tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/blasphemy-4020/articlesBlasphemy – The Conversation2024-03-26T18:35:25Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2248412024-03-26T18:35:25Z2024-03-26T18:35:25ZPakistan’s blasphemy laws continue to cause violence<p>The Supreme Court of Pakistan recently <a href="https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/1160999-mubarak-sani-case-sc-accepts-plea-for-verdict-revision-issues-notices-for-26th">drew the ire</a> of religious parties and anti-blasphemy groups for granting bail to a man accused of blasphemy. The court ruled against the retroactive implementation of a law that bans the distribution of an <a href="https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/faq/ahmadiyya-movement-pakistan">Ahmadiyya exegesis of the Qur'an</a>.</p>
<p>Mubarik Ahmad Sani was arrested on Jan. 7, 2023 and charged with distributing the book in 2019. However, the ban on its distribution was imposed in 2021. The court granted relief to Sani, who had been incarcerated for 13 months. <a href="https://www.dawn.com/news/1812607">The court observed</a> that Sani should not have been arrested for an act which was not an offence at the time. </p>
<p>The court’s decision did not go down well with some religious conservatives. The government of Punjab, Pakistan’s largest province, submitted a <a href="https://www.dawn.com/news/1816694">review petition against the decision</a>, and a man in the city of Rawalpindi was <a href="https://tribune.com.pk/story/2457292/man-arrested-for-launching-threatening-campaign-against-cjp-isa">arrested for inciting violence</a> against the chief justice on social media. </p>
<h2>History of blasphemy laws</h2>
<p>Pakistan’s blasphemy laws are <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210521170530id_/https://www.indiacode.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/4219/1/THE-INDIAN-PENAL-CODE-1860.pdf">built on the foundations</a> laid in the Indian Penal Code of 1860 during <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/British-raj">British colonial rule</a>. These laws were revised over time in Pakistan, with significant amendments introduced during the dictatorship of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mohammad-Zia-ul-Haq">General Zia-ul-Haq</a> in the 1970s and ‘80s. In efforts to strengthen his unconstitutional rule, Zia-ul-Haq instrumentalized Islam and introduced several laws that promoted radical forms of Islam, stifled religious freedom and contributed to the spread of religious and sectarian violence. </p>
<p>Anti-blasphemy laws in Pakistan revolve primarily around remarks about the Prophet Muhammad. <a href="https://www.pakistani.org/pakistan/legislation/1860/actXLVof1860.html">The law states</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representation or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly, defiles the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>While various people have been charged with blasphemy, Pakistan’s Ahmadiyya community in particular has <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/7/26/ahmadi-persecution-pakistan-blasphemy-islam">repeatedly been targeted</a>. Sections 298-B and 298-C of the <a href="https://www.pakistani.org/pakistan/legislation/1860/actXLVof1860.html">Pakistan Penal Code</a> specifically prohibit the Ahmadiyya community from representing themselves as Muslims, calling their places of worship mosques and reciting the call to prayer.</p>
<p>Exonerating people charged with blasphemy, especially members of minority communities, has historically faced tough resistance. In 1997, a <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2011/03/02/pakistans-blasphemy-laws-a-history-of-violence/">Lahore High Court judge</a> was shot dead in his office for acquitting three Christians in a blasphemy case. In 2011, a Christian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/mar/02/pakistan-minister-shot-dead-islamabad">federal minister</a> and a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-12111831">provincial governor</a> were killed for demanding a review of the controversial blasphemy laws.</p>
<p>In 2018, violence erupted when a Christian woman, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/31/asia-bibi-verdict-pakistan-court-overturns-blasphemy-death-sentence">Asia Bibi</a>, was acquitted by the Supreme Court. Bibi had been given a death sentence by the Lahore High Court on blasphemy charges. Fearing harm from anti-blasphemy activists, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/5/8/aasia-bibi-christian-acquitted-of-blasphemy-leaves-pakistan">she fled to Canada in 2019</a>. </p>
<h2>Encouraging violence</h2>
<p>The promotion of anti-blasphemy laws and harsh sentences has resulted in <a href="https://crss.pk/blasphemy-cases-in-pakistan-1947-2021/">hundreds of arrests</a> and the killing of at least 90 people in vigilante violence since Pakistan’s independence in 1947.</p>
<p><a href="https://pewrsr.ch/2Y7MO44">A 2019 Pew Research Centre report</a> on religious restrictions placed Pakistan among the countries with the highest levels of restrictions on religion. The strict social restrictions have often manifested in <a href="https://aje.io/6hkbez">vigilante violence</a>.</p>
<p>The glorification of violence towards alleged acts of blasphemy appears to have become a norm in Pakistan. The graves of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/12/salmaan-taseer-case-harks-back-to-1929-killing-of-hindu-publisher">Ilm Deen</a>, <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/a-13-2006-05-13-voa19/312718.html">Amir Cheema</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/01/funeral-pakistani-mumtaz-qadri-executed-salmaan-taseer">Mumtaz Qadri</a>, for example, have become regularly visited shrines.
Deen was hanged in 1929 for murdering the Hindu publisher of a controversial book about Muhammad. His story is included in school textbooks. </p>
<p>Cheema attempted to murder a German newspaper editor in 2006 for publishing cartoons of Muhammad and died in the custody of German police. Qadri was executed for killing the governor of Punjab in 2011 because the governor had spoken in defense of Bibi.</p>
<p>Although the Qur'an does not command Muslims to punish blasphemy, the supporters of anti-blasphemy laws rely on rigid interpretations by scholars to justify their acts. </p>
<p>The petition by the Punjab provincial government for the Supreme Court to review its decision, and the continued threat of violence, all highlight the complicated challenges faced in Pakistan regarding the freedom of religion.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224841/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Azmat Abbas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Pakistan’s laws against blasphemy have been used to bring cases against numerous people over the years, and in particular, the country’s religious minorities.Azmat Abbas, Doctoral Candidate, Department of Religion and Culture, Wilfrid Laurier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2118492023-08-29T12:26:36Z2023-08-29T12:26:36ZQuran burning in Sweden prompts debate on the fine line between freedom of expression and incitement of hatred<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544675/original/file-20230824-19-8rlhm4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=168%2C38%2C8433%2C5665&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Iraqis raise copies of the Quran during a protest in Baghdad, Iraq, on July 22, 2023, following reports of the burning of the holy book in Copenhagen.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/QuranProtests/a55d505a51d943e58a22e22e6536ba60/photo?Query=raqis%20raise%20copies%20of%20the%20Quran%20during%20a%20protest%20in%20Tahrir%20Square%20on%20in%20Baghdad,%20Iraq&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=779&currentItemNo=0&vs=true">AP Photo/Hadi Mizban</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Swedish government is <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/sweden-raise-terrorist-threat-assessment-daily-dn-2023-08-17/">concerned about national security</a> following several incidents involving the burning of the Quran that have provoked demonstrations and outrage from Muslim-majority countries.</p>
<p>The spate of Quran-burning incidents followed <a href="https://www.thequint.com/news/world/far-right-leader-rasmus-paludan-burns-quran-in-sweden-worldwide-condemnation-from-muslims-turkey-saudi-pakistan">an act of desecration</a> by far-right activist Rasmus Paludan on Jan. 21, 2023, in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm. On Aug. 25, Denmark’s government said it would “criminalize” desecration of religious objects and moved a bill <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/25/world/europe/denmark-quran-burning.html#:%7E:text=Denmark's%20government%20said%20on%20Friday,in%20many%20Muslim%2Dmajority%20countries.">banning the burning of scriptures</a>. </p>
<p>While freedom of expression is a fundamental human right in liberal democracies, the right to express one’s opinion can become complex when expressing one’s views clashes with the religious and cultural beliefs of others and when this rhetoric veers into hate speech.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.arminlanger.net/">scholar of European studies</a>, I’m interested in how modern European societies are trying to navigate the fine line between freedom of expression and the need to prevent incitement of hatred; a few are introducing laws specifically addressing hate speech. </p>
<h2>Death penalty for insulting God and church</h2>
<p>Since medieval times, because of the dominant role of Christianity in political and cultural life, blasphemy against Christian beliefs in European countries was severely punished. </p>
<p>For instance, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108242189.018">the Danish Code from 1683 punished people</a> by cutting off their tongue, head or hands. Similarly, in Britain, both on the main island and in its overseas colonies, blasphemy was punished with executions. In 1636, English Puritan settlers in Massachusetts <a href="https://whyy.org/articles/anti-blasphemy-laws-have-a-history-in-america/">instituted the penalty of death</a> for blasphemy. </p>
<p>For centuries, blasphemy laws were viewed by religious and civil leaders as safeguards for keeping society orderly and strengthening religious rules and influence. These laws showed how much power and influence religious groups wielded back then. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544778/original/file-20230825-21-am7gat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white painting showing a church leader holding a crucifix and wood being piled up to burn a man, while a crowd looks on." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544778/original/file-20230825-21-am7gat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544778/original/file-20230825-21-am7gat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544778/original/file-20230825-21-am7gat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544778/original/file-20230825-21-am7gat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544778/original/file-20230825-21-am7gat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544778/original/file-20230825-21-am7gat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544778/original/file-20230825-21-am7gat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A painting showing a man being executed for heresy in July 1826.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/AUTODAF%C3%89_A_VALENCE_%28Juillet_1826%29.jpg">(E)manccipa-Ment via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>During the Enlightenment, from the 1600s to the 1700s, <a href="https://world101.cfr.org/contemporary-history/prelude-global-era/what-enlightenment-and-how-did-it-transform-politics">religious institutions began losing power</a>. Advocating for a strict separation of church and state, France became the first country to repeal its blasphemy law in 1881. Seven other European countries repealed their laws between the 1900s and 2000s, including <a href="https://www.eurel.info/spip.php?rubrique542&lang=en">Sweden</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/02/denmark-scraps-334-year-old-blasphemy-law">and, more recently, Denmark</a>.</p>
<h2>European landscape of blasphemy laws</h2>
<p>Several countries in Europe retain blasphemy laws, but their approaches are highly varied. Often the laws may not prevent present-day acts like dishonoring of religious texts. </p>
<p>In Russia, legislators introduced a federal law in 2013 <a href="https://www.article19.org/data/files/medialibrary/3729/13-05-03-LA-russia.pdf">criminalizing public insults</a> of religious beliefs. This followed some provocative performances by the Moscow-based feminist protest art group Pussy Riot. One such protest, a “punk prayer,” in a Moscow cathedral in 2012 criticized the close ties between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Putin regime. </p>
<p>Since 1969, the German penal code has forbidden the public slander of religions and worldviews. While Germany rarely enforces this law, in 2006 an anti-Islam activist got a <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/man-who-made-koran-toilet-paper-escapes-jail-1.1019869">one-year suspended prison sentence</a> for distributing toilet paper with the words “Quran, the Holy Quran” printed on it. </p>
<p>Austria and Switzerland have laws quite similar to Germany’s in this regard. In 2011, a person in Vienna was fined for calling the Islamic prophet Muhammad a pedophile. This case later went up to the European Court of Human Rights, which supported the Viennese court’s decision. The court said that the person wasn’t trying to have a useful discussion but instead <a href="https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/app/conversion/pdf/?library=ECHR&id=003-6234980-8105265&filename=Judgment%20E.S.%20v.%20Austria%20-">just wanted to show that the prophet Muhammad shouldn’t be respected</a>.</p>
<p>Spain, too, takes a <a href="https://www.mjusticia.gob.es/es/AreaTematica/DocumentacionPublicaciones/Documents/Criminal_Code_2016.pdf">strong stance against religious disrespect</a>. Its penal code makes it a crime to publicly belittle religious beliefs, practices or ceremonies in a way that could hurt the feelings of followers. While Spain introduced this law to safeguard Catholic interests, <a href="https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/essays/national-laws-on-blasphemy-spain">it also covers religious minorities</a>. </p>
<p>Italy, another Catholic-majority country, punishes acts deemed to be disrespectful to religions. Its penal code has been used to punish actions that insult Christianity. For example, in 2017 <a href="https://hyperallergic.com/410323/hogre-jesus-chared-with-public-offense-italy/">authorities charged an artist</a> for depicting Jesus with an erect penis.</p>
<h2>Contemporary debate</h2>
<p>The Quran burnings in Sweden and Denmark, aren’t random – they’re part of a broader agenda of targeting Muslims that’s <a href="https://bridge.georgetown.edu/research/burning-the-quran-is-not-free-speech/">being pushed by far-right groups</a> across Europe. </p>
<p>In many European countries, lawmakers and others are asking whether these book burnings should be seen as exercises of free expression or more as incitement based on religion. </p>
<p>A few countries are introducing new legislation to <a href="https://sas-space.sas.ac.uk/2064/1/Amicus76_Kearns.pdf">curb hate speech against religious communities</a>. For example, in 2006 England got rid of the blasphemy law and <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2007/2490/introduction/made">introduced The Racial and Religious Hatred Act</a>, which makes it an offense to stir up religious hatred. After repealing its blasphemy law in 2020, Ireland has been discussing the introduction of a <a href="https://www.gov.ie/en/press-release/74ed9-new-bill-to-tackle-hate-crime-and-hate-speech-includes-clear-provision-to-protect-freedom-of-expression/">hate speech law</a>, which will criminalize any communication or behavior that is likely to incite violence or hatred.</p>
<p>Sweden passed a hate speech law in 1970 protecting racial, ethnic, religious and sexual minorities. Swedish authorities pointed to this legislation when they <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/swedish-police-approve-small-anti-koran-demonstration-mosque-2023-06-28/">took action against a Quran-burning incident</a> that occurred in front of a mosque in June 2023. </p>
<p>The police argued that the Quran burning wasn’t just about religion but specifically <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/why-does-sweden-allow-quran-burnings-it-has-no-blasphemy-laws-/7190103.html">targeted the Muslim community</a>. This was evident, according to the authorities, as the incident took place in front of a mosque <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/swedish-police-approve-small-anti-koran-demonstration-mosque-2023-06-28/">during the Islamic holiday of Eid</a>, setting it apart from other burnings that took place outside of the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/14/copy-of-quran-desecrated-outside-stockholms-royal-palace">Swedish Royal Palace</a>, <a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/world/europe/swedish-police-grant-permit-for-protest-outside-iraqi-embassy-in-stockholm-where-quran-was-burned">the Turkish and Iraqi embassies</a> and other public spaces. Because of the existing hate speech law focusing on incitement against minorities rather than religions, the activist received a fine from the police.</p>
<p>In recent weeks, some have called for a stricter application of the hate speech law and have demanded a ban on all Quran-burning events for <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66310285">implicitly inciting hatred against Muslims</a>. </p>
<h2>A global challenge</h2>
<p>This discussion isn’t limited to Europe alone. Even in the U.S., there’s an ongoing debate about the boundaries of free speech. The First Amendment of the Constitution allows free speech, which some can interpret as the right to burn holy books.</p>
<p>Terry Jones, for instance, is a controversial Christian pastor from Florida. He organized <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/florida-pastor-terry-joness-koran-burning-has-far-reaching-effect/2011/04/02/AFpiFoQC_story.html">Quran-burning events</a> in Gainesville in 2011 <a href="https://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012%2F04%2F29%2F211022">and 2012</a>. His only legal consequence was a <a href="https://talkabout.iclrs.org/2019/12/10/1045/">US$271 fine from Gainesville Fire Rescue</a> for not following fire safety rules. </p>
<p>Following Jones’ announcement that he was going to burn the Quran, President Barack Obama said that the <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/president-obama-terry-jones-koran-burning-plan-destructive/story?id=11589122">pastor violated U.S. principles of religious tolerance</a>. Legal scholar <a href="https://law.yale.edu/jack-m-balkin">Jack Balkin</a> recommended <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/09/10/balkin.first.amendment/index.html">using free speech</a> in promoting pluralist values to counter Jones’ hatred. Scholar of law and religion <a href="https://talkabout.iclrs.org/authors-2/iclrs-authors/jane-wise/">Jane Wise</a> suggested that the <a href="https://talkabout.iclrs.org/2019/12/10/1045/">U.S. could follow the English example</a> by banning hate speech. </p>
<p>As societies change, I believe it has become important to recognize when freedom of speech has turned into promoting hatred. Figuring out where this boundary lies, understanding the standards applied and uncovering potential biases can spark important conversations. While a solution that applies to every single country may not exist, it’s essential to engage in this dialogue, recognizing its complexity and the varying perspectives across societies.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211849/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Armin Langer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Several countries across Europe are introducing new legislation to curb hate speech against religions, even as they get rid of older blasphemy laws.Armin Langer, Assistant Professor of European Studies, University of FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2087342023-07-05T12:22:20Z2023-07-05T12:22:20ZChristians in Pakistan risk greater persecution from blasphemy laws, while living in poverty<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534895/original/file-20230629-13286-eqhpah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=43%2C54%2C7176%2C4689&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pakistani Christians praying at a church.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/PakistanChristmas/1ed02288065d49d7850a31b29b43b6c5/photo?Query=christians%20pakistan&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=2518&currentItemNo=40">AP Photo/Fareed Khan</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Two Christian Pakistani teenagers, one 18 and another 14, were <a href="https://www.christianpost.com/news/2-christian-teens-accused-of-blasphemy-in-pakistan.html">arrested in their homes</a> in Lahore in May 2023 on charges of blasphemy after a policeman claimed he heard them being disrespectful of the Prophet Muhammad. </p>
<p>Among Muslim-majority countries, Pakistan has the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26916355">strictest blasphemy laws</a>. People <a href="https://www.worldwatchmonitor.org/pakistans-anti-blasphemy-laws/#:%7E:text=Section%20295C%20forbids%20insults%20to,death%20penalty%20should%20be%20mandatory.">jailed under these laws</a> risk <a href="http://www.federalshariatcourt.gov.pk/en/home/">a sentence of life in prison</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/21/world/asia/pakistan-blasphemy-laws.html">and worse still, even death</a>. Christians and other religious minorities make up a mere 4% of Pakistan’s population, but they account for <a href="https://www.worldwatchmonitor.org/pakistans-anti-blasphemy-laws/#:%7E:text=Section%20295C%20forbids%20insults%20to,death%20penalty%20should%20be%20mandatory.">about half of blasphemy charges</a>. </p>
<p>As if navigating blasphemy laws weren’t hardship enough, Christians who live in major cities like Lahore are often relegated to poorly paid and hazardous jobs like sanitation work. The nation of Pakistan was created 76 years ago but during this time the lives of its Christian citizens have grown ever more difficult.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/myriam-renaud-343058">scholar of world religions</a>, I have studied how the evolution of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-are-madrasa-schools-and-what-skills-do-they-impart-99497">hard-line version of Islam in Pakistan</a> has come to <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/05/16/is-pakistan-safe-for-christians/">shape this country’s national identity</a> and contributed to the persecution of its Christian minority.</p>
<h2>Hindu converts to Christianity</h2>
<p>Many Christians in Pakistan trace their religious affiliation to the activities of <a href="https://history.wisc.edu/publications/christianity-in-india-from-beginnings-to-the-present/">missionary societies</a> during the 19th and early 20th centuries in the Punjab region of what was then British-ruled India. </p>
<p>Early evangelization efforts by both the British and Americans in Hindu-majority India focused on upper-caste Hindus. The evangelizers assumed that these elites would use their influence to convert members of the lower castes. However, this approach led to few converts. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/caste-doesnt-just-exist-in-india-or-in-hinduism-it-is-pervasive-across-many-religions-in-south-asia-and-the-diaspora-180470">caste system</a> is a tiered socioeconomic system that consigns people to a particular group, or caste. In Hinduism, this system is part of its religious worldview. People are born into a particular caste. </p>
<p>There are some <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/43052102">3,000 castes in India</a>, each associated with a range of occupations. People from the lowest castes are often expected to do work that is considered “polluting,” such as skinning animals, removing the bodies of the unclaimed dead and cleaning toilets. Because castes are rigid categories, their members are blocked from upward mobility.</p>
<p>In the late 19th century, American missionaries in India decided <a href="https://www.mqup.ca/nationalism-and-minority-identities-in-islamic-societies-products-9780773528482.php">to focus directly on the least advantaged</a> and began to <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Imperial_Fault_Lines.html?id=z9c3AcIDCKkC">baptize Hindus of low or no caste</a>. The missionaries’ new approach proved successful, in part because <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Christianity_in_India.html?id=mXgSDAAAQBAJ">conversion to Christianity</a> offered hope of escape from Hinduism’s caste system. By the 1930s, for example, many members of the largest menial caste in India’s Punjab region had converted to Protestant Christianity.</p>
