Summary:
The history of blasphemy is long and complicated. The law was actually introduced by the British Empire in India and was supported by Muslims through the religious texts afterwards. If we look at the texts, one with great knowledge would see the Islamic arguments are weaker in support of the Blasphemy law. There is nothing in the Quran or the authentic teachings of the Prophet of Islam justifying the killing of people for opposing, criticising, humiliating or showing irreverence towards Islamic holy personages, religious artefacts, customs and beliefs.
The people of South Asia, especially in India and Pakistan, are still very confused how, where and for whom this law should be implemented. Some people apply this law over the people who leave Islam and accept another religion (apostasy); some apply it against those who insult the religion by their actions or words or even mock the Prophet of Islam (blasphemy).
While living in Pakistan, I have personally experienced situations in which people were killed: in some cases, it was those who even talked ill about their sects, and in another, an Imam (Muslim cleric) in the province of Punjab was killed under the false allegation of blasphemy. His crime was related to burning the unwanted pages of the Quran outside his mosque, something that is allowed in Islam. Later, it was found that the deceased Imam belonged to a Salafi group and his opponent group killed him due to personal religious enmity.
In Pakistan, from the 1990’s until now, more than 90 people have been killed by various traditional means under the false allegation of the blasphemy law.1 One of the victims of blasphemy was a governor of Punjab province Salman Tasir, who was killed by his own bodyguard, Mumtaz Qadri (a religious Brelvi extremist).2 As well as an assassination of Christian minister Shahbaz Bhatti over his open and public criticism on Blasphemy law.3 In prisons, thousands of people await their trials and a few of them got the death penalty but nothing happened so far, and they have been left to their fate.
Islam denounced the practice of barbarism such as forced conversion into Islam, harming people based on their religious beliefs, killing under accusation of Blasphemy or threats to people who wish to leave Islam. The world is shocked and surprised by the attitude of Muslims, especially of Pakistan, as on the one hand they preach to the world that Islam is a religion of peace and harmony and on the other hand they show aggression, violence, ill treatment and seizing basic human rights from minority communities. The primary goal of this paper is to form a foundation for understanding how the Prophet of Islam consistently showed honour and nobility when insulted and attacked.
