets calling for her and her family’s deaths.
Still, she has persevered!
[author title=”Nazarul Islam ” image=”https://sindhcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Nazarul-Islam-2.png”]The Bengal-born writer Nazarul Islam is a senior educationist based in USA. He writes for Sindh Courier and the newspapers of Bangladesh, India and America. He is author of a recently published book ‘Chasing Hope’ – a compilation of his 119 articles.[/author]