<p>In 1947, the country of Pakistan was carved out of Indian territory to establish a homeland for Muslims, who were a minority in India. The section of the Punjab where most Christians lived became part of Pakistan. </p>
<p>The majority of those Christians chose to remain in the newly created Pakistan. They believed that they would fare better there because, in principle, Islam rejects social divisions like castes on theological grounds. </p>
<h2>Lower socioeconomic status</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534897/original/file-20230629-26782-wnno82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Women, with heads covered, seated in pews, inside a church with red hanging decorations." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534897/original/file-20230629-26782-wnno82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534897/original/file-20230629-26782-wnno82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534897/original/file-20230629-26782-wnno82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534897/original/file-20230629-26782-wnno82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534897/original/file-20230629-26782-wnno82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534897/original/file-20230629-26782-wnno82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534897/original/file-20230629-26782-wnno82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pakistani Christian women attend the Christmas Mass at a church in Peshawar, Pakistan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/PakistanChristmas/331743ae23494157992442e1f9625446/photo?Query=church%20pakistan&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=930&currentItemNo=4">AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In practice, after the creation of Pakistan, not much changed economically or socially for the Christians who stayed: The <a href="https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/761014">caste system continued to exist</a> in the new country. </p>
<p>Even today, most Pakistani Christians living in major cities are <a href="https://www.ucanews.com/news/christians-upset-over-controversial-pilgrimage-advert/80233">consigned to poorly paid jobs in the sanitation industry</a>. Pakistan’s government has adopted a <a href="http://www.humanrights.asia/news/ahrc-news/AHRC-STM-077-2017/">systemic policy</a> of reserving sanitation posts for religious minorities. </p>
<p>Newspaper ads for sanitation workers, including by government agencies, explicitly call for non-Muslims. One of Asia’s Catholic news agencies, UCANews, reported that in May 2017, the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation issued a call for 450 sanitation workers, <a href="https://www.ucanews.com/news/children-of-a-lesser-god-pakistans-sanitation-workers/79884">offering contracts</a> that required employees to be non-Muslim and to take this oath: “I swear by my faith that I will only work in the position of a sanitary worker and not refuse any work.” </p>
<p>In Pakistan’s northwest city of Peshawar, as many as 80% of Christians are sanitation workers. According to the 2022 census, 3.27% of urban <a href="https://www.pbs.gov.pk/sites/default/files/tables/population/POPULATION%20BY%20RELIGION.pdf">Pakistanis living in Punjab</a> province are Christian. However, in Lahore, Punjab’s capital city, Christians account for <a href="http://www.thefridaytimes.com/tft/christians-required-only-as-sweepers/">76% of sanitation workers</a>. </p>
<p>Subject to widespread discrimination, Christians are often refused other work. Confined to low-wage jobs, Christians experience widespread poverty, even in the relatively prosperous Punjab. A <a href="https://academic.oup.com/edinburgh-scholarship-online/book/37892/chapter-abstract/332392693?redirectedFrom=fulltext">2012 survey in Lahore</a> found that, for Christian families of five, the average monthly income was US$138 — a per capita daily income of 92 cents - which is well below the poverty line defined by the World Bank. In contrast, during the same year, the <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/226956/average-world-wages-in-purchasing-power-parity-dollars/">average monthly income for all Pakistanis</a> was US$255.</p>
<h2>Blasphemy laws target minorities</h2>
<p>The condition of Christians only worsened when Gen. Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, Pakistan’s dictatorial president from 1978 to 1988, started <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2759814?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">the Islamization of the country</a>. </p>
<p>Originally, for example, Pakistan’s blasphemy laws were general in nature. They punished offenders who wounded the religious sensibilities of other people. Only a handful of charges were filed until Zia added several Islam-specific clauses to this nonsectarian code. These changes included making blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad punishable by a minimum sentence of life in prison, and possibly death. Since Zia’s rule, <a href="https://crss.pk/blasphemy-cases-in-pakistan-1947-2021/">hundreds of blasphemy cases</a> have been filed.</p>
<p>Anthropologist <a href="https://honorsandawards.iu.edu/awards/honoree/1333.html">Linda Walbridge</a>, writing about <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=z9c3AcIDCKkC&pg=PA1&vq=christian+colonies&dq=punjabi+presbyterian&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=3#v=onepage&q=christian%20colonies&f=false%20https://books.google.com/books/about/Nationalism_and_Minority_Identities_in_I.html?id=82jaiJ48vZQC">Pakistani Christians</a>, notes that by the 1990s these “Christians certainly believed they were the targets of systematic oppression.” That oppression, she observed, came largely “in the form of laws that have increasingly been used against them.” </p>
<p>Indeed, laws intended to protect Islam have sometimes been used against Christians and other minorities to settle personal scores or business disputes. In one incident, a Christian couple refused to pay back their Muslim employer who had lent them money. A mob burned them alive after he <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/05/world/asia/pakistani-christian-couple-accused-of-blasphemy-is-killed-by-angry-mob.html">accused them of blasphemy</a>. </p>
<p>The father of one of the arrested teenagers <a href="https://www.christianpost.com/news/2-christian-teens-accused-of-blasphemy-in-pakistan.html">told the The Christian Post</a>, “Our Muslim neighbors have known us for years, and they know we would never indulge in anything that could hurt their religious sentiments.” Prosecuting authorities reviewing the teenagers’ case may lean in their favor, but if the past is any indication, the authorities themselves will <a href="https://www.icj.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Pakistan-On-Trial-Blasphemy-Laws-Publications-Thematic-Reports-2015-ENG.pdf">face intimidation, threats and accusations</a>. </p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of a piece <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-pope-francis-choice-of-a-pakistani-cardinal-means-for-christians-of-the-country-97604">first published on June 28, 2018.</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208734/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Myriam Renaud does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Consigned to jobs in sanitation and other hazardous fields, Christians, the largest religious minority group in Pakistan, face a difficult time in the country.Myriam Renaud, Affiliated Faculty of Bioethics, Religion, and Society, Department of Religious Studies, DePaul UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1986472023-02-06T13:27:21Z2023-02-06T13:27:21ZThe politics of blasphemy: Why Pakistan and some other Muslim countries are passing new blasphemy laws<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506698/original/file-20230126-24317-zg6pjr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=30%2C38%2C5111%2C3472&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People gather around the body of a man who was killed when an enraged mob stoned him to death for allegedly desecrating the Quran, in eastern Pakistan in February 2022.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/PakistanBlasphemy/627a5c4fb72347f4b181cbe63397b031/photo?Query=pakistan%20blasphemy%202022&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=15&currentItemNo=13">AP Photo/Asim Tanveer</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Jan. 17, 2023, Pakistan’s National Assembly unanimously voted to expand the country’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-muslim-countries-are-quick-at-condemning-defamation-but-often-ignore-rights-violations-against-muslim-minorities-184624">laws on blasphemy</a>, which carries the death penalty for insulting the Prophet Muhammad. The new law now extends the punishment to those deemed to have insulted the prophet’s companions, which could include thousands of early Muslims, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/21/world/asia/pakistan-blasphemy-laws.html">with 10 years in prison or life imprisonment</a>.</p>
<p>Human rights activists <a href="https://hrcp-web.org/hrcpweb/amendments-to-blasphemy-laws-create-further-room-for-persecution/">are concerned that the expanded laws could target minorities</a>, particularly Shiite Muslims who are critical of many leading early Muslims. </p>
<p>Pakistan has the world’s <a href="https://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/Blasphemy%20Laws%20Report.pdf">second-strictest blasphemy laws after Iran</a>. About <a href="https://herald.dawn.com/news/1154036">1,500 Pakistanis</a> have been charged with blasphemy over the past three decades. In a case covered by the international media, Junaid Hafeez, a university lecturer, was <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/junaid-hafeez-pakistani-academic-given-death-sentence-for-blasphemy/a-51762475">sentenced to death</a> on the charge of insulting the prophet on Facebook in 2019. His sentence has been under <a href="https://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFKBN1YP07F?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews">appeal</a>.</p>
<p>Although no executions have ever taken place, extrajudicial killings related to blasphemy have occurred in Pakistan. Since 1990, more than <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-46465247">70 people have been murdered</a> by mobs and vigilantes over allegations of insulting Islam.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/comparative-politics/islam-authoritarianism-and-underdevelopment-global-and-historical-comparison?format=PB">My research</a> shows that blasphemy laws historically emerged to serve the political and religious authorities, and they continue to have a role in silencing dissent in many Muslim countries. </p>
<h2>Blasphemy and apostasy</h2>
<p>Of the <a href="https://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/Legislation%20Factsheet%20-%20Blasphemy_3.pdf">71 countries</a> that criminalize blasphemy, 32 are majority Muslim. Punishment and enforcement of these laws <a href="https://www.loc.gov/law/help/blasphemy/index.php">vary</a>. </p>
<p>Blasphemy is punishable by death in Iran, Pakistan, <a href="https://www.loc.gov/law/help/blasphemy/index.php#Afghanistan">Afghanistan</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/03/world/asia/brunei-stoning-gay-sex.html">Brunei</a>, <a href="https://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/Africa%20Speech%20Laws%20FINAL_0.pdf">Mauritania</a> and <a href="https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/essays/national-laws-on-blasphemy-saudi-arabia">Saudi Arabia</a>. Among non-Muslim-majority countries, the <a href="https://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/Blasphemy%20Laws%20Report.pdf">harshest blasphemy laws are in Italy</a>, where the maximum penalty is two years in prison.</p>
<p>Half of the world’s 49 Muslim-majority countries have additional laws <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/07/29/which-countries-still-outlaw-apostasy-and-blasphemy/">banning apostasy</a>, meaning people may be <a href="https://www.loc.gov/law/help/apostasy/index.php">punished for leaving Islam</a>. All countries with <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/07/29/which-countries-still-outlaw-apostasy-and-blasphemy/">apostasy laws</a> are Muslim-majority. Apostasy is often <a href="https://www.loc.gov/law/help/blasphemy/index.php">charged along with blasphemy</a>. </p>
<p>Laws on apostasy are quite popular in some Muslim countries. According to a 2013 <a href="https://www.pewforum.org/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-overview/">Pew survey</a>, about 75% of respondents in Muslim-majority countries in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia favor making sharia, or Islamic law, the official law of the land. Among those who support sharia, around 25% in Southeast Asia, 50% in the Middle East and North Africa and 75% in South Asia say they support “executing those who leave Islam” – that is, they support laws punishing apostasy with death.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two firefighters stand in puddles in a burned-out between ." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436800/original/file-20211209-13-y067fe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436800/original/file-20211209-13-y067fe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436800/original/file-20211209-13-y067fe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436800/original/file-20211209-13-y067fe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436800/original/file-20211209-13-y067fe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436800/original/file-20211209-13-y067fe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436800/original/file-20211209-13-y067fe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Firefighters in a factory torched by an angry mob in Jhelum, Pakistan, after one of the factory’s employees was accused of desecrating the Quran, Nov. 21, 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/pakistani-firefighters-stand-in-a-burnt-out-factory-torched-news-photo/498134476?adppopup=true">STR/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The ulema and the state</h2>
<p>My 2019 book “<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/comparative-politics/islam-authoritarianism-and-underdevelopment-global-and-historical-comparison?format=PB">Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment</a>” traces the roots of blasphemy and apostasy laws in the Muslim world back to a historic alliance between Islamic scholars and government.</p>
<p>Starting around the year 1050, certain Sunni scholars of law and theology, called the “ulema,” began working closely with <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/V/bo5951736.html">political rulers</a> to challenge what they considered to be the sacrilegious influence of <a href="https://www.fulcrum.org/concern/monographs/s1784m135#toc">Muslim philosophers</a> on society. </p>
<p>Muslim philosophers had for three centuries been making major contributions to <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691135267/the-crest-of-the-peacock">mathematics</a>, <a href="https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/T/bo28119973.html">physics</a> and <a href="http://press.georgetown.edu/book/georgetown/medieval-islamic-medicine">medicine</a>. They developed the <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/305233/the-house-of-wisdom-by-jim-al-khalili/">Arabic number system</a> used across the West today and invented a forerunner of the modern <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674050044&content=toc">camera</a>.</p>
<p>The conservative ulema felt that these philosophers were inappropriately influenced by <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/a-history-of-islamic-philosophy/9780231132206">Greek philosophy</a> and <a href="https://archive.org/stream/renaissanceofisl029336mbp/renaissanceofisl029336mbp_djvu.txt">Shiite Islam</a> against Sunni beliefs. The most prominent name in consolidating Sunni orthodoxy was the respected Islamic scholar <a href="https://fonsvitae.com/product/the-book-of-knowledge/">Ghazali</a>, who died in the year 1111.</p>
<p>In several <a href="https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo16220536.html">influential books</a> still widely read today, Ghazali declared two long-dead leading Muslim philosophers, <a href="https://fonsvitae.com/product/hardback-al-ghazali-deliverance-error-al-munqidh-min-al-dalal-works-copy/">Farabi and Ibn Sina</a>, as apostates for their unorthodox views on God’s power and the nature of resurrection. Their followers, Ghazali wrote, <a href="https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/I/bo3624354.html">could be punished with death</a>. </p>
<p>As modern-day historians <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9780807856574/the-politics-of-knowledge-in-premodern-islam/">Omid Safi</a> and <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/al-ghazalis-philosophical-theology-9780195331622?cc=us&lang=en&">Frank Griffel</a> assert, Ghazali’s declaration provided justification to Muslim sultans from the 12th century onward who wished to <a href="https://www.iep.utm.edu/ibnrushd/">persecute</a> – even <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/as-Suhrawardi">execute</a> – <a href="https://criticalmuslim.com/issues/12-dangerous-freethinkers/abbasid-freethinking-humanism-aziz-al-azmeh">thinkers</a> seen as threats to conservative religious rule. </p>
<p>This “ulema-state alliance,” <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Islam_Authoritarianism_and_Underdevelopm/xjCdDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22ulema-state%22">as I call it</a>, began in the <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/V/bo5951736.html">mid-11th century</a> in <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691165851/lost-enlightenment">Central Asia</a>, <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/continuity-and-change-in-medieval-persia-aspects-of-administrative-economic-and-social-history-11th-14th-century/oclc/16095227">Iran</a> and <a href="https://www.sunypress.edu/p-3207-a-learned-society-in-a-period-o.aspx">Iraq</a> and a century later spread to <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/history/middle-east-history/knowledge-and-social-practice-medieval-damascus-11901350?format=PB">Syria</a>, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/muslim-cities-in-the-later-middle-ages/02685655C9C18404192B9FE3E43E75D5">Egypt</a> and <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/muqaddimah-an-introduction-to-history/oclc/307867">North Africa</a>. In these regimes, questioning religious orthodoxy and political authority wasn’t merely dissent – it was apostasy.</p>
<h2>Wrong direction</h2>
<p>Parts of <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/history/european-history-general-interest/rise-western-world-new-economic-history?format=PB">Western Europe</a> were ruled by a similar alliance between the Catholic Church and monarchs. These governments assaulted free thinking, too. During the Spanish Inquisition, between the 16th and 18th centuries, <a href="https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/publication/2150452">thousands of people</a> were tortured and killed for apostasy.</p>
<p>Blasphemy laws were also in place, if infrequently used, in various European countries until recently. <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/quran-burner-denmark-facebook-blasphemy-laws-repeal-a7771041.html">Denmark</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/27/ireland-votes-to-oust-blasphemy-ban-from-constitution">Ireland</a> and <a href="https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20160714/local/repealing-blasphemy-law-a-victory-for-freedom-of-speech-says-humanist.618859">Malta</a> all recently repealed their blasphemy laws. But they persist in many parts of the Muslim world. </p>
<p>In Pakistan, the military dictator <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/21/opinion/pakistans-tyranny-of-blasphemy.html">Zia-ul-Haq</a>, who ruled the country from 1978 to 1988, is responsible for its harsh blasphemy laws. An ally of the <a href="https://nation.com.pk/14-Oct-2016/10-things-you-need-to-know-about-pakistan-s-blasphemy-law">ulema</a>, Zia <a href="https://www.refworld.org/pdfid/565da4824.pdf">updated blasphemy laws</a> – written by British colonizers to avoid interreligious conflict – to defend specifically Sunni Islam and increased the maximum punishment to death. </p>
<p>From the 1920s until Zia, these laws had been applied <a href="https://nation.com.pk/14-Oct-2016/10-things-you-need-to-know-about-pakistan-s-blasphemy-law">only about a dozen times</a>. Since then, they have become a powerful tool for crushing dissent.</p>
<p>Some dozen Muslim countries, including <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/29/world/iran-drops-death-penalty-for-professor-guilty-of-blasphemy.html">Iran</a> and <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/egypt-atheism-illegal-crackdown-non-believers-religion-islam-772471">Egypt</a>, have undergone a <a href="https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199812264.001.0001/acprof-9780199812264">similar process</a> over the past four decades. </p>
<h2>Dissenting voices in Islam</h2>
<p>The conservative ulema base their case for blasphemy and apostasy laws on a few reported sayings of the prophet, known as hadith, primarily: “<a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Freedom_of_Religion_Apostasy_and_Islam/MrhBDgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=apostasy+hadith+change+religion+kill&pg=PT87&printsec=frontcover">Whoever changes his religion, kill him</a>.” </p>
<p>But many <a href="https://english.kadivar.com/2006/09/29/the-freedom-of-thought-and-religion-in-islam-2/">Islamic scholars</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/14/opinion/islams-problem-with-blasphemy.html">Muslim intellectuals</a> reject <a href="https://yaqeeninstitute.org/jonathan-brown/the-issue-of-apostasy-in-islam/#.XjcRFy2ZNKN">this view as radical</a>. They argue that Prophet Muhammad never <a href="https://yaqeeninstitute.org/jonathan-brown/the-issue-of-apostasy-in-islam/#.XjcRFy2ZNKN">executed</a> anyone for apostasy, nor <a href="https://archive.org/details/MuhammadAndTheJewsAReExaminationByBarakatAhmad_201702">encouraged</a> his followers to do so. Criminalizing sacrilege isn’t based on Islam’s main sacred text, the Quran, either. It contains over <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781315255002">100 verses</a> encouraging peace, freedom of conscience and religious tolerance. </p>
<p>In Chapter 2, Verse 256, the Quran states, “There is no coercion in religion.” Chapter 4, Verse 140 urges Muslims to simply leave blasphemous conversations: “When you hear the verses of God being rejected and mocked, do not sit with them.”</p>
<p>By using their political connections and <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691130705/the-ulama-in-contemporary-islam">historical authority</a> to interpret Islam, however, the conservative ulema have marginalized more <a href="https://oneworld-publications.com/progressive-muslims-pb.html">moderate voices</a>. </p>
<h2>Reaction to global Islamophobia</h2>
<p>Debates about blasphemy and apostasy laws among Muslims are influenced by international affairs.</p>
<p>Across the globe, Muslim minorities – including the <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/country-chapters/israel/palestine">Palestinians</a> under Israeli occupation, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/10/world/europe/photos-chechen-war-russia.html">Chechens</a> of Russia, <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/09/16/india-free-kashmiris-arbitrarily-detained">Muslim Kashmiris</a> of India, <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/rohingya-crisis?gclid=CjwKCAiAsIDxBRAsEiwAV76N8zrlJqhi65w6DzRLwTrDYleM8U7DFswwKp61f3Oiav1Bq4schYpKzhoCfh4QAvD_BwE">Rohingya</a> of Myanmar and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/16/world/asia/china-xinjiang-documents.html">Uyghurs</a> of China – have experienced persecution. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436802/original/file-20211209-15-1mrl73n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Several men and women, with faces covered, walk on a beach after being arrested." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436802/original/file-20211209-15-1mrl73n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436802/original/file-20211209-15-1mrl73n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436802/original/file-20211209-15-1mrl73n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436802/original/file-20211209-15-1mrl73n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436802/original/file-20211209-15-1mrl73n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436802/original/file-20211209-15-1mrl73n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436802/original/file-20211209-15-1mrl73n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Rohingya of Myanmar are among several Muslim minorities facing persecution worldwide. Rakhine state, Myanmar, Jan. 13, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/rohingya-people-who-were-arrested-at-sea-in-december-walk-news-photo/1193446518?adppopup=true">STR/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Alongside persecution are some <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/german-court-allows-courtroom-headscarf-ban/a-42857656">Western policies</a> that discriminate against certain Muslims, such as laws prohibiting <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/9781108476942">headscarves in schools</a>.</p>
<p>Such laws and policies can create the impression that Muslims are <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/157082/islamophobia-understanding-anti-muslim-sentiment-west.aspx">under siege</a> and provide an <a href="https://lb.boell.org/en/2012/08/15/muslim-political-theology-defamation-apostasy-and-anathema">excuse</a> for the belief that punishing sacrilege is a defense of the faith.</p>
<p>Instead, blasphemy laws have served political agendas of populist politicians and their <a href="https://www.populismstudies.org/religious-populism-and-vigilantism-the-case-of-the-tehreek-e-labbaik-pakistan/">religious supporters in Pakistan</a> and some <a href="https://religiousfreedominstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/FORIS2_Blasphemy_ONLINE.pdf">other Muslim countries</a>.</p>
<p>Moreover, these laws contribute to <a href="https://deadline.com/2014/10/ben-affleck-comes-to-blows-with-bill-maher-over-his-opinions-toward-islam-video-845912/">anti-Muslim stereotypes</a> about religious intolerance. Some of my Turkish relatives even discourage my work on this topic, fearing it fuels Islamophobia. </p>
<p>But my research shows that criminalizing blasphemy and apostasy is more political than it is religious. The Quran does not require punishing sacrilege: Authoritarian politics do.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/execution-for-a-facebook-post-why-blasphemy-is-a-capital-offense-in-some-muslim-countries-129685">piece first published on February 20, 2020</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198647/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ahmet T. Kuru does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A political scientist explains the history of blasphemy laws in Muslim-majority nations and how they play a role in silencing dissent.Ahmet T. Kuru, Professor of Political Science, San Diego State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1982252023-01-26T13:24:48Z2023-01-26T13:24:48ZDebates over sacred images in the Byzantine Empire show why it’s hard to appease any side<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506453/original/file-20230125-24-83a2uq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C6%2C2029%2C1523&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The depiction of Prophet Muhammad at Hamline University has opened up a debate about what sacred images can or cannot be shown in a classroom.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/friscocali/29237898582/in/photolist-LxDSBG-7UJADJ-7UJALq-7UFm3H-7UJRe5-7UFjUp-2o3feQr-7Fz8L2-L3a4V9-cucgoA-7UFm9P-Rdyujo-2n3bdpg-3Q1Uk-Jqsr3E-3Q1KG-2n3bfRq-3Q1T4-7UFkKK-7UJAu1-7UJApb-6r7p4q-6r7po7-TCAEiE-2o3fiwz-7UJA5b-7UJAmq-7UFmdH-9qTeX9-9ifvb-7UJAbQ-2nDevVi-7UJzxj-gniaVK-sGHDZ2-d6Ze2j-7UFjSe-7UFjMD-AVJJij-25UAnVh-ZF7Co1-6QtQwS-7UJAa1-9ZweGN-2eMYA4L-5hsDKt-tFhYdk-3Q21u-Td8Zij-eRhcbT">Friscocali via Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>An adjunct lecturer at Hamline University recently lost her job for showing an image of Prophet Muhammad in an art history class, which some students and administrators considered to be Islamophobic. The university later retracted the accusation of Islamophobia <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/17/us/hamline-lawsuit-prophet-muhammad-religion.html">and said in a statement</a>, “It was never our intent to suggest that academic freedom is of lower concern or value than our students,” but still insisted that “care” does not “supersede academic freedom, the two coexist.” </p>
<p>An earlier statement from Hamline President Fayneese Miller had <a href="https://www.twincities.com/2023/01/05/hamline-accreditor-complaint-professor-muhammad-art/">noted</a>, “Students do not relinquish their faith in the classroom,” which suggested that classrooms need to be visually tailored to a specific faith. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://lsa.umich.edu/histart/people/faculty/paroma.html">historian of Byzantine art</a> familiar with the fierce debates over sacred images in the 8th and 9th centuries, I consider Miller’s statement a challenge to how students might study religious imagery at all.</p>
<p>The very example of the debates in the Byzantine Empire shows how hard it is to design a space that caters exactly to the specifications of any particular faith.</p>
<h2>The debates over images in Byzantium</h2>
<p>In Greek Orthodox Christianity, which was the official religion of the Byzantine Empire that lasted from 312 to 1453 A.D., some factions were against sacred images and some in favor of them. The factions that were against images claimed that the image of Jesus Christ was unacceptable, since his nature was both divine and human. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506459/original/file-20230125-12-b91uaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An illustration showing men holding long brushes whitewashing a Crucifixion icon." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506459/original/file-20230125-12-b91uaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506459/original/file-20230125-12-b91uaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=811&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506459/original/file-20230125-12-b91uaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=811&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506459/original/file-20230125-12-b91uaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=811&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506459/original/file-20230125-12-b91uaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1019&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506459/original/file-20230125-12-b91uaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1019&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506459/original/file-20230125-12-b91uaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1019&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An icon of Christ being effaced, from 9th-century Byzantium.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crucifixion_with_iconoclasts,_Chludov_Psalter,_folio_67r.jpg">Chludov Psalter, State Historical Museum, Moscow, via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This position argued that an image of Christ, therefore, either showed only his divinity – which was impossible, since divinity cannot be depicted in ordinary, human-made materials – or that such an image claimed Christ was not divine at all - also considered a heresy. An image of Christ could not be produced or displayed, since it put the artist and viewer in a false position regarding the Orthodox faith. </p>
<p>However, those who were in favor of images countered this stance by arguing that God, or divinity, had taken human shape in the form of Christ. The incarnation, meaning “enfleshment” of Christ, thus legitimized the making of images, since it made Christ accessible to humankind. This faction also argued that sacred images were necessary, as they served to <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Byzantium-in-the-Iconoclast-Era-ca-680850-The-Sources-An-Annotated/Brubaker-Haldon/p/book/9780754604181">remind viewers of the sacred beings they depicted</a>, such as Christ, the Virgin and the saints. </p>
<h2>Contradictions acknowledged on both sides</h2>
<p>The differences between the two factions became clear in the Council of Hiereia, which was called by Emperor Constantine V in 754 A.D. to lay out the terms of those who were against images. However, despite affirming that sacred Christian imagery was blasphemous and should not be produced, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23268277">this faction still stated</a>: </p>
<p>“… we ordain that no one in charge of a church … shall venture … to lay his hands on the holy vessels … because they are adorned with figures. The same is … in regard to the vestments of the church, cloths, and all that is dedicated to divine service. …” </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506463/original/file-20230125-12-xfngvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A round rimmed metal vessel." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506463/original/file-20230125-12-xfngvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506463/original/file-20230125-12-xfngvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=332&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506463/original/file-20230125-12-xfngvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=332&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506463/original/file-20230125-12-xfngvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=332&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506463/original/file-20230125-12-xfngvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506463/original/file-20230125-12-xfngvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506463/original/file-20230125-12-xfngvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Example of a vessel for holy bread used in the sanctuary.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/466152">Metropolitan Museum, New York. Gift of Mrs. Hayford Peirce, 1987</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The above statement was at <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23268277">odds with the general stance</a> of the council against images. It meant that the already existing sacred images were still considered holy, and vessels containing sacred images were permitted to remain intact. These vessels were in all probability used at the altar table in the sanctuary, the holiest part of a church. </p>
<p>The faction in favor of images <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/767119">won the debate in 843 A.D</a>. That was the year when the Greek Orthodox Church officially ruled that sacred images, or icons, were essential to that faith. But despite the victory, that side made an implicit concession to its opponents. </p>
<p>It was decreed that the sacred icon <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/767119">was not to be venerated</a> for the materials of wood, wax, colors, or other matter it was composed of, or even the image it showed. There was a general idea that venerators, by lighting candles in front of icons and kissing and touching them, were directing attention to the materials and not to the holy subject. Instead, the image was supposed to lead the viewer’s mind to the holy subject, which was Christ, the Virgin or the saints. </p>
<p>In the 11th century, Symeon the New Theologian, an Orthodox monk, came to disregard this definition. A historian of Byzantine art <a href="https://artandarchaeology.princeton.edu/people/charlie-barber">Charles Barber</a> argues that Symeon, despite being in favor of images, <a href="https://brill.com/display/title/14531">sought a spiritual experience</a> during his prayers that went beyond the matter of the image. </p>
<p>Thus, each side of the Byzantine debates implicitly acknowledged the impossibility of any watertight, consistent theory regarding sacred images. By the same token, both sides indicated the impossibility of fashioning spaces that catered exactly to any Orthodox Christian position regarding such images. </p>
<h2>Visual sanctity in the classroom</h2>
<p>Returning to the contemporary classroom, to what extent can this space be visually controlled? </p>
<p>All art history instructors can certainly curate their lectures. Curation here inevitably means the inclusion and exclusion of certain things. However, it is unlikely that any degree or kind of selection would completely satisfy any single position regarding sacred images. </p>
<p>To demand that a discipline like art history maintain visual sanctity in the classroom is, I believe, tantamount to demanding the impossible.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198225/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paroma Chatterjee does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Fierce debates about visual depictions of the sacred have existed for centuries. An art historian explains the controversies in the Byzantine Empire over images of Christ.Paroma Chatterjee, Associate Professor of History of Art, University of MichiganLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1888662022-08-17T12:37:59Z2022-08-17T12:37:59ZWhat is a fatwa? A religious studies professor explains<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479460/original/file-20220816-8518-xwbzmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C35%2C5892%2C3925&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People gather at a vigil pray and observe a moment of silence after an attack on author Salman Rushdie on Aug. 12, 2022, in Chautauqua, New York.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/SalmanRushdieAssault/5cbb84f6d2614f56bfa5ee526781bc60/photo?Query=salman%20rushdie&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=394&currentItemNo=25">AP Photo/Joshua Goodman</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When news broke on August 12, 2022, that the writer Salman Rushdie had been attacked, many people immediately recalled the fatwa, or edict, <a href="https://irandataportal.syr.edu/fatwa-against-salman-rushdie">calling on all Muslims to take his life</a>, issued in 1989 by the Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran’s Supreme Leader at the time. Khomeini <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-salman-rushdies-the-satanic-verses-remains-so-controversial-decades-after-its-publication-102321">accused</a> Rushdie’s 1988 novel, “<a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Satanic_Verses.html?id=k9wtA1He7e8C&redir_esc=y">The Satanic Verses</a>,” of insulting Islam and blaspheming against the Prophet Muhammad.</p>
<p>Violent riots and credible death threats sent Rushdie into hiding, and he spent the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/feb/24/rushdie-planning-book-time-in-hiding">next nine years</a> under British police protection. He did not emerge again until 1998, after Iran promised it would <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-feb-28-mn-12499-story.html">not enforce</a> the fatwa, though it did not rescind it. </p>
<p>According to several <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/88qxvz/salman-rushdie-hadi-matar-revolutionary-guard">intelligence sources</a> quoted by Vice news, Rushdie’s 24-year old alleged attacker, Hadi Matar, had been in contact through social media with members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the military branch tasked with protecting the country’s Islamic political system. However, there is no clear evidence that Iran was involved. Whether Matar was inspired by the decades-old fatwa remains a matter of speculation.</p>
<p>Given wide media coverage of the fatwa against Rushdie, some may conclude that a fatwa always means a death sentence.</p>
<p>However, a fatwa rarely calls for death, can be issued by a variety of religious authorities and is mostly of interest to a particular Muslim individual or community. My explanation of fatwas is based on expertise developed over several years of <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=rlSQbsAAAAAJ&hl=en">researching the writings of a Pakistani Muslim theologian</a> and on my collaborative academic work with scholars of Islamic jurisprudence. </p>
<h2>What is a fatwa?</h2>
<p>The Arabic word <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/fatwa">fatwa</a> can mean “explanation” or “clarification.” It refers, in simple terms, to an edict or ruling by a recognized religious authority on a point of Islamic law. The process of issuing a fatwa usually begins when a Muslim, confronted with a problem of life, belief or law, is unsure what to do.</p>
<p>Let’s say, for example, that a Muslim man wonders whether he should accept the teaching position he has been offered at a religious school or continue working in his father-in-law’s better-paying commercial enterprise. Faced with such a question, the man may turn to a recognized religious authority to request an expert ruling, or fatwa, on the matter. </p>
<p>In general, Muslims solicit fatwas <a href="https://books.google.fr/books/about/The_World_of_Fatwas_Or_The_Shariah_in_Ac.html?id=I1ExAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y">when in doubt</a> regarding some point of conduct or when entangled in a dispute because they wish to avoid deviating from God’s dictates. They may believe that straying from the path of righteous conduct could jeopardize their entry into heaven. For them, the stakes are high.</p>
<h2>Who issues a fatwa?</h2>
<p>When seeking a fatwa, a Muslim can turn to a local cleric or a group of Islamic law scholars – <a href="https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/ulama">ulama</a> – who collaborate to render decisions, or to a trusted institution of religious learning.</p>
<p>Given the subjects that fatwas must address – matters ranging from personal hygiene, marital relations, inheritance law, lifestyle, or allegiance owed to one’s nation – an encyclopedic knowledge of Islamic law is required, including familiarity with fatwas that have already been issued.</p>
<p>India’s influential Islamic seminary, <a href="https://darululoom-deoband.com/en/">Darul Uloom in Deoband</a>, which adheres to its own <a href="https://theconversation.com/talibans-religious-ideology-deobandi-islam-has-roots-in-colonial-india-166323">Deobandi version</a> of jurisprudence, has issued enough fatwas to fill 12 volumes. One <a href="https://books.google.fr/books/about/The_World_of_Fatwas_Or_The_Shariah_in_Ac.html?id=I1ExAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y">scholar compares</a> reading these volumes to reading the proceedings of the U.S. Supreme Court.</p>
<h2>Why are fatwas needed?</h2>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479482/original/file-20220816-2827-dipc7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An Islamic manuscript etched with a floral margin and etched predominantly in gold, blue and pink colors." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479482/original/file-20220816-2827-dipc7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479482/original/file-20220816-2827-dipc7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479482/original/file-20220816-2827-dipc7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479482/original/file-20220816-2827-dipc7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479482/original/file-20220816-2827-dipc7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=683&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479482/original/file-20220816-2827-dipc7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=683&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479482/original/file-20220816-2827-dipc7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=683&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Shiite fatwas from the late 17th century.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatwa#/media/File:Tazkarat_al-Fuqaha.jpg">The British Library via Wikipedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Why don’t Muslims simply consult the Quran for answers to religious questions? The simple answer is that the Quran is silent on certain issues. Moreover, different interpretations of various passages are possible – how can a believer decide which reading is correct?</p>
<p>While the Prophet Muhammad was alive, he could settle such questions. After his death, Muslims turned to members of his family and inner circle for assistance. Forward-looking followers gathered <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/mideo/2721">accounts</a> of the Prophet’s sayings and way of life, noting the provenance and trustworthiness of these reports.</p>
<p>Several collections of these accounts, called <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Hadith.html?id=iZGeSenYA3QC&redir_esc=y">hadith</a>, are held in such high esteem that they are shared across many Muslim communities. Because they record the sayings and doings of the Prophet, these collections are nearly as important as the Quran itself in providing guidance for daily life. Sharia law and Islamic jurisprudence draw on hadith.</p>
<p>And yet, despite the availability of resources like the Quran, hadith and law books, quandaries arise in daily life for which none of these provide clear guidance. When this happens, a fatwa may be requested. In a sense, <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/assr/23312">fatwas offer a picture</a> of the projects, wants and fears of Muslim individuals and communities.</p>
<p>Islam is composed of diverse branches and communities; it has no overarching institutional structure or single recognized leader. Because of this, divergent religious rulings are possible. As such, fatwas can either serve to preserve traditionalist readings of Islam’s sacred texts or to open the door to reformist interpretations.</p>
<p>Fatwas are <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/fatwa">nonbinding</a>. Muslims are not required to follow their guidance. The force of a fatwa derives from the authority, trust and respect accorded to the clerics, scholars or institutions who issue them. With this authority comes the power to shape the religious and social norms of the fatwa-requesting community. Like anyone in a position of power, issuers of fatwas can use or <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/sep/10/india.randeepramesh">misuse their authority</a> to hand down rulings meant to achieve political ends. </p>
<h2>The range of fatwas</h2>
<p>While fatwas often begin with a request by a Muslim layperson, they may be issued in response to a given situation. Examples include the fatwa issued by Dar al-Ulum Deoband in 2010 <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/deoband-first-a-fatwa-against-terror/articleshow/3089161.cms">against terrorist organizations</a> like the Islamic State because they were judged to be not Islamic; and the fatwa issued by the Indonesian Council of Ulama in 2014 against <a href="https://jliflc.com/resources/fatwa-the-indonesian-council-of-ulama-protection-of-endangered-species-to-maintain-the-balances-ecosystems/">poaching</a> and the illegal wildlife trade. Rare are the fatwas like the one against Rushdie that call on Muslims <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/51219918/The-fatwa-of-Shaykh-Yusuf-al-Qaradawi-against-Gaddafi">to kill</a> a particular individual. But for now, the fatwa against Rushdie stands.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188866/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Myriam Renaud does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The attack on Salman Rushdie promptly led to speculation on whether the attacker had been influenced by the 1989 fatwa against the author. A scholar explains what a fatwa is, and isn’t.Myriam Renaud, Affiliated Faculty of Bioethics, Religion, and Society, Department of Religious Studies, DePaul UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1872382022-08-11T12:14:33Z2022-08-11T12:14:33ZAt 75, Pakistan has moved far from the secular and democratic vision of its founder, Mohammad Ali Jinnah<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476580/original/file-20220728-32863-63te5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C26%2C2901%2C2057&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Mohammad Ali Jinnah addressing the assembly in Karachi on Aug. 15, 1947, after the creation of Pakistan.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/PakistanJinnahandMountbatten1947/0b799f7f407344be8715b0240f948c69/photo?Query=jinnah&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=195&currentItemNo=5">AP Photo</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>This month marks the 75th anniversary of Pakistan’s independence and of its Partition from British India in a <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/06/29/the-great-divide-books-dalrymple">devastating process</a> that uprooted more than 15 million people and resulted in 1 million to 2 million dead. Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs – communities that had coexisted for hundreds of years – all participated in the sectarian violence. Countless people have borne the scars from these events over multiple generations. </p>
<p>Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, sought to create a <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/sole-spokesman/53629540A69011A6E2719E347AA80E91">democratic, egalitarian and secular</a> country where the Muslims of the subcontinent, who constituted about <a href="https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/fr/document/hindu-muslim-communal-riots-india-i-1947-1986.html">25%</a> of the population, could enjoy full equality. For most of his life, he sought to achieve this equality within an undivided Hindu-majority India. <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/sole-spokesman/53629540A69011A6E2719E347AA80E91">Later</a> he became convinced that a separate homeland was necessary to realize such equality.</p>
<p>Today, widespread and escalating <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/02/19/india-government-policies-actions-target-minorities">violence against Indian Muslims</a> under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691206806/modis-india">right-wing, Hindu-nationalist</a> rule seems to confirm Jinnah’s fears.</p>
<p>Jinnah died just a year after Pakistan was born. As a <a href="https://ir.sas.upenn.edu/people/farah-jan">scholar of South Asia</a>, I know that in the years that followed, the military and the business elite consolidated their power and helped shape a country that bears little resemblance to his vision – although many continue to fight for it. </p>
<h2>Pakistan today</h2>
<p>Ideology and religion are divisive forces in Pakistan today – from <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2022/03/sectarian-terror-strikes-pakistan-again/">sectarian violence</a> against Shia Muslims to the state’s <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48204815">blasphemy laws</a> that authorize a death sentence for anyone who insults Islam. Religion, as interpreted by the state, plays a significant role in politics and governance. An example of its harmful role can be seen in the deterioration of the rights of <a href="https://theconversation.com/who-are-pakistans-ahmadis-and-why-havent-they-voted-in-30-years-100797">Ahmadis</a>, members of a religious minority targeted by the state. </p>
<p>Other religious minorities also face discrimination, with <a href="https://hrwf.eu/pakistan-statistics-about-victims-of-blasphemy-laws-1987-2021/">Christians</a> subject to particularly harsh treatment. According to <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/09/10/in-pakistan-most-say-ahmadis-are-not-muslim/">Pew Research</a> statistics, 75% of Pakistanis say blasphemy laws are necessary to protect Islam, while only 6% say blasphemy laws unfairly target minorities. </p>
<p>Pakistan also remains on a turbulent political and economic trajectory. The army has been in direct control of the state for most of its existence, with four military coups and decades of military rule since 1958. The military and notorious intelligence services remain in direct <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/pakistan/will-pakistans-military-lose-its-grip-power">control of domestic and foreign policy</a>, making decisions to protect their power and economic interests, including vast <a href="http://www.plutobooks.com/9780745399010/military-inc/">commercial holdings</a>. </p>
<p>Economically, Pakistan has <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/pakistan-stares-at-bankruptcy-as-economic-crisis-worsens/articleshow/92512596.cms">lagged behind</a> other developing countries, with <a href="https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3186274/political-pressure-crippling-efforts-stave-economic-crisis-pakistan">debt as high as 71.3%</a> of its GDP. <a href="https://mhrc.lums.edu.pk/why-do-income-and-wealth-inequalities-matter-for-pakistan/">Inequality is high</a>, with the top 10% of households owning 60% of the national wealth, and the bottom 60% owning just 10%. </p>
<p>The elite <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2010/09/15/pakistan-s-roller-coaster-economy-tax-evasion-stifles-growth-pub-41562%209-10">evade taxes</a> on a massive scale, contributing to the country’s economic instability. While millions live in <a href="https://tribune.com.pk/story/1509963/rising-inequality-pakistan">dire poverty and hunger</a>, the government’s spending to mitigate poverty is among the <a href="https://www.unescap.org/sites/default/d8files/knowledge-products/SDD-SP-Social-Outlook-v14-1-E.pdf">lowest</a> in the region. Dissidents, human rights activists and <a href="https://cpj.org/asia/pakistan/">journalists</a> face <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/asia-and-the-pacific/south-asia/pakistan/report-pakistan/">censorship and repression</a>.</p>
<p>Jinnah had hoped for much better.</p>
<h2>Jinnah: An advocate for Muslims in British India</h2>
<p>Born in Karachi in 1876 to a Muslim family, Jinnah was first educated at a local Muslim school and later at Karachi’s Christian Missionary Society High School.</p>
<p>At 16, Jinnah was sent to London, where he decided to study law. After returning to India, he established himself in Bombay as a successful and eloquent lawyer.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476576/original/file-20220728-20589-kls226.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two men -- one dressed in a white suit and another with a white shawl draped over him -- standing next to one another and laughing." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476576/original/file-20220728-20589-kls226.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476576/original/file-20220728-20589-kls226.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476576/original/file-20220728-20589-kls226.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476576/original/file-20220728-20589-kls226.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476576/original/file-20220728-20589-kls226.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476576/original/file-20220728-20589-kls226.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476576/original/file-20220728-20589-kls226.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Happier days: Mohammad Ali Jinnah with Mahatma Gandhi.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/muhammad-ali-jinnah-lawyer-politician-and-the-founder-of-news-photo/985011434?adppopup=true">Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Jinnah <a href="https://pakistan.gov.pk/Quaid/political_career.html">joined</a> the Indian National Congress in 1906, becoming part of the largest Indian political party organizing for independence from British colonial rule. At this time, he was the foremost proponent of Hindu-Muslim harmony in India and pursued a strategy of a unified front against the British.</p>
<p>He considered himself “<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/sole-spokesman/53629540A69011A6E2719E347AA80E91">a staunch Congressman</a>” and rejected political organizing that separated Muslims and Hindus in India. Accordingly, Jinnah delayed joining the All-India Muslim League, the political party formed to represent the rights and concerns of the Muslims of British India, until 1913. For years he remained a member of both parties.</p>
<h2>Jinnah’s concerns over Hindu nationalism</h2>
<p>Jinnah’s faith in the Congress party would wane, and he resigned in 1920. He was increasingly concerned with Congress’ growing emphasis on India’s <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo3637242.html">Hindu identity</a> and the lack of political representation for the country’s Muslim minority.</p>
<p>Jinnah was also deeply disturbed by the emergence of right-wing Hindu nationalist groups like the <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-hindu-nationalist-movement-in-india/9780231103350">Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS</a>, a violent paramilitary group that drew inspiration from <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/01/21/india-kashmir-modi-eu-hindu-nationalists-rss-the-far-right-is-going-global/">European fascist parties</a>, opposed Muslim-Hindu unity and increasingly sought to force Muslims to convert or leave India. </p>
<p>In 1934, Jinnah was unanimously elected as the president of the Muslim League, and he continued to advocate for the rights of Muslims in a unified India. He did not embrace dividing the Indian subcontinent into separate Muslim-majority and Hindu-majority areas <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/sole-spokesman/53629540A69011A6E2719E347AA80E91">until the 1940s</a>.</p>
<p>In this period, escalating sectarian violence stoked by both Hindu and Muslim right-wing groups, and Congress’ refusal to accept a federation in which Muslim-majority regions enjoyed greater political representation, contributed to foreclosing an alternative to partition. During this period, Jinnah stressed that Muslims would never enjoy security and full equality in the Hindu-majority nation. </p>
<p>Jinnah eventually led the Muslims of India to form a nation of their own with the creation of Pakistan in 1947. He insisted that this new nation be a secular democratic country with equal rights for all who resided there.</p>
<h2>Jinnah’s vision for a secular Pakistan</h2>
<p>Jinnah <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015010316506&view=1up&seq=119&skin=2021&q1=Jinnah">emphasized the necessity of secular education</a> to improve social and economic conditions in the Muslim community, argued for <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015010316506&view=1up&seq=119&skin=2021&q1=Jinnah">equality between the sexes</a> and advocated for the discarding of the parda, or veil. </p>
<p>Jinnah did not write a book or memoir, but his speeches give an insight into his vision for Pakistan. Notably, his speech a few days before becoming Pakistan’s first president, delivered on Aug. 11, 1947, expressed his secular aspirations for the newly formed country. In it he <a href="https://na.gov.pk/en/content.php?id=74">stressed</a>: “You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed – that has nothing to do with the business of the state.” </p>
<p>Four days later, on Aug. 14, 1947, British India was divided into the independent nations of Pakistan and India. As the first president of Pakistan, Jinnah again emphasized his secular vision for the new country, <a href="https://www.pakistani.org/pakistan/legislation/constituent_address_11aug1947.html">saying</a>, “We are starting in the days where there is no discrimination, no distinction between one community and another, no discrimination between one caste or creed and another. … We are all citizens and equal citizens of one State.”</p>
<h2>Jinnah’s dream unrealized</h2>
<p>Jinnah’s achievement remains a significant milestone of the 20th century. But 75 years later, Pakistan is far from the country he envisioned.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476584/original/file-20220728-32331-s1rvmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A Happy Independence Day billboard with images of founder leader Mohammad Ali Jinnah." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476584/original/file-20220728-32331-s1rvmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476584/original/file-20220728-32331-s1rvmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476584/original/file-20220728-32331-s1rvmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476584/original/file-20220728-32331-s1rvmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476584/original/file-20220728-32331-s1rvmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476584/original/file-20220728-32331-s1rvmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476584/original/file-20220728-32331-s1rvmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pakistan today is far from the country that its founder, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, envisaged.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/PakistanIndependenceDay/8fd8945d17c24ae08ba8f966e82ad0a3/photo?Query=pakistan%20jinnah&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=180&currentItemNo=53">AP Photo/Anjum Naveed</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>People from the region, nostalgic for a unified country and cognizant of the suffering during Partition and beyond, sometimes express that it might have been better if they had not been divided based on their <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/06/29/the-great-divide-books-dalrymple">religious identity</a> but had instead continued the struggle for a pluralistic society with equal rights for all. Others maintain that <a href="https://www.trtworld.com/opinion/jinnah-was-right-but-pakistan-has-a-long-way-to-go-38894">Jinnah was right</a> to conclude that Muslims in India were bound to face continued violence and be treated as second-class citizens in a Hindu-majority country.</p>
<p>What is certain is that Jinnah’s dream of a compassionate homeland for the minorities of the subcontinent remains unrealized. But glimmers of it have lived on in movements and people who have gone on to dream of a more equitable, inclusive and just Pakistan. </p>
<p>For example, Christian and Muslim landless farmers in the <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=26757">Peasant Movement</a>, one of the largest and most successful land rights movements in South Asia, have resisted violent efforts to quash their demands for a more equitable society. Some 80,000 lawyers were part of the <a href="https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/pakistans-lawyers-movement-2007-2009/">Lawyers Movement</a>, which challenged the power of the military and fought for a free and independent judiciary. And individuals such as human rights activist <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-life-and-death-of-sabeen-mahmud">Sabeen Mahmud</a> have paid with their lives for their dream of a just and pluralist Pakistan. </p>
<p>And while today’s Pakistan is far from Jinnah’s vision, the work of these people and movements reflects the famous words of Pakistan’s most <a href="https://mronline.org/2010/07/17/the-dawn-of-freedom-august-1947/">celebrated revolutionary poet</a>, Faiz Ahmed Faiz: “We must [continue to] search for that promised Dawn.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187238/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Farah N. Jan has received funding from Perry World House at the University of Pennsylvania. Thanks to Leili Kashani for contributing ideas and edits to this piece.</span></em></p>Jinnah insisted on secular education, gender equality and equal rights for minorities – all of which remain unrealized dreams in Pakistan.Farah N. Jan, Senior Lecturer, University of PennsylvaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1846242022-06-12T19:36:06Z2022-06-12T19:36:06ZWhy Muslim countries are quick at condemning defamation – but often ignore rights violations against Muslim minorities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468273/original/file-20220610-24020-pgezi3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=172%2C77%2C5578%2C3750&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Supporters of a Pakistani religious group burn an effigy depicting the former spokeswoman of India's ruling party, Nupur Sharma, during a demonstration in Karachi, Pakistan.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/PakistanIndiaIslam/cfcff703192e4cfda0ddc017f7060ad8/photo?Query=nupur%20sharma&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=65&currentItemNo=0">AP Photo/Fareed Khan</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Indian government finds itself in a diplomatic crisis following offensive remarks by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson, <a href="https://thewire.in/communalism/after-boycott-india-tweets-in-arab-world-bjp-clarifies-on-insulting-remarks-against-islam">Nupur Sharma</a>, on national television about the Prophet Muhammad and his wife, Aisha. The BJP has suspended Sharma from the position, but that has not been enough to <a href="https://thewire.in/diplomacy/qatar-summons-indian-envoy-seeks-govts-public-apology-over-bjp-leaders-remarks-on-prophet">quell the crisis</a>. Over a dozen Muslim countries, including Pakistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia, have condemned the Indian government and asked for a public apology.</p>
<p>This is just another incident of <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/what-the-recent-hate-speech-incidents-will-achieve-7712243/">hate speech against Muslims</a>, which has been rising in India since the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP government came to power in 2014. The government has been criticized for several <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-60225543">lynchings of Muslims by Hindu mobs with police indifference and judicial apathy</a> over the past years. In 2019, the BJP passed a new citizenship law <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/22/world/asia/modi-india-citizenship-law.html">that discriminated against Muslims</a>, and its <a href="https://www.state.gov/reports/2021-report-on-international-religious-freedom/india/">Islamophobic attitudes</a> recently encouraged <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/15/world/asia/india-hijab-ban-schools.html">some schools and colleges</a> to impose a <a href="https://frontline.thehindu.com/cover-story/hijab-controversy-karnataka-the-paradox-of-hijab-quran/article38430996.ece">headscarf ban on students</a>.</p>
<p>These discriminatory policies have a global significance because India has the world’s third-largest Muslim population, after Indonesia and Pakistan. Out of the estimated Indian population of 1.4 billion, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2015/04/02/religious-projection-table/">about 210 million – 15% – are Muslim</a>. </p>
<p>As a Muslim, I am aware of the deep reverence for Prophet Muhammad, and I understand Muslim individuals’ resentment. The reaction of Muslim governments, however, reflect their political regimes. As my book “<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/comparative-politics/islam-authoritarianism-and-underdevelopment-global-and-historical-comparison?format=PB">Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment</a>” explains, most Muslim governments are authoritarian and <a href="https://theconversation.com/execution-for-a-facebook-post-why-blasphemy-is-a-capital-offense-in-some-muslim-countries-129685">concentrate on condemning sacrilege against Islam</a> – more than advocating to protect the rights of Muslim minorities abroad.</p>
<h2>Aisha: a powerful woman</h2>
<p>The recent Indian case focused on Aisha’s age when she married the Prophet. <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/politics-gender-and-the-islamic-past/9780231079990">Aisha is one of the most important, vigorous and powerful</a> figures in Islamic history. The favorite wife of the Prophet, she was the daughter of the Prophet’s successor and closest friend, Abu Bakr. She became a leading narrator of hadith – the records of the Prophet’s words and actions – the teacher of many scholars and a military leader in a civil war.</p>
<p>According to a hadith record, <a href="https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/understanding-aishas-age-an-interdisciplinary-approach">Aisha was 9 years old</a> when she got married. Some Muslims accept this record and see it normal for a pre-modern marriage, whereas other Muslims believe that Aisha was <a href="https://unity1.store/2021/09/26/the-age-of-aisha-at-marriage/">either 18</a> or <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/hazrat-aisha-was-19-not-9/story-G4kaBHqM0VXoBhLR0eI2oO.html">19 years old</a> by referring to other records. </p>
<p>It is not possible to know the true facts of Aisha’s age. As Islamic scholar <a href="https://law.ucla.edu/faculty/faculty-profiles/khaled-m-abou-el-fadl">Khaled Abou El Fadl</a> stresses, “<a href="https://www.searchforbeauty.org/2016/06/30/my-good-friend-confronted-me-on-the-issue-of-the-prophet-s-wife-aisha-and-asked-did-muhammad-rape-a-child-i-was-disturbed-and-confounded-and-did-not-answer/">we do not know and will never know</a>” them. Sharma thus used a single narration, while ignoring alternative Muslim explanations, in her remarks.</p>
<h2>Prioritizing blasphemy, not human rights</h2>
<p>This is not the first time that Muslim governments have reacted to defamatory actions against the Prophet. The long list of incidents includes Iran’s Supreme Leader <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/salman-rushdie-satanic-verses-fatwa-iran">Ruhollah Khomeini’s 1989 call on Muslims to kill novelist Salman Rushdie</a> and <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300124729/the-cartoons-that-shook-the-world/">the 2006 boycott of Danish products throughout the Middle East</a> in reaction to a dozen cartoons published in a newspaper.</p>
<p>An interesting pattern is visible in Muslim governments’ attitudes: They are very vocal when it comes to the cases of verbal or artistic attacks on Islamic values, whereas they are generally silent about human rights violations against Muslim individuals.</p>
<p>Muslim individuals in India have complained about the violations of their rights for almost a decade, but <a href="https://time.com/6185355/india-bjp-muslim-world-prophet/">Muslim governments did not show a noteworthy reaction to the BJP</a> until this defamation incident.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468274/original/file-20220610-43412-vmhhoj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two men and one woman holding posters with photographs of missing Uyghurs." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468274/original/file-20220610-43412-vmhhoj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468274/original/file-20220610-43412-vmhhoj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468274/original/file-20220610-43412-vmhhoj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468274/original/file-20220610-43412-vmhhoj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468274/original/file-20220610-43412-vmhhoj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468274/original/file-20220610-43412-vmhhoj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468274/original/file-20220610-43412-vmhhoj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Uyghur protesters, saying they had not heard from their relatives in years, protest near the Chinese Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, in Feb. 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/TurkeyChinaUighurs/85e4020b2b5a4241be53a5fe19abf6e8/photo?Query=%20uighurs&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=947&currentItemNo=100">AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another example is China, which has been <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-22278037">persecuting 12 million Uyghur Muslims</a> for many years. <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/islamic-world-china-uyghurs/31324045.html">No Muslim government showed any major reaction</a>. Instead, these governments have focused on their material interests and <a href="https://uhrp.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Transnational-Repression_FINAL_2021-06-24-1.pdf">disregarded how the Chinese state treats its Muslim minority</a>.</p>
<p>This double standard can be explained by the widespread authoritarianism in the Muslim world. Out of 50 Muslim countries, <a href="https://institute.global/policy/ulema-state-alliance-barrier-democracy-and-development-muslim-world">only five are democratic</a>. Most authoritarian governments in the Muslim world have blasphemy laws that <a href="https://theconversation.com/execution-for-a-facebook-post-why-blasphemy-is-a-capital-offense-in-some-muslim-countries-129685">punish sacrilegious statements and suppress dissenting voices</a>. That these governments should demand the punishment of blasphemy and defamation from India or other non-Muslim countries follows from these policies. </p>
<p>Another characteristic of authoritarian Muslim governments is their <a href="https://www.state.gov/reports/2021-report-on-international-religious-freedom/">own violations of the rights of religious and ethnic minorities</a>. In Pakistan, these violations have targeted <a href="https://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/2022-06/USCIRFAnnualReport2022_ONLINE_FINAL.pdf">the Ahmadiyya, Shia, Hindu and some other religious communities</a>, while in Iran, ethnic minorities, including Azerbaijani Turks, Baluchis and Kurds, faced <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/middle-east-and-north-africa/iran/report-iran/">discrimination in education and employment</a>. A rights-based discourse abroad, therefore, would contradict these governments’ policies at home.</p>
<p>Authoritarianism in the Muslim world has tragic consequences for Muslim minorities in India and elsewhere. Muslim governments’ short-term, emotional reactions to some defamation cases do not help improve the conditions of Muslim minorities, who actually need a more consistent and principled support.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184624/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ahmet T. Kuru does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A scholar of Islam writes about how widespread authoritarianism in the Muslim world shapes governments’ foreign policy toward Muslim minorities abroad.Ahmet T. Kuru, Professor of Political Science, San Diego State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1824792022-05-15T13:38:20Z2022-05-15T13:38:20ZBlasphemy in Nigeria’s legal systems: an explainer<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463011/original/file-20220513-20-j4u4kv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Amina Ahmed, wife of Mubarak Bala, recently convicted of blasphemy, displays her husband's photo in Abuja, Nigeria. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/amina-ahmed-wife-of-mubarak-bala-an-outspoken-atheist-who-news-photo/1232412554?adppopup=true">Kola Sulaimon/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>A court in Kano, northern Nigeria, recently <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/4/5/nigerian-atheist-jailed-for-blasphemy-over-facebook-posts">convicted</a> an atheist for making social media posts it found to be blasphemous against Islam. After a lengthy trial, Mubarak Bala pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 24 years in prison. The Conversation Africa’s Wale Fatade asked Islamic law expert AbdulRazzaq Alaro to explain the judgement.</em></p>
<h2>Is blasphemy a criminal offence in Nigeria?</h2>
<p>Blasphemy is an offence under sharia (Islamic law). Sharia law operates in most northern states, including Kano.</p>
<p>Blasphemy is also an offence under Nigeria’s criminal law in states that put it on their statute books. This is true for states in both the north and the south.</p>
<p>The defendant in the recent case in Kano was convicted of “inciting disturbance and insulting” and “exciting contempt of religious creed” under <a href="http://www.sharia-in-africa.net/media/publications/sharia-implementation-in-northern-nigeria/vol_4_4_chapter_4_part_III.pdf">sections 114 and 210 of the penal code law of Kano State</a>. He was alleged to have posted something considered to be insulting to God, Prophet Muhammad and Islam in general.</p>
<p>At first glance this charge does not appear to be one of blasphemy, but rather of an offence against religion. However, a close reading of Kano’s penal code shows that the charge equals that of blasphemy, an offence under both the state’s penal code and its system of sharia law. The two are implemented side by side.</p>
<p>It’s important to note that the outcome would have been the same in a Lagos High Court because the criminal law of Lagos State also criminalises blasphemous utterances. They are criminalised under <a href="https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/s3.sourceafrica.net/documents/120445/Criminal-Law-of-Lagos-State.pdf">section 124</a>, which forbids insults to religion. </p>
<h2>Have there been similar convictions before?</h2>
<p>In the north yes, but not in the south.</p>
<p>There have been a number of trials of similar offences under the penal code and sharia penal code in the northern parts of the country.</p>
<p><a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/16/africa/blasphemy-nigeria-boy-sentenced-intl/index.html">In 2020</a> Omar Farouq was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment on a charge popularly described as blasphemy. A singer, Yahaya Sherif Aminu, was <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/29/africa/blasphemy-trial-nigeria/index.html">sentenced</a> to death by hanging in 2020 for the same offence by a sharia court in Kano. </p>
<p>However, the high court overturned the two convictions. Farouq was acquitted for being a minor. Sherif’s case was sent back for retrial. </p>
<p>There are no records of either of these two cases having been sent on appeal to a higher court.</p>
<p>It’s worth noting that the Supreme Court of Nigeria <a href="http://www.nigeria-law.org/LawReporting/2008/February%202008/15th%20February%202008/Usman%20Kaza%20v%20The%20State.htm">has also recognised blasphemy</a> as a sharia offence. The court affirmed the conviction of the defendants for taking laws into their own hands by extra-judicially killing a suspect of blasphemy. It went on to describe blasphemy as “a serious crime which is punishable by death” under sharia, noting however that it “has to be established through evidence before a court of law” and that “the killing is controlled and sanctioned by the authorities.”</p>
<h2>How are the penal and criminal codes and sharia law managed in Nigeria?</h2>
<p>Nigeria operates penal as well as criminal codes. Both are substantive laws on crimes and punishments in Nigeria. The penal code applies in the north, where there is a Muslim majority, and the criminal code in the southern part of the country, where there is a Christian majority.</p>
<p>The laws use different names for offences. For example, the offence of murder in the criminal code is referred to as culpable homicide – punishable with death – in the penal code. Manslaughter in the criminal code is called culpable homicide – not punishable with death – in the penal code.</p>
<p>Some acts are offences under the penal code but not under the criminal code. Examples include adultery and drinking alcohol.</p>
<p>As for the sharia law, it is applicable in some states in Nigeria, particularly in the predominantly Muslim north, in personal matters, such as marriage, divorce, inheritance and succession. Since 1999, some states have also made laws to apply sharia law in criminal matters. Kano State is one of them. </p>
<h2>How many legal systems operate in Nigeria?</h2>
<p>Each Nigerian state has a distinct legal system. This is because each state is constitutionally mandated to have a State House of Assembly to make laws for it on matters that don’t fall under the exclusive legislative list which stipulates what falls under the country’s federal jurisdiction.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court is Nigeria’s apex court. Its word is final in all cases – including blasphemy.</p>
<p>All Nigerian laws make it clear that under no circumstance must people take laws into their hands through extra-judicial killings. This is also the stand of sharia, as it provides for suspects of any crime to be tried and sentenced, if found guilty, only by courts of competent jurisdiction and not through “jungle justice”. </p>
<h2>Isn’t Nigeria a secular state?</h2>
<p>Section 10 of Nigeria’s 1999 constitution (as amended) prohibits <a href="https://lawglobalhub.com/section-10-of-the-nigerian-constitution/">the adoption of any religion as a state religion</a>.</p>
<p>However, the same constitution also states in its preamble that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the people of Nigeria have resolved to live as one indivisible and indissoluble sovereign nation under God. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The combined reading of these two constitutional provisions therefore supports designating Nigeria as a multi-religious state rather than a secular state. </p>
<p>Secular states are those that are not connected in any way with religion. Based on its constitution, Nigeria is not one of them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182479/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>AbdulRazzaq A. Alaro does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Insults against religion are illegal in Nigeria’s multi-faceted legal codes.AbdulRazzaq A. Alaro, Professor of Islamic Law, University of IlorinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1735702021-12-10T13:38:38Z2021-12-10T13:38:38ZUnderstanding the history and politics behind Pakistan’s blasphemy laws<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436798/original/file-20211209-141178-1nzfa57.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=120%2C8%2C5182%2C3350&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Members of a civil society group participate in a candlelight vigil to pay tribute to the Sri Lankan citizen Priyantha Kumara, who was lynched by a Muslim mob in Pakistan.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/PakistanSriLanka/5635ec4794c0428a9e05847f079f6128/photo?Query=pakistan%20blasphemy%202021&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=30&currentItemNo=17">AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A Sri Lankan working in Pakistan, Priyantha Kumara, was lynched by a mob of hundreds of people on Dec. 3, 2021, <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/remains-sri-lankan-lynching-victim-arrives-pakistan-81583344">over allegations of blasphemy</a>, or sacrilegious act. After being assaulted, he was dragged into the streets and set on fire, and the lynching was recorded and shared widely on social media.</p>
<p>Such tragic killings in Pakistan over <a href="https://www.dawn.com/news/1662043/">blasphemy accusations</a> are not just about extrajudicial vigilantism. Pakistan has the world’s second-strictest blasphemy laws after Iran, according to the <a href="https://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/Blasphemy%20Laws%20Report.pdf">U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom</a>.</p>
<p>In December 2019, Junaid Hafeez, a university lecturer, was <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/junaid-hafeez-pakistani-academic-given-death-sentence-for-blasphemy/a-51762475">sentenced to death</a> by a Pakistani court on the charge of insulting the Prophet Muhammad on Facebook.</p>
<p>Hafeez, whose death sentence is under <a href="https://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFKBN1YP07F?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews">appeal</a>, is one of about <a href="https://herald.dawn.com/news/1154036">1,500 Pakistanis</a> charged with blasphemy over the past three decades. No executions have ever taken place. </p>
<p>But since 1990, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-46465247">70 people have been murdered</a> by mobs and vigilantes over allegations of insulting Islam. Several people who defended the accused were killed, too, including <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/pakistani-academic-junaid-hafeez-sentenced-death-blasphemy-191221091139428.html">one of Hafeez’s lawyers</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/02/opinion/pakistan-bibi-blasphemy-death-sentence.html">two high-level politicians</a> who publicly opposed the death sentence of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman convicted for verbally insulting the Prophet Muhammad. Though Bibi was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/29/asia-bibi-pakistans-top-court-upholds-blasphemy-acquittal">acquitted in 2019</a>, she fled Pakistan.</p>
<h2>Blasphemy and apostasy</h2>
<p>Of <a href="https://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/Legislation%20Factsheet%20-%20Blasphemy_3.pdf">71 countries</a> that criminalize blasphemy, 32 are majority Muslim. Punishment and enforcement of these laws <a href="https://www.loc.gov/law/help/blasphemy/index.php">vary</a>. </p>
<p>Blasphemy is punishable by death in Iran, Pakistan, <a href="https://www.loc.gov/law/help/blasphemy/index.php#Afghanistan">Afghanistan</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/03/world/asia/brunei-stoning-gay-sex.html">Brunei</a>, <a href="https://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/Africa%20Speech%20Laws%20FINAL_0.pdf">Mauritania</a> and <a href="https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/essays/national-laws-on-blasphemy-saudi-arabia">Saudi Arabia</a>. Among non-Muslim-majority cases, the <a href="https://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/Blasphemy%20Laws%20Report.pdf">harshest blasphemy laws are in Italy</a>, where the maximum penalty is three years in prison.</p>
<p>Half of the world’s 49 Muslim-majority countries have additional laws <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/07/29/which-countries-still-outlaw-apostasy-and-blasphemy/">banning apostasy</a>, meaning people may be <a href="https://www.loc.gov/law/help/apostasy/index.php">punished for leaving Islam</a>. All countries with apostasy laws are Muslim-majority except <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/07/29/which-countries-still-outlaw-apostasy-and-blasphemy/">India</a>. Apostasy is often <a href="https://www.loc.gov/law/help/blasphemy/index.php">charged along with blasphemy</a>. </p>
<p>This class of religious laws is quite popular in some Muslim countries. According to a 2013 <a href="https://www.pewforum.org/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-overview/">Pew survey</a>, about 75% of respondents in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia favor making sharia, or Islamic law, the official law of the land. </p>
<p>Among those who support sharia, around 25% in Southeast Asia, 50% in the Middle East and North Africa, and 75% in South Asia say they support “executing those who leave Islam” – that is, they support laws punishing apostasy with death.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two firefighters standing in a factory torched by an angry mob in Pakistan." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436800/original/file-20211209-13-y067fe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436800/original/file-20211209-13-y067fe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436800/original/file-20211209-13-y067fe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436800/original/file-20211209-13-y067fe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436800/original/file-20211209-13-y067fe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436800/original/file-20211209-13-y067fe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436800/original/file-20211209-13-y067fe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Firefighters in a factory torched by an angry mob in Jhelum, Pakistan, after one of the factory’s employees was accused of desecrating the Quran, Nov. 21, 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/pakistani-firefighters-stand-in-a-burnt-out-factory-torched-news-photo/498134476?adppopup=true">STR/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The ulema and the state</h2>
<p>My 2019 book “<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/comparative-politics/islam-authoritarianism-and-underdevelopment-global-and-historical-comparison?format=PB">Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment</a>” traces the root of blasphemy and apostasy laws in the Muslim world back to a historic alliance between Islamic scholars and government.</p>
<p>Starting around the year 1050, certain Sunni scholars of law and theology, called the “ulema,” began working closely with <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/V/bo5951736.html">political rulers</a> to challenge what they considered to be the sacrilegious influence of <a href="https://www.fulcrum.org/concern/monographs/s1784m135#toc">Muslim philosophers</a> on society. </p>
<p>Muslim philosophers had for three centuries been making major contributions to <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691135267/the-crest-of-the-peacock">mathematics</a>, <a href="https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/T/bo28119973.html">physics</a> and <a href="http://press.georgetown.edu/book/georgetown/medieval-islamic-medicine">medicine</a>. They developed the <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/305233/the-house-of-wisdom-by-jim-al-khalili/">Arabic number system</a> used across the West today and invented a forerunner of the modern <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674050044&content=toc">camera</a>.</p>
<p>The conservative ulema felt that these philosophers were inappropriately influenced by <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/a-history-of-islamic-philosophy/9780231132206">Greek philosophy</a> and <a href="https://archive.org/stream/renaissanceofisl029336mbp/renaissanceofisl029336mbp_djvu.txt">Shiite Islam</a> against Sunni beliefs. The most prominent in consolidating Sunni orthodoxy was the respected Islamic scholar <a href="https://fonsvitae.com/product/the-book-of-knowledge/">Ghazali</a>, who died in the year 1111.</p>
<p>In several <a href="https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo16220536.html">influential books</a> still widely read today, Ghazali declared two long-dead leading Muslim philosophers, <a href="https://fonsvitae.com/product/hardback-al-ghazali-deliverance-error-al-munqidh-min-al-dalal-works-copy/">Farabi and Ibn Sina</a>, as apostates for their unorthodox views on God’s power and the nature of resurrection. Their followers, Ghazali wrote, <a href="https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/I/bo3624354.html">could be punished with death</a>. </p>
<p>As modern-day historians <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9780807856574/the-politics-of-knowledge-in-premodern-islam/">Omid Safi</a> and <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/al-ghazalis-philosophical-theology-9780195331622?cc=us&lang=en&">Frank Griffel</a> assert, Ghazali’s declaration provided justification to Muslim sultans from the 12th century onward who wished to <a href="https://www.iep.utm.edu/ibnrushd/">persecute</a> – even <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/as-Suhrawardi">execute</a> – <a href="https://criticalmuslim.com/issues/12-dangerous-freethinkers/abbasid-freethinking-humanism-aziz-al-azmeh">thinkers</a> seen as threats to conservative religious rule. </p>
<p>This “ulema-state alliance,” <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Islam_Authoritarianism_and_Underdevelopm/xjCdDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22ulema-state%22">as I call it</a>, began in the <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/V/bo5951736.html">mid-11th century</a> in <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691165851/lost-enlightenment">Central Asia</a>, <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/continuity-and-change-in-medieval-persia-aspects-of-administrative-economic-and-social-history-11th-14th-century/oclc/16095227">Iran</a> and <a href="https://www.sunypress.edu/p-3207-a-learned-society-in-a-period-o.aspx">Iraq</a>, and a century later spread to <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/history/middle-east-history/knowledge-and-social-practice-medieval-damascus-11901350?format=PB">Syria</a>, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/muslim-cities-in-the-later-middle-ages/02685655C9C18404192B9FE3E43E75D5">Egypt</a> and <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/muqaddimah-an-introduction-to-history/oclc/307867">North Africa</a>. In these regimes, questioning religious orthodoxy and political authority wasn’t merely dissent – it was apostasy.</p>
<h2>Wrong direction</h2>
<p>Parts of <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/history/european-history-general-interest/rise-western-world-new-economic-history?format=PB">Western Europe</a> were ruled by a similar alliance between the Catholic Church and monarchs. These governments assaulted free thinking, too. During the Spanish Inquisition, between the 16th and 18th centuries, <a href="https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/publication/2150452">thousands of people</a> were tortured and killed for apostasy.</p>
<p>Blasphemy laws were also in place, if infrequently used, in various European countries until recently. <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/quran-burner-denmark-facebook-blasphemy-laws-repeal-a7771041.html">Denmark</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/27/ireland-votes-to-oust-blasphemy-ban-from-constitution">Ireland</a> and <a href="https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20160714/local/repealing-blasphemy-law-a-victory-for-freedom-of-speech-says-humanist.618859">Malta</a> all recently repealed their laws.</p>
<p>But they persist in many parts of the Muslim world. </p>
<p>In Pakistan, the military dictator <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/21/opinion/pakistans-tyranny-of-blasphemy.html">Zia-ul-Haq</a>, who ruled the country from 1978 to 1988, is responsible for its harsh blasphemy laws. An ally of the <a href="https://nation.com.pk/14-Oct-2016/10-things-you-need-to-know-about-pakistan-s-blasphemy-law">ulema</a>, Zia <a href="https://www.refworld.org/pdfid/565da4824.pdf">updated blasphemy laws</a> – written by British colonizers to avoid interreligious conflict – to defend specifically Sunni Islam and increased the maximum punishment to death. </p>
<p>From the 1920s until Zia, these laws had been applied <a href="https://nation.com.pk/14-Oct-2016/10-things-you-need-to-know-about-pakistan-s-blasphemy-law">only about a dozen times</a>. Since then, they have become a powerful tool for crushing dissent.</p>
<p>Some dozen Muslim countries have undergone a <a href="https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199812264.001.0001/acprof-9780199812264">similar process</a> over the past four decades, including <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/29/world/iran-drops-death-penalty-for-professor-guilty-of-blasphemy.html">Iran</a> and <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/egypt-atheism-illegal-crackdown-non-believers-religion-islam-772471">Egypt</a>. </p>
<h2>Dissenting voices in Islam</h2>
<p>The conservative ulema base their case for blasphemy and apostasy laws on a few reported sayings of the Prophet, known as hadith, primarily: “<a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Freedom_of_Religion_Apostasy_and_Islam/MrhBDgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=apostasy+hadith+change+religion+kill&pg=PT87&printsec=frontcover">Whoever changes his religion, kill him</a>.” </p>
<p>But many <a href="https://english.kadivar.com/2006/09/29/the-freedom-of-thought-and-religion-in-islam-2/">Islamic scholars</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/14/opinion/islams-problem-with-blasphemy.html">Muslim intellectuals</a> reject <a href="https://yaqeeninstitute.org/jonathan-brown/the-issue-of-apostasy-in-islam/#.XjcRFy2ZNKN">this view as radical</a>. They argue that Prophet Muhammad never <a href="https://yaqeeninstitute.org/jonathan-brown/the-issue-of-apostasy-in-islam/#.XjcRFy2ZNKN">executed</a> anyone for apostasy, nor <a href="https://archive.org/details/MuhammadAndTheJewsAReExaminationByBarakatAhmad_201702">encouraged</a> his followers to do so.</p>
<p>Nor is criminalizing sacrilege based on Islam’s main sacred text, the Quran. It contains over <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781315255002">100 verses</a> encouraging peace, freedom of conscience and religious tolerance. </p>
<p>In chapter 2, verse 256, the Quran states, “There is no coercion in religion.” Chapter 4, verse 140 urges Muslims to simply leave blasphemous conversations: “When you hear the verses of God being rejected and mocked, do not sit with them.”</p>
<p>By using their political connections and <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691130705/the-ulama-in-contemporary-islam">historical authority</a> to interpret Islam, however, the conservative ulema have marginalized more <a href="https://oneworld-publications.com/progressive-muslims-pb.html">moderate voices</a>. </p>
<h2>Reaction to global Islamophobia</h2>
<p>Debates about blasphemy and apostasy laws among Muslims are influenced by international affairs.</p>
<p>Across the globe, Muslim minorities – including the <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/country-chapters/israel/palestine">Palestinians</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/10/world/europe/photos-chechen-war-russia.html">Chechens</a> of Russia, <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/09/16/india-free-kashmiris-arbitrarily-detained">Kashmiris</a> of India, <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/rohingya-crisis?gclid=CjwKCAiAsIDxBRAsEiwAV76N8zrlJqhi65w6DzRLwTrDYleM8U7DFswwKp61f3Oiav1Bq4schYpKzhoCfh4QAvD_BwE">Rohingya</a> of Myanmar and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/16/world/asia/china-xinjiang-documents.html">Uighurs</a> of China – have experienced severe persecution. No other religion is so widely targeted in so many different countries. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436802/original/file-20211209-15-1mrl73n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Several Rohingya men and women, with faces covered, walk on a beach, after being arrested." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436802/original/file-20211209-15-1mrl73n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436802/original/file-20211209-15-1mrl73n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436802/original/file-20211209-15-1mrl73n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436802/original/file-20211209-15-1mrl73n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436802/original/file-20211209-15-1mrl73n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436802/original/file-20211209-15-1mrl73n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436802/original/file-20211209-15-1mrl73n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Rohingya of Myanmar are among several Muslim minorities facing persecution worldwide. Rakhine state, Myanmar, Jan. 13, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/rohingya-people-who-were-arrested-at-sea-in-december-walk-news-photo/1193446518?adppopup=true">STR/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Alongside persecution are some <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/german-court-allows-courtroom-headscarf-ban/a-42857656">Western policies</a> that discriminate against Muslims, such as laws prohibiting <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/9781108476942">headscarves in schools</a>.</p>
<p>Such <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/10/is-islamophobia-real-maher-harris-aslan/381411/">Islamophobic</a> laws and policies can create the impression that Muslims are <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/157082/islamophobia-understanding-anti-muslim-sentiment-west.aspx">under siege</a> and provide an <a href="https://lb.boell.org/en/2012/08/15/muslim-political-theology-defamation-apostasy-and-anathema">excuse</a> that punishing sacrilege is a defense of the faith.</p>
<p>Instead, I find, such harsh religious rules can contribute to <a href="https://deadline.com/2014/10/ben-affleck-comes-to-blows-with-bill-maher-over-his-opinions-toward-islam-video-845912/">anti-Muslim stereotypes</a>. Some of my Turkish relatives even discourage my work on this topic, fearing it fuels Islamophobia. </p>
<p>But my research shows that criminalizing blasphemy and apostasy is more political than it is religious. The Quran does not require punishing sacrilege: authoritarian politics do.</p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.] </p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/execution-for-a-facebook-post-why-blasphemy-is-a-capital-offense-in-some-muslim-countries-129685">piece first published on February 20, 2020</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173570/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ahmet T. Kuru does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A scholar of Islam explains how Muslim religious leaders, starting around the year 1050, worked with political rulers to challenge what they considered to be sacrilegious influence on society.Ahmet T. Kuru, Porteous Professor of Political Science, San Diego State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1414232020-07-16T12:13:23Z2020-07-16T12:13:23ZZounds! What the fork are minced oaths? And why are we still fecking using them today?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347466/original/file-20200714-26-rnw5an.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=2%2C2%2C1419%2C773&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Using minced oaths became a habit in NBC's The Good Place</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2e2vtJL35Zw&feature=emb_rel_pause">YouTube/NBC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>What in tarnation is “tarnation?” Why do people in old books exclaim “zounds!” in moments of surprise? And what could a professor of linguistics possibly have against “duck-loving crickets?” </p>
<p>I’ll get to the crickets later. But what unites all these expressions is a desire to find acceptable versions of profane or blasphemous words. “God” becomes “gosh,” “hell” becomes “heck,” and “damnation” becomes “tarnation.” In a similar vein, the rather antiquated phrase “God’s wounds” turns into “zounds.”</p>
<p>This lexical skirting of religious sensitivities falls in the category of expressions known as “minced oaths.” They are a kind of euphemism: an indirect expression substituted to soften the harsher blow of the profane. </p>
<h2>Bloody heck!</h2>
<p>As a <a href="https://english.wvu.edu/faculty-and-staff/faculty-directory/kirk-hazen">lifelong student of language</a>, I celebrate the variation of minced oaths and delight in comparing them with other euphemisms and slang. They provide examples of how people craft language to simultaneously conform and rebel, while building social cohesion.</p>
<p>Both slang and minced oaths are forms of synonyms – words used to replace others while conveying the same core meaning. But minced oaths have historically performed a very specific role: providing a weakened but socially acceptable form of an actual religious oath, swear or curse.</p>
<p>The earliest use of the term “minced oaths,” according to the Oxford English Dictionary, was in 1654, when elders in the Banffshire area of Scotland were criticized for using them. </p>
<p>But the use of them had been around for at least a century before then. The playwright Christopher Marlowe used “zounds” as early as 1593 <a href="http://people.virginia.edu/%7Ejdk3t/DrFB/DrFB012.htm">as an exclamation</a>: “Zounds hee'l raise vp a kennell of Diuels.” </p>
<p>The term “bloody” was first recorded as the British now use it in 1540 and originally had no religious connotation. It was only centuries later that it was ascribed one, potentially standing in for “by her lady” and “God’s blood” and thus becoming somewhat of an adopted minced oath.</p>
<p>The compound “gadzooks” – perhaps from “God’s hooks” – makes a written appearance in the second half of the 1600s in a play by <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095733672">Irish writer Thomas Duffett</a>: “Now to get off, gadzooks, what shall we do?” </p>
<p>Surprisingly “gosh” and “heck” are late comers – “Gosh” does not show up until 1757 and “heck” as an interjection only takes off at the end of the 19th century.</p>
<iframe name="ngram_chart" src="https://books.google.com/ngrams/interactive_chart?content=tarnation%2Czounds%2Check%2Cgosh&year_start=1800&year_end=1940&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Ctarnation%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Czounds%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Check%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cgosh%3B%2Cc0" width="100%" height="250" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" hspace="5" vspace="5" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>
<figure><figcaption><span class="caption">Google Ngram showing percentage of sample books (y-axis) that contain selected minced oaths since 1800.</span></figcaption></figure>
<p>Up until the late 1800s, the most common expletives in English had some kind of Biblical reference, but as Melissa Mohr explored in her history of swearing, “<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/holy-sht-9780199742677?cc=us&lang=en&">Holy Sh*t</a>,” these blasphemous oaths started declining in the 1700s and gave way by 1900 to profanity based on physical attributes and functions – body parts, sex and excrement. Mohr links this change to the decline of the Christian church as a central powerbroker in people’s lives. As Mohr writes, “Obscenities took the place of vain oaths to become our swearwords.”</p>
<p>With this transition the impact of minced oaths waned from the tantalizingly close to the profane to mere humorous airs with a knowing wink. It is one thing to earnestly swear, “Begorrah [By God], I will not fail!” and another to have <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gomer_Pyle">Gomer Pyle</a> from The Andy Griffith Show humorously exclaim “Golly!” when something surprises him. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345102/original/file-20200701-159811-fs2mrs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345102/original/file-20200701-159811-fs2mrs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345102/original/file-20200701-159811-fs2mrs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345102/original/file-20200701-159811-fs2mrs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345102/original/file-20200701-159811-fs2mrs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345102/original/file-20200701-159811-fs2mrs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345102/original/file-20200701-159811-fs2mrs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What in Tarnation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/022/022/tarnation.jpg">Know Your Meme</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While some minced oaths have persisted – one even becoming part a popular <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kassycho/what-in-tarnation">hat-wearing dog meme</a> – many have fallen from common usage. Others have slipped from being seen as profane to become simply mild expressions, like “<a href="https://www.southernthing.com/was-sam-hill-a-person-or-just-a-substitute-for-a-swear-word-2630208404.html">Sam Hill</a> ” for “hell.”</p>
<p>Either way minced oaths live on, getting recycled or created anew today to provide humor, or a range of emotional force. Using “fudge!” after a paper-cut allows for restrained fist-shaking at the universe. And if family and friends can settle on the same minced oaths, they can better commiserate with their own in-group slang. </p>
<h2>Far from feck–less</h2>
<p>Meanwhile, minced oaths based on modern sexual swearing can be all kinds of fun. On the popular NBC series “The Good Place,” a popular running gag – with a possible wink to the censors – is that characters are unable to utter obscenities. When they attempt to, they end up saying “fork,” “shirt” or “bench” instead of, well, you can use your imagination.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QPXsYOPex4s?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>With enough exuberance thrown behind these terms, residents of The Good Place can draw humor from the contrast with the profanity viewers anticipate.</p>
<p>Similarly the Irish TV show “Father Ted” – which follows a trio of Catholic priests exiled on a fictional island off Ireland – employed “feck” as a regular part of the dialogue. The pure exuberance and frequency of its use by characters <a href="https://youtu.be/eNwcXtWFWic">creates the comedy</a>. </p>
<p>The popularity of these shows fostered an uptick in the use of these minced oaths, as people put their comedic effect to work in their own lives.</p>
<p>But sometimes, defanging profanity just doesn’t quite hit the mark. In her research on swearing, Emma Byrne, author of “<a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/Swearing-Is-Good-for-You/">Swearing is Good for You</a>,” finds that “the frisson of taboo” is required for the therapeutic qualities of swearing like pain relief. As Byrne reports, learning swear words early on in one’s native language has a measurable physiological effects. Cursing helps relieve pain, raise the pulse, and sharpen the memory.</p>
<p>Yet minced oaths provide some degree of power and latitude at times of social control. For instance, before the Quiet Revolution, the Quebecois French created a set of words, called “sacres,” to defy the Catholic Church. People began to use words associated with church rituals as exclamations and interjections. </p>
<p>With some slight modifications, words like “tabernacle” – the place in a church where items of the Eucharist are held – are used in place of a profanity in Quebecois French. For example, after your favorite team loses again, you could shout “Tabarnak! Encore une défaite!” Or, for a gentler profanity, “Tabarnouche!” of “Barnak!” can be used.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346937/original/file-20200710-62-xznyup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346937/original/file-20200710-62-xznyup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346937/original/file-20200710-62-xznyup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346937/original/file-20200710-62-xznyup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346937/original/file-20200710-62-xznyup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346937/original/file-20200710-62-xznyup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346937/original/file-20200710-62-xznyup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">oh bin tabarnak.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://makeameme.org/meme/oh-bin-tabarnak">makeameme.org</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>… about those ducks</h2>
<p>Because minced oaths allow for a small scream into the void while avoiding taboo words, parents are often avid fans. Some families pass them along like heirlooms. My family inherited “Holy Cow” and “Heavens to Betsy,” from grandparents. </p>
<p>When I became a parent I shifted my own swearing, and somehow I landed on variations of “duck-loving crickets.” Perhaps phonetic similarities to actual profanities or the intonational cadence qualified them as somehow forceful yet also purposefully missing the mark. </p>
<p>My daughter rejected mine, but adopted “shiitake mushrooms” as her exclamation, drawing out the first syllable.</p>
<p>You see, there is always room for more in the mixed bag of minced oaths.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141423/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kirk Hazen receives funding from the National Science Foundation. </span></em></p>From 16th-century playwrights to ‘The Good Place,’ wordplay has found clever ways to get around uttering profane and blasphemous language.Kirk Hazen, Professor of Linguistics, West Virginia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1296852020-02-20T21:08:42Z2020-02-20T21:08:42ZExecution for a Facebook post? Why blasphemy is a capital offense in some Muslim countries<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314062/original/file-20200206-43128-1rhx2hj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C2995%2C1998&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pakistani Islamists march to protest the Supreme Court lenient treatment of Asia Bibi, a Christian Pakistani woman accused of blasphemy, in Karachi, Feb. 1, 2019.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/pakistani-islamists-march-to-protest-against-the-supreme-news-photo/1091981702?adppopup=true">ASIF HASSAN/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Junaid Hafeez, a university lecturer in Pakistan, had been imprisoned for six years when he was <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/junaid-hafeez-pakistani-academic-given-death-sentence-for-blasphemy/a-51762475">sentenced to death</a> in December 2019. The charge: blasphemy, specifically insulting Prophet Muhammad on Facebook. </p>
<p>Pakistan has the world’s second strictest blasphemy laws after Iran, according to <a href="https://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/Blasphemy%20Laws%20Report.pdf">U.S. Commision on International Religious Freedom</a>.</p>
<p>Hafeez, whose death sentence is under <a href="https://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFKBN1YP07F?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews">appeal</a>, is one of about <a href="https://herald.dawn.com/news/1154036">1,500 Pakistanis</a> charged with blasphemy, or sacrilegious speech, over the last three decades. No executions have taken place. </p>
<p>But since 1990 <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-46465247">70 people have been murdered</a> by mobs and vigilantes who accused them of insulting Islam. Several people who defend the accused have been killed, too, including <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/pakistani-academic-junaid-hafeez-sentenced-death-blasphemy-191221091139428.html">one of Hafeez’s lawyers</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/02/opinion/pakistan-bibi-blasphemy-death-sentence.html">two high-level politicians</a> who publicly opposed the death sentence of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman convicted for verbally insulting Prophet Muhammad. Though Bibi was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/29/asia-bibi-pakistans-top-court-upholds-blasphemy-acquittal">acquitted in 2019</a>, she fled Pakistan.</p>
<h2>Blasphemy and apostasy</h2>
<p>Of <a href="https://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/Legislation%20Factsheet%20-%20Blasphemy_3.pdf">71 countries</a> that criminalize blasphemy, 32 are majority Muslim. Punishment and enforcement of these laws <a href="https://www.loc.gov/law/help/blasphemy/index.php">varies</a>. </p>
<p>Blasphemy is punishable by death in Iran, Pakistan, <a href="https://www.loc.gov/law/help/blasphemy/index.php#Afghanistan">Afghanistan</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/03/world/asia/brunei-stoning-gay-sex.html">Brunei</a>, <a href="https://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/Africa%20Speech%20Laws%20FINAL_0.pdf">Mauritania</a> and <a href="https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/essays/national-laws-on-blasphemy-saudi-arabia">Saudi Arabia</a>. Among non-Muslim-majority cases, the <a href="https://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/Blasphemy%20Laws%20Report.pdf">harshest blasphemy laws are in Italy</a>, where the maximum penalty is three years in prison.</p>
<p>Half of the world’s 49 Muslim-majority countries have additional laws <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/07/29/which-countries-still-outlaw-apostasy-and-blasphemy/">banning apostasy</a>, meaning people may be <a href="https://www.loc.gov/law/help/apostasy/index.php">punished for leaving Islam</a>. All countries with apostasy laws are Muslim-majority except <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/07/29/which-countries-still-outlaw-apostasy-and-blasphemy/">India</a>. Apostasy is often <a href="https://www.loc.gov/law/help/blasphemy/index.php">charged along with blasphemy</a>. </p>
<p>This class of religious laws is quite popular in some Muslim countries. According to a 2013 <a href="https://www.pewforum.org/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-overview/">Pew survey</a>, about 75% of respondents in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia favor making sharia, or Islamic law, the official law of the land. </p>
<p>Among those who support sharia, around 25% in Southeast Asia, 50% in the Middle East and North Africa, and 75% in South Asia say they support “executing those who leave Islam” – that is, they support laws punishing apostasy with death.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314063/original/file-20200206-43128-xhkukg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314063/original/file-20200206-43128-xhkukg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314063/original/file-20200206-43128-xhkukg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314063/original/file-20200206-43128-xhkukg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314063/original/file-20200206-43128-xhkukg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314063/original/file-20200206-43128-xhkukg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314063/original/file-20200206-43128-xhkukg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314063/original/file-20200206-43128-xhkukg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A factory torched by an angry mob in Jhelum, Punjab province, Pakistan, after one of its employees was accused of desecrating the Quran, Nov. 21, 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/pakistani-firefighters-stand-in-a-burnt-out-factory-torched-news-photo/498134476?adppopup=true">STR/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The ulema and the state</h2>
<p>My 2019 book “<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/comparative-politics/islam-authoritarianism-and-underdevelopment-global-and-historical-comparison?format=PB">Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment</a>” traces the root of blasphemy and apostasy laws in the Muslim world back to a historic alliance between Islamic scholars and government.</p>
<p>Starting around the year 1050, certain Sunni scholars of law and theology, called the “ulema,” began working closely with <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/V/bo5951736.html">political rulers</a> to challenge what they considered to be the sacrilegious influence of <a href="https://www.fulcrum.org/concern/monographs/s1784m135#toc">Muslim philosophers</a> on society. </p>
<p>Muslim philosophers had for three centuries been making major contributions to <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691135267/the-crest-of-the-peacock">mathematics</a>, <a href="https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/T/bo28119973.html">physics</a> and <a href="http://press.georgetown.edu/book/georgetown/medieval-islamic-medicine">medicine</a>. They developed the <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/305233/the-house-of-wisdom-by-jim-al-khalili/">Arabic number system</a> used across the West today and invented a forerunner of the modern <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674050044&content=toc">camera</a>.</p>
<p>The conservative ulema felt that these philosophers were inappropriately influenced by <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/a-history-of-islamic-philosophy/9780231132206">Greek philosophy</a> and <a href="https://archive.org/stream/renaissanceofisl029336mbp/renaissanceofisl029336mbp_djvu.txt">Shia Islam</a> against Sunni beliefs. The most prominent in consolidating Sunni orthodoxy was the brilliant and respected Islamic scholar <a href="https://fonsvitae.com/product/the-book-of-knowledge/">Ghazali</a>, who died in the year 1111.</p>
<p>In several <a href="https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo16220536.html">influential books</a> still widely read today, Ghazali declared two long-dead leading Muslim philosophers, <a href="https://fonsvitae.com/product/hardback-al-ghazali-deliverance-error-al-munqidh-min-al-dalal-works-copy/">Farabi and Ibn Sina</a>, apostates for their unorthodox views on God’s power and the nature of resurrection. Their followers, Ghazali wrote, <a href="https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/I/bo3624354.html">could be punished with death</a>. </p>
<p>As modern-day historians <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9780807856574/the-politics-of-knowledge-in-premodern-islam/">Omid Safi</a> and <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/al-ghazalis-philosophical-theology-9780195331622?cc=us&lang=en&">Frank Griffel</a> assert, Ghazali’s declaration provided justification to Muslim sultans from the 12th century onward who wished to <a href="https://www.iep.utm.edu/ibnrushd/">persecute</a> – even <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/as-Suhrawardi">execute</a> – <a href="https://criticalmuslim.com/issues/12-dangerous-freethinkers/abbasid-freethinking-humanism-aziz-al-azmeh">thinkers</a> seen as threats to conservative religious rule. </p>
<p>This “ulema-state alliance,” <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Islam_Authoritarianism_and_Underdevelopm/xjCdDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22ulema-state%22">as I call it</a>, began in the <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/V/bo5951736.html">mid-11th century</a> in <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691165851/lost-enlightenment">Central Asia</a>, <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/continuity-and-change-in-medieval-persia-aspects-of-administrative-economic-and-social-history-11th-14th-century/oclc/16095227">Iran</a> and <a href="https://www.sunypress.edu/p-3207-a-learned-society-in-a-period-o.aspx">Iraq</a> and a century later spread to <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/history/middle-east-history/knowledge-and-social-practice-medieval-damascus-11901350?format=PB">Syria</a>, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/muslim-cities-in-the-later-middle-ages/02685655C9C18404192B9FE3E43E75D5">Egypt</a> and <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/muqaddimah-an-introduction-to-history/oclc/307867">North Africa</a>. In these regimes, questioning religious orthodoxy and political authority wasn’t merely dissent – it was apostasy.</p>
<h2>Wrong direction</h2>
<p>Parts of <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/history/european-history-general-interest/rise-western-world-new-economic-history?format=PB">Western Europe</a> were ruled by a similar alliance between the Catholic Church and monarchs. These governments assaulted free thinking, too. During the Spanish Inquisition, between the 16th and 18th centuries, <a href="https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/publication/2150452">thousands of people</a> were tortured and killed for apostasy.</p>
<p>Blasphemy laws were also in place, if infrequently used, in various European countries until recently. <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/quran-burner-denmark-facebook-blasphemy-laws-repeal-a7771041.html">Denmark</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/27/ireland-votes-to-oust-blasphemy-ban-from-constitution">Ireland</a> and <a href="https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20160714/local/repealing-blasphemy-law-a-victory-for-freedom-of-speech-says-humanist.618859">Malta</a> all recently repealed their laws.</p>
<p>But they persist in many parts of the Muslim world. </p>
<p>In Pakistan, the military dictator <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/21/opinion/pakistans-tyranny-of-blasphemy.html">Zia ul Haq</a>, who ruled the country from 1978 to 1988, is responsible for its harsh blasphemy laws. An ally of the <a href="https://nation.com.pk/14-Oct-2016/10-things-you-need-to-know-about-pakistan-s-blasphemy-law">ulema</a>, Zia <a href="https://www.refworld.org/pdfid/565da4824.pdf">updated blasphemy laws</a> – written by British colonizers to avoid interreligious conflict – to defend specifically Sunni Islam and increased the maximum punishment to death. </p>
<p>From the 1920s until Zia, these laws had been applied <a href="https://nation.com.pk/14-Oct-2016/10-things-you-need-to-know-about-pakistan-s-blasphemy-law">only about a dozen times</a>. Since then they have become a powerful tool for crushing dissent.</p>
<p>Some dozen Muslim countries have undergone a <a href="https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199812264.001.0001/acprof-9780199812264">similar process</a> over the past four decades, including <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/29/world/iran-drops-death-penalty-for-professor-guilty-of-blasphemy.html">Iran</a> and <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/egypt-atheism-illegal-crackdown-non-believers-religion-islam-772471">Egypt</a>. </p>
<h2>Dissenting voices in Islam</h2>
<p>The conservative ulema base their case for blasphemy and apostasy laws on a few reported sayings of Prophet Muhammad, known as hadith, primarily: “<a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Freedom_of_Religion_Apostasy_and_Islam/MrhBDgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=apostasy+hadith+change+religion+kill&pg=PT87&printsec=frontcover">Whoever changes his religion, kill him</a>.” </p>
<p>But many <a href="https://english.kadivar.com/2006/09/29/the-freedom-of-thought-and-religion-in-islam-2/">Islamic scholars</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/14/opinion/islams-problem-with-blasphemy.html">Muslim intellectuals</a> reject <a href="https://yaqeeninstitute.org/jonathan-brown/the-issue-of-apostasy-in-islam/#.XjcRFy2ZNKN">this view as radical</a>. They argue that Prophet Muhammad never <a href="https://yaqeeninstitute.org/jonathan-brown/the-issue-of-apostasy-in-islam/#.XjcRFy2ZNKN">executed</a> anyone for apostasy, nor <a href="https://archive.org/details/MuhammadAndTheJewsAReExaminationByBarakatAhmad_201702">encouraged</a> his followers to do so.</p>
<p>Nor is criminalizing sacrilege based on Islam’s main sacred text, the Quran. It contains over <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781315255002">100 verses</a> encouraging peace, freedom of conscience and religious tolerance. </p>
<p>In chapter 2, verse 256, the Quran states, “There is no coercion in religion.” Chapter 4, verse 140 urges Muslims to simply leave blasphemous conversations: “When you hear the verses of God being rejected and mocked, do not sit with them.”</p>
<p>By using their political connections and <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691130705/the-ulama-in-contemporary-islam">historical authority</a> to interpret Islam, however, the conservative ulema have marginalized more <a href="https://oneworld-publications.com/progressive-muslims-pb.html">moderate voices</a>. </p>
<h2>Reaction to global Islamophobia</h2>
<p>Debates about blasphemy and apostasy laws among Muslims are influenced by international affairs.</p>
<p>Across the globe, Muslim minorities – including the <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/country-chapters/israel/palestine">Palestinians</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/10/world/europe/photos-chechen-war-russia.html">Chechens</a> of Russia, <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/09/16/india-free-kashmiris-arbitrarily-detained">Kashmiris</a> of India, <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/rohingya-crisis?gclid=CjwKCAiAsIDxBRAsEiwAV76N8zrlJqhi65w6DzRLwTrDYleM8U7DFswwKp61f3Oiav1Bq4schYpKzhoCfh4QAvD_BwE">Rohingya</a> of Mymanmar and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/16/world/asia/china-xinjiang-documents.html">Uighurs</a> of China – have experienced severe persecution. No other religion is so widely targeted in so many different countries. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314066/original/file-20200206-43084-e3knqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314066/original/file-20200206-43084-e3knqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314066/original/file-20200206-43084-e3knqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314066/original/file-20200206-43084-e3knqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314066/original/file-20200206-43084-e3knqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314066/original/file-20200206-43084-e3knqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314066/original/file-20200206-43084-e3knqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314066/original/file-20200206-43084-e3knqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Rohingya of Myanmar are among several Muslim minorities facing persecution worldwide. Rakhine state, Myanmar, Jan. 13, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/rohingya-people-who-were-arrested-at-sea-in-december-walk-news-photo/1193446518?adppopup=true">STR/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Alongside persecution are some <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/german-court-allows-courtroom-headscarf-ban/a-42857656">Western policies</a> that discriminate against Muslims, such as laws prohibiting <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/9781108476942">headscarves in schools</a> and the U.S. ban on travelers from several Muslim-majority countries.</p>
<p>Such <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/10/is-islamophobia-real-maher-harris-aslan/381411/">Islamaphobic</a> laws and policies can create the impression that Muslims are <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/157082/islamophobia-understanding-anti-muslim-sentiment-west.aspx">under siege</a> and provide an <a href="https://lb.boell.org/en/2012/08/15/muslim-political-theology-defamation-apostasy-and-anathema">excuse</a> that punishing sacrilege is a defense of the faith.</p>
<p>Instead, I find, such harsh religious rules can contribute to <a href="https://deadline.com/2014/10/ben-affleck-comes-to-blows-with-bill-maher-over-his-opinions-toward-islam-video-845912/">anti-Muslim stereotypes</a>. Some of my Turkish relatives even discourage my work on this topic, fearing it fuels Islamophobia. </p>
<p>But my research shows that criminalizing blasphemy and apostasy is more political than it is religious. The Quran does not require punishing sacrilege: authoritarian politics do.</p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/129685/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ahmet T. Kuru is a FORIS scholar at the Religious Freedom Institute.</span></em></p>Pakistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia all punish blasphemy harshly – even with death. Such laws have political as well as religious motives, says a scholar on Islamism: They’re a tool for crushing dissent.Ahmet T. Kuru, Professor of Political Science, San Diego State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1286922020-02-18T13:55:22Z2020-02-18T13:55:22ZConservative Islamic views are gaining ground in secular Bangladesh and curbing freedom of expression<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314539/original/file-20200210-109930-9nehfp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In this 2013 photo, Bangladeshi mourners carry the coffin containing the body of blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider for funeral.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Bangladesh-Bloggers-Murder/6f51046dcd5b4f948ed5303b5acf79b6/17/0">AP Photo/Pavel Rahman, File</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Bangladesh has seen an <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/politics-and-religion/article/who-supports-suicide-terrorism-in-bangladesh-what-the-data-say/F2A83C327946BBA345752E09A7A64DFE">increase in terrorist activity</a> in recent years, including attacks on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/11/bangladesh-murders-bloggers-foreigners-religion">foreigners, activists and religious minorities</a>. </p>
<p>Perpetrators of these attacks have included <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-07-05/bangladesh-attackers-privileged-backgrounds-represent-new-kind-threat">people from privileged backgrounds</a>. News <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia/36137665">reports indicate</a> they were all motivated by the idea that Islam is under attack by secularists and must be defended. </p>
<p>This is significant in a country that was <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07329113.2017.1341479">founded in 1971 on principles of secularism</a> following an independence war with neighboring Pakistan. </p>
<p>My <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=-d--tV4AAAAJ&hl=en">research on Islamist social movements</a> has taken me to Bangladesh regularly for the past seven years. Over that time, I have found, conservative Islamic views have come to play a more central place in Bangladesh’s politics and society.</p>
<h2>The birth of Bangladesh</h2>
<p>When the Indian subcontinent gained independence from the British Empire in 1947, it was <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-partition-of-india-happened-and-why-its-effects-are-still-felt-today-81766">partitioned into two states</a>, creating Pakistan out of the Muslim-majority regions of British India. The newly formed Muslim country was split in two parts, West and East Pakistan, separated by the vast landmass of northern India. </p>
<p>While these two parts of Pakistan shared a common faith, Islam, there were significant cultural, linguistic and political differences between them. The population in the eastern region – predominantly ethnically Bengali and speaking their own language, Bangla – was <a href="https://www.dhakatribune.com/magazine/arts-letters/2017/02/23/pakistan-language-movement">politically marginalized by the western region</a>.</p>
<p>In 1971, the people of East Pakistan launched a <a href="https://academic.oup.com/hwj/article-abstract/58/1/275/580827?redirectedFrom=fulltext">war for independence</a> and founded the “Land of Bangla” – Bangladesh. </p>
<p>While language and culture was at the core of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09584939308719703">Bangladeshi national identity</a>, most people still identified as religious. In other words, it was a secular country founded by people of faith. “Secularism” in Bangladesh did not imply absence of religion, but rather that <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/7/3/37">the state be neutral toward religion</a>. </p>
<h2>Islamists and political power</h2>
<p>Since then, <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/afb7/7bd6ed65bc5dea7bcbb40c4cd7966ab2e51d.pdf">my research shows</a>, Islam has come to be a prominent political force in the country. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308873/original/file-20200107-123403-1pqxpmp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308873/original/file-20200107-123403-1pqxpmp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308873/original/file-20200107-123403-1pqxpmp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308873/original/file-20200107-123403-1pqxpmp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308873/original/file-20200107-123403-1pqxpmp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308873/original/file-20200107-123403-1pqxpmp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308873/original/file-20200107-123403-1pqxpmp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A banner put up by a local organization in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack in Dhaka in 2016, condemning killings in the name of religion.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Anders C. Hardig</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Islamists, a broad label that covers political parties, preachers and militant groups, among others, actively promote a more conservative version of Islam. </p>
<p>The most influential Islamist <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323681904578641530401992180">party</a> is Jamaat-e-Islami, whose name means “Islamic gathering.” Though it has never won many parliamentary seats, Jamaat-e-Islami has come to exert considerable influence in government.</p>
<p>Bangladesh’s parliamentary system requires mainstream parties to ally with smaller ones to gain the majority necessary to form a government. Because of this, major political parties in Bangladesh have at different times <a href="https://www.economist.com/asia/2006/08/10/an-ugly-alliance">relied on</a> <a href="https://www.economist.com/asia/2006/08/10/an-ugly-alliance">alliances with Jamaat</a> to secure a parliamentary majority. </p>
<h2>Mobilization against secularism</h2>
<p>Other Islamists use “street power” to promote their agenda.</p>
<p>In February 2013, a high-ranking official with Jamaat-e-Islami received a life sentence for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/feb/13/shahbag-protest-bangladesh-quader-mollah">war crimes committed during the 1971 independence struggle</a>. This was considered by some as too light a sentence. A few days later, protesters began rallying in the streets to demand the death penalty for this official. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314535/original/file-20200210-109896-m7kwkp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314535/original/file-20200210-109896-m7kwkp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314535/original/file-20200210-109896-m7kwkp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314535/original/file-20200210-109896-m7kwkp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314535/original/file-20200210-109896-m7kwkp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314535/original/file-20200210-109896-m7kwkp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314535/original/file-20200210-109896-m7kwkp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Moderate activists in Bangladesh protesting at a Dhaka intersection demanding harsh punishment for those accused of crimes during the 1971 independence war from Pakistan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Bangladesh-War-Crimes/213aca2908054060ac664c39187d5a6f/16/0">AP Photo/Pavel Rahman</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These secular-minded supporters of the war tribunal wanted local collaborators of the Pakistani army to be punished for atrocities they committed against Bengalis and religious minorities.</p>
<p>Most of those being tried by the tribunal came from the ranks of the Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami.</p>
<p>The protesters wanted local collaborators of the Pakistani army to be punished for atrocities they committed against Bengalis and religious minorities. They demanded that <a href="https://themuslimtimes.info/2013/02/08/shahbagh-grand-rally-demands-ban-on-jamaat/">Jamaat-e-Islami be banned</a> and their financial interests, including Islamic banks, be dismantled. </p>
<p>This mobilization, however, was soon met with a coordinated counterprotest led by a movement known as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/30/bangladesh-hefazat-e-islam-shah-ahmad-shafi">Hefazat</a>. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/30/bangladesh-hefazat-e-islam-shah-ahmad-shafi">As many as 500,000 people</a> shut down major roads to the capital and interpreted the protesters demands as defaming Islam and the Prophet Muhammad. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.thedailystar.net/news/hefajat-demands">13-point list</a>, the Hefazat demanded the death penalty for blasphemy. The group also asked for an end to Bangladesh’s <a href="https://www.worldwatchmonitor.org/2013/04/bangladesh-pm-rejects-muslim-demand-for-blasphemy-law/">education policy</a>, which, in its view, prioritized “secular” subjects like science and math over religious studies. The group also wanted compulsory Islamic education.</p>
<h2>Islam under threat</h2>
<p>To appease Islamist interests, the government agreed to meet some of the demands.</p>
<p>One major concession was <a href="https://www.icj.org/bangladesh-information-and-communication-technology-act-draconian-assault-on-free-expression/">expanding the government’s ability to crack down</a> on those who “hurt religious beliefs” and for “acts of defamation.” </p>
<p>Under this revised law, called the Information and Communication Technology Act, Bangladesh has arrested <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/05/09/no-place-criticism/bangladesh-crackdown-social-media-commentary">at least eight bloggers</a> since 2013. The alleged crimes of these bloggers include writing articles critical of the Saudi government and posting derogatory remarks about the Prophet Muhammed online. </p>
<p>Police have used the defamation clause of the Information and Communication Technology Act and its replacement, the Digital Security Act of 2018, to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/07/19/bangladeshs-draconian-internet-law-treats-peaceful-critics-criminals/">silence criticism</a> of the government. Over <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/05/09/no-place-criticism/bangladesh-crackdown-social-media-commentary">1,200 people have been charged under this law between 2013 and 2018</a>. </p>
<p>Educational policy too has shifted toward <a href="https://international.la-croix.com/news/dismay-over-the-islamization-of-education-in-bangladesh/4609">Islamic education</a>. </p>
<h2>The Islamic revival</h2>
<p>Hefazat did not see all their demands met, but my research shows it moved Bangladesh away from its <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09546553.2015.1127807">secularist ideals</a>.</p>
<p>In truth, the shift in Islam’s role in politics and society really began as early as 1975 when Bangladesh’s founder and first president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was assassinated in a military coup. </p>
<p>After that, Bangladesh experienced considerable political instability and was ruled by successive military governments until 1990, when a nonviolent mobilization ushered in a <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/inline_images/Bangladesh.pdf">return to democracy</a>. </p>
<p>During the dictatorship years, however, military rulers began to gradually open up politics to Islamists. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opensecurity/global-political-islam-in-bangladesh-past-present-and-future/">ban on Islamist political parties was lifted in 1975</a>, which allowed Jamaat-e-Islami to run candidates for office and establish itself as a legitimate Bangladeshi political party. </p>
<p>In 1979, the commitment to secularism was <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07329113.2017.1341479">removed from the preamble of Bangladesh’s constitution</a>. In 1988, Islam was made the <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/bangladeshi-court-keeps-islam-as-state-religion/a-19148093">official state religion</a>. </p>
<p>The number of religious schools – madrasas – <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/hardigsajjadpaperfinal.pdf">increased exponentially</a>, from <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=kUIEAQAAQBAJ&q=1980#v=snippet&q=1980&f=false">1,830 in 1975 to 5,793 in 1990</a>. And that’s just government-sanctioned Islamic schools following a state-approved curriculum.</p>
<p>Reliable data is missing for the vast majority of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02185377.2015.1040039?casa_token=Ij0n2TJfZboAAAAA%3A2ofbeMj9rXHunRjgijKYk7ZAdlKtKjpiwDeC_vpjl5zNHumSK0Fbo2aPiGSvyANip3OpCuhXNHTftA">private madrasas in Bangladesh</a>, which operate without any curricular control from the state. </p>
<h2>Changes in society</h2>
<p>In today’s Bangladesh there is another influential group: preachers who aspire to shape society according to their interpretations of what constitutes “pure” Islam.</p>
<p>Popular <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137264817_1">Islamic televangelists</a> reach millions across the Muslim world, spreading the notion that Islam in the Indian subcontinent must be “purified” of non-Arab elements. They believe Arabic is God’s language and to be properly pure, Muslims should use Arab practices and the language whenever possible. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314552/original/file-20200210-109943-khjdfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314552/original/file-20200210-109943-khjdfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314552/original/file-20200210-109943-khjdfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314552/original/file-20200210-109943-khjdfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314552/original/file-20200210-109943-khjdfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314552/original/file-20200210-109943-khjdfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314552/original/file-20200210-109943-khjdfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/India-Islamic-Preacher/da1c943b0806444389ffaa5c869207e7/2/0">AP Photo/ Rajanish Kakade</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, Muslims in South Asia commonly say “Khuda Hafiz” when parting, a phrase derived from Persian, meaning “God be your protector.” Now, a popular <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYKUt-Vut9I">Islamic televangelist, Zakir Naik</a>, has revived an old argument that emerged in the 1980s in Pakistan, saying that “true Muslims” should use the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2012/apr/17/pakistan-goodbye-allah-hafiz">Arabic version “Allah Hafiz” instead</a>.</p>
<p>Similarly, as several Bangladeshis have told me, it is not uncommon in today’s Bangladesh to be corrected when using the Persian “Ramzan,” when referencing the Muslim holy month. The Arabic is “Ramadan.”</p>
<p>These may seem like minor semantic changes, but they are representative of a broader “corrective movement” that seeks to “purify” Islam of perceived “un-Islamic” tendencies.</p>
<p>In my view, Bangladesh’s secularism, a constitutional concept meant to guarantee the separation of religion and state, has become so vilified by Islamists that it has come to mean something akin to “atheistic” or “anti-Islamic.”</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128692/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anders C. Hardig does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In recent years Bangladesh has seen an increase in attacks on religious minorities. A scholar explains how certain extreme views on how Islam is to be followed are taking center stage in the country.Anders C. Hardig, Professorial Lecturer, American University School of International ServiceLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1315982020-02-17T13:07:12Z2020-02-17T13:07:12ZDesmond Tutu’s long history of fighting for lesbian and gay rights<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315038/original/file-20200212-61947-ufl55a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Robert Tshabalala/Business Day/Gallo Images/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/archbishop-emeritus-desmond-mpilo-tutu">Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu</a> is mostly known to the world for his highly prominent role in the campaign against <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-apartheid-south-africa">apartheid</a> in South Africa. This role was internationally recognised by the awarding of the <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1984/summary/">1984 Nobel Peace Prize</a>. </p>
<p>Tutu continued his activism even after the country’s democratic transition in South Africa in the early 1990s. Among other things, he served as chair of the country’s <a href="https://www.justice.gov.za/trc/">Truth and Reconciliation Commission</a> which sought to deal with the crimes and injustices under apartheid, and to bring about justice, healing and reconciliation in a wounded society. He retired as Archbishop of Cape Town in 1996.</p>
<p>In more recent years Tutu has become known for his strong advocacy on issues of sexuality, in particular the rights of lesbian and gay people. For instance, in 2013, he made global headlines with the clear and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23464694">succinct statement</a>, in typical Tutu fashion, that he:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>would rather go to hell than to a homophobic heaven.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Tutu is by far the most high-profile African, if not global, religious leader to support lesbian and gay rights. This has added to his international reputation as a progressive thinker and activist, especially in the western world. But his stance has been met with suspicion on the African continent itself. A fellow Anglican bishop, Emmanuel Chukwuma from Nigeria, even declared him to be “<a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=bsxXDwAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&dq=Emmanuel%20Chukwuma%20%22spiritually%20dead%22&pg=PT8#v=onepage&q=spiritually%20dead&f=false">spiritually dead</a>”.</p>
<p>For distant observers, Tutu’s advocacy around sexuality might appear to be a recent phenomenon. For his critics, it might be another illustration of how he has tried to be the darling of white liberal audiences in the Western world. </p>
<p>In fact his commitment to defending gay and lesbian rights isn’t a recent development; it dates as far back as the 1970s. In addition, it is very much in continuity with his long-standing resistance against apartheid and his relentless defence of black civil rights in South Africa.</p>
<h2>Common thread</h2>
<p>Shortly after the end of apartheid in 1994, Tutu <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=yYHcK6kWcPAC&lpg=PP1&dq=aliens%20household%20god%20gruchy&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=worthy%20moral&f=true">wrote</a> that</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If the church, after the victory over apartheid, is looking for a worthy moral crusade, then this is it: the fight against homophobia and heterosexism. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Driving both struggles is Tutu’s strong moral and political commitment to defending the human dignity and rights of all people. Theologically, this is rooted in his conviction that every human being is created in the image of God and therefore is worthy of respect.</p>
<p>In the 1980s, Tutu and other Christian leaders had used the concept of ‘heresy’ to denounce apartheid in the strongest theological language. They famously stated that “<a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/archive-files2/remar84.7.pdf">apartheid is a heresy</a>”, meaning that it is in conflict with the most fundamental Christian teaching. </p>
<p>Tutu also used another strong theological term: blasphemy, meaning an insult of God-self. In 1984, he wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Apartheid’s most blasphemous aspect is … that it can make a child of God doubt that he is a child of God. For that reason alone, it deserves to be condemned as a heresy. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>More than a decade later, Tutu used very similar words to denounce homophobia and heterosexism. He wrote that it was “<a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=yYHcK6kWcPAC&lpg=PP1&dq=aliens%20household%20god%20gruchy&pg=PP14#v=onepage&q=ultimate%20blasphemy%20&f=false">the ultimate blasphemy</a>” to make lesbian and gay people doubt whether they truly were children of God and whether their sexuality was part of how they were created by God.</p>
<p>Tutu’s equation of black civil rights and lesbian and gay rights is part of a broader South African narrative and dates back to the days of the apartheid struggle. Openly gay anti-apartheid activists, such as <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/tseko-simon-nkoli-dies">Simon Nkoli</a>, had actively participated in the liberation movement, and had successfully intertwined the struggles against racism and homophobia. </p>
<p>On the basis of this history, South Africa’s <a href="https://www.gov.za/documents/constitution-republic-south-africa-1996">Constitution</a>, adopted in 1996, included a <a href="https://www.justice.gov.za/legislation/acts/2000-004.pdf">non-discrimination clause</a> that lists sexual orientation, alongside race and other characteristics. It was the first country in the world to do so, and Tutu had actively lobbied for it. </p>
<p>A decade later, South Africa became the sixth country in the world to <a href="https://www.brandsouthafrica.com/governance/services/rights/south-africa-legalises-gay-marriage">legalise same-sex marriage</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315040/original/file-20200212-61966-m5e4cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315040/original/file-20200212-61966-m5e4cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315040/original/file-20200212-61966-m5e4cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315040/original/file-20200212-61966-m5e4cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315040/original/file-20200212-61966-m5e4cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315040/original/file-20200212-61966-m5e4cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315040/original/file-20200212-61966-m5e4cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315040/original/file-20200212-61966-m5e4cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Reverend Mpho Andrea Tutu and Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town Desmond Tutu attend an award gala in New York City.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Thos Robinson/Getty Images/Shared Interest</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Attitudes still need work</h2>
<p>Arguably, these legal provisions did not automatically translate into a change of social attitudes towards lesbian and gay people at a grassroots level. <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/11/south-africa-road-to-lgbtq-equality/">Homophobia remains widespread</a> in South African society today. </p>
<p>Tutu’s own church, the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, continues to struggle with gay issues. In 2015 his daughter, Mpho Tutu, had to give up her <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/09/mpho-tutu-van-furth-its-painful-to-step-down-from-my-priestly-ministry">position as an ordained priest after she married a woman</a>. Tutu gave the newly wed couple a blessing anyway.</p>
<p>The question of same-sex relationships and the status of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people continues to be controversial across the world. In this context, Tutu is an influential figure who uses his moral authority to help shape the debates. </p>
<p>His equation of racial and sexual equality is particularly important, as it foregrounds how the struggle for justice, equality and human rights are interconnected: we cannot claim rights for one group of people while denying them to others.</p>
<p><em>This article is an abbreviated version of a chapter about Desmond Tutu in the book Reimagining Christianity and Sexuality in Africa, co-authored by Adriaan van Klinken and Ezra Chitando, and to be published with Zed Books in London (2021).</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131598/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adriaan van Klinken receives funding for research projects from the Arts and Humanities Research Council in the UK, and from the British Academy. </span></em></p>Desmond Tutu is by far the most high-profile African, if not global, religious leader to support lesbian and gay rights, and he has done so since the 1970s.Adriaan van Klinken, Professor of Religion and African Studies, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1216652019-08-21T14:12:27Z2019-08-21T14:12:27ZFive reasons the world needs a wake-up call on religious persecution<p>All over the world, people – and whole communities – are suffering from persecution purely because of their religion or beliefs. This kind of violence – including attempts to annihilate whole religious groups – is on the rise. </p>
<p>In the past five years alone, there have been two mass atrocities which meet the United Nations’ <a href="https://treaties.un.org/doc/publication/unts/volume%2078/volume-78-i-1021-english.pdf">legal definition of genocide</a>. </p>
<p>So on August 22 – a day <a href="https://undocs.org/en/A/73/L.85">specially established by the United Nations</a> to help raise awareness of this discrimination and abuse – shines a light on those dark corners where acts of violence based on religion or belief are a daily reality. </p>
<p><strong>1) Daesh’s reign of terror</strong></p>
<p>In 2014, <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/daesh-39354">Daesh</a> (Islamic State, ISIS, ISIL) attacked religious <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/CoISyria/A_HRC_32_CRP.2_en.pdf">Yazidi</a> and Christian minority groups in Iraq in an attempt to destroy them and establish a purely Islamic state. <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-29445063">Daesh’s campaign of terror</a> involved murder, kidnapping, people trafficking, rape, sexual slavery and the destruction of cultural heritage. All this because the victims belonged to different religious groups.</p>
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<span class="caption">The courtyard outside the Cathedral in Quaragosh, Iraq, used by Daesh as a shooting range.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ewelina Ochab</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p><strong>2) The Rohingya crisis</strong></p>
<p>In 2016, atrocities perpetrated by the Burmese military against the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/CoISyria/A_HRC_32_CRP.2_en.pdf">Rohingya Muslims</a> in Rakhine state reached the level of genocide, resulting in more than <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-41566561">700,000 people forcibly displaced to Bangladesh</a> in pursuit of a safe haven. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/rohingya-crisis-a-year-since-it-shocked-the-world-whats-changed-101209">Rohingya crisis: a year since it shocked the world, what's changed?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>As the independent international fact-finding mission on Burma <a href="https://undocs.org/A/HRC/res/34/22">reported</a>, “the nature, scale and organisation of the operations” suggested a level of pre-planning and design on the part of the Tatmadaw (military) leadership". The atrocities reinforced the vision of the commander-in-chief, senior-general Min Aung Hlaing, who sought a solution to what he referred to as
“<a href="https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/myanmar-rohingya-battalions/">The Bengali problem</a>”. </p>
<p>By the Bengali problem he meant the Rohingya Muslims who for decades have been referred to as <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/burma-rohingya-muslim-refugees-bangladesh-aung-san-suu-kyi-a7554756.html">illegal immigrants</a> from Bangladesh. </p>
<p><strong>3) Christians in Nigeria</strong></p>
<p>In Nigeria’s <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/06/28/nigeria-rising-toll-middle-belt-violence">Middle Belt</a>, Christians farmers have been slaughtered by Fulani herdsmen, attacks that have claimed <a href="http://visionofhumanity.org/app/uploads/2018/12/Global-Terrorism-Index-2018.pdf">hundreds of lives</a>. Meanwhile in northern Nigeria, <a href="https://www.un.org/africarenewal/news/boko-haram-violence-affront-humanity-ban-declares-reaffirms-un-support-nigerian-government">Boko Haram</a> continues to terrorise the region and kill anyone who does not agree with its perverted ideology. </p>
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<p><strong>4) Oppression in China</strong></p>
<p>An estimated one million <a href="https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/new-un-rights-chief-takes-on-china-other-powers-in-first-speech/4565652.html">Uighur Muslims</a> have been detained in so-called “re-education camps” which are designed to strip them of their religious and ethnic identity and replace it with absolute loyalty to the state. Also in China, members of <a href="https://chinatribunal.com/">Falun Gong</a> (a religious spiritual practice) are imprisoned and many of them subsequently <a href="https://chinatribunal.com/final-judgement-report/">disappear without a trace</a>.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-history-of-chinas-muslims-and-whats-behind-their-persecution-117365">The history of China's Muslims and what's behind their persecution</a>
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<p><strong>5) Persecution in Pakistan</strong></p>
<p>In Pakistan, religious minorities, including Christians and <a href="https://theconversation.com/who-are-pakistans-ahmadis-and-why-havent-they-voted-in-30-years-100797">Ahmadis</a>, are subjected to severe discrimination that often translates into acts of violence <a href="http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Lahore-court-acquits-20-people-accused-of-burning-a-Christian-couple-alive-43482.html">perpetrated with impunity</a>. For example a Christian couple, Shahzad and Shama Masih, were beaten and burnt alive by a mob for allegedly desecrating the Koran. </p>
<p>There have been instances of Christian and Hindu girls and women being abducted for <a href="https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/Documents/college-artslaw/ptr/ciforb/Forced-Conversions-and-Forced-Marriages-in-Sindh.pdf">forced conversion and marriage</a>, while religious minorities <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pakistan-blasphemy/pakistan-court-convicts-31-over-campus-lynching-of-student-accused-of-blasphemy-idUSKBN1FR1EW">suspected of blasphemy</a> have been attacked <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-42970587">and murdered</a> by angry mobs. </p>
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<p>But even the justice system is not able to provide victims with a fair trial or redress. For example a Christian woman, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/31/asia-bibi-verdict-pakistan-court-overturns-blasphemy-death-sentence">Asia Bibi</a>, spent nine years on death row after being accused of blasphemy. Her conviction was ultimately overturned after an international outcry but there are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/15/asia-bibi-lawyer-defend-couple-death-row-blasphemy-pakistan">many more</a> facing death on accusations of blasphemy. </p>
<h2>So what needs to be done?</h2>
<p>States and civil society representatives must mark the <a href="https://undocs.org/en/A/73/L.85">International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief</a> uniting behind the common aim of addressing this <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/07/23/religious-persecution-is-on-the-rise-its-time-for-policymakers-and-academics-to-take-notice/">neglected issue</a>.</p>
<p>This initiative is intended to raise awareness and provide a springboard towards an action plan rather than being an end in itself. What will become of this day is up to all states, civil society and individuals. Everyone needs to play their role in making this a meaningful day – one that can bring a change to the lives of the people targeted for their religion or belief. </p>
<p>Any action plan needs to address the different types of atrocities perpetrated in different parts of the world and improve human rights by adjusting them to international standards. Introducing mechanisms to strengthen implementation and oversight would be key. Also, placing more focus on criminal prosecutions would help deter crime and human rights violations.</p>
<p>The Bishop of Truro, Philip Mounstephen, <a href="https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/CDP-2019-0198">published a report</a> in July 2019 into the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s response to the persecution of Christians around the world. The report contains several recommendations on how to strengthen its response. </p>
<p>The report says more should be done to obtain reliable information about the situation of persecuted communities. It calls on the FCO to introduce new implementation mechanisms to strengthen its response to persecution and champion the international efforts on combating impunity for mass atrocities based on religion or belief. While the recommendations were written with the UK’s FCO in mind, these are valid recommendations that could be adopted by other states as well. </p>
<p>As Lord Ahmad – the minister of state for the Commonwealth, the UN and South Asia – has emphasised: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Our biggest challenge is not when we stand up for our own rights and beliefs. The real test is when we stand up for the rights and beliefs of others.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121665/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>I authored the initiative and proposal to establish the UN International Day Commemorating Victims and Survivors of Religious Persecution on August 22.</span></em></p>It will take a global effort to slow the rise in
atrocities against religious groups.Ewelina Ochab, PhD Candidate, Kent Law School, University of KentLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1198002019-07-18T12:06:18Z2019-07-18T12:06:18ZTehreek-e-Labbaik: how blasphemy case in Pakistan brought down hardline religious party<p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/c8qpdz3gxymt/asia-bibi-blasphemy-case">Asia Bibi</a>, a Pakistani Christian and farm labourer, was beaten by a mob and arrested for blasphemy in June 2009 after being accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad during an argument. She maintained her innocence throughout the trial the following year, but was sentenced to death. Almost a decade later, in October 2018, Pakistan’s supreme court overturned her conviction and <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/asia-bibi-pakistans-top-court-overturns-christian-womans-death-sentence-in-blasphemy-case/a-46096372">acquitted her</a>. </p>
<p>Supporters of a fledgling far-right party called <a href="https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/pakistan/all-you-need-to-know-about-tlp-pakistans-hardline-islamist-party-calling-the-shots-1.1541741110622">Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan</a> (TLP) <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/asia-bibis-blasphemy-verdict-islamists-protest-across-pakistan/a-46101210">violently opposed</a> the decision that saw her released. But its actions in taking on the state over the Bibi case have brought TLP to an end as quickly as it gained popularity.</p>
<p>An offshoot of right-wing religious group <a href="https://www.memri.org/reports/tehreek-labbaik-ya-rasool-allah-tly-%E2%80%93-islamist-movement-center-anti-government-protests">Tehreek-i-Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah Pakistan</a>, TLP was founded in 2016 following the execution of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-south-asia-15138740/salman-taseer-murder-mumtaz-qadri-sentenced-to-death">Mumtaz Qadri</a>. The bodyguard policeman murdered his ward, the Punjab governor Salman Taseer, in 2011, after he publicly voiced his support for Bibi.</p>
<p>The new party stepped up to give a voice to right-wing, conservative Islamist views. Until its participation in the by-election for Lahore’s National Assembly constituency in September 2017, the party was relatively unknown. But the results surprised many of Pakistan’s political elite when the TLP <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pakistan-election-religion-factbox/factbox-islamist-parties-running-in-pakistans-election-idUSKBN1KC04R">secured nearly 8% of total votes</a> cast. This new political party quickly <a href="https://www.dawn.com/news/1423491">dominated headlines</a> with a manifesto that included promises to make Pakistan a welfare state, to end terrorism and corruption, and to uphold the sanctity of Islam’s Holy Prophet.</p>
<h2>Political clout</h2>
<p>The party again attracted attention when it spearheaded a protest in November 2017 calling for the law minister Zahid Hamid to resign for his alleged role in <a href="https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/pakistan/law-minister-zahid-hamid-resigns-after-three-week-protest-by-religious-parties-1.2131494">changing the wording of the oath</a> taken by parliamentarians – which the group deemed blasphemous.</p>
<p>Though Hamid resigned, apologised and assured the nation that he believed in the <a href="http://www.thedeenshow.com/the-finality-of-prophethood/">finality of the prophet</a> – these events pushed TLP into the nation’s political consciousness. In the general elections of July 2018, TLP fielded 744 candidates. This time the party bagged a significant number of votes and <a href="https://www.dawn.com/news/1423491">won two seats</a> in Sindh province, gaining recognition as a new religious and political force in a very short space of time.</p>
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<p>The Pakistani supreme court’s acquittal of Bibi in October 2018 came as a severe blow to the ideology on which TLP had been founded. Thousands of angry supporters blocked roads and motorways, while one of its leaders, Pir Afzal Qadri <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/10/pakistan-pm-calls-calm-aasia-bibi-cleared-blasphemy-181031173052989.html">stated</a> that the killing of those who overturned the verdict was justifiable.</p>
<p>TLP’s swift rise suggested it had the potential to become a popular political force which would give voice to prominent conservative views in this profoundly religious society. The party employed a smart strategy by harnessing the febrile emotions surrounding the subject of blasphemy, and positioned itself as the champion of Islamic values, bringing it huge popular support.</p>
<p>The party was also astute in appealing to serious political candidates who had found themselves at odds with their own parties, giving the TLP political credibility and access to new sources of voters. In November 2017, the number of supporters taking to the streets in protest against Zahid Hamid’s perceived blasphemy pointed to the party becoming a force to be reckoned with in Pakistan.</p>
<p>But the high-profile protests that followed the Bibi acquittal in late 2018 – in which public property was vandalised and innocent citizens injured – were instrumental in its downfall. </p>
<h2>Violent protests</h2>
<p>In an attempt to end the protests, the newly elected prime minster <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Imran-Khan">Imran Khan</a> warned protestors not to incite violence and force the state into taking action. The demonstrators finally called off their protest after three days and signed a deal with the government.</p>
<p>The agreement included a clause that the government would put Asia Bibi’s name on the Exit Control List (ECL) to prevent her from fleeing abroad, and see arrested TLP members released. But within days of the protests subsiding, the government launched a crackdown against all those who had damaged state property and incited violence during the protest.</p>
<p>More than 5,000 supporters of TLP were arrested. The government also went after TLP leaders Afzal Qadri and <a href="https://www.dawn.com/news/1374182">Khadim Hussain Rizvi</a>, charging them with sedition and terrorism. Announcing the charges, the government made it clear that it would not remain silent over any protest that violated the rights of the people. At the latest hearing in July 2019, both men were <a href="https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/498957-afzal-qadri-s-bail-extended">extended post-arrest bail</a> until the next hearing, Afzal Qadri on health grounds.</p>
<p>This swift action helped the state to establish its authority, but questions remain as to how such groups emerge in Pakistan and how they should be dealt with. </p>
<h2>Shutting it down</h2>
<p>The judiciary, the military and most of the parliament’s political parties seem to be in agreement that TLP’s <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pakistan-politics/pakistan-to-press-terrorism-charges-against-leaders-of-hardline-islamist-group-idUSKCN1O03DQ">biggest mistake</a> was its overt criticism of the military in its call to overthrow the head of the Pakistani army, Qamar Bajwa.</p>
<p>Though Imran Khan’s government presides over parliament, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/27/imran-khan-won-pakistan-power-army-military-election">military holds enormous political power</a> in Pakistan, and on the rare occasions it is publicly criticised, responds with a heavy hand. In May 2019, just before Asia Bibi <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/08/asia-bibi-begins-new-life-in-canada-but-her-ordeal-may-not-be-over">found asylum in Canada</a>, Afzal Qadri was ordered to <a href="https://www.dawn.com/news/1480837/lhc-directs-pir-afzal-qadri-to-submit-detailed-apology-for-incendiary-remarks">apologise</a> for his threat to the military and stood down <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-xl/asia/pakistan/tlp-patron-in-chief-pir-afzal-qadri-quits-party-citing-health-issues/ar-AAALac8">citing health reasons</a>.</p>
<p>Now, with its two firebrand leaders living under <a href="https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/498957-afzal-qadri-s-bail-extended">post-arrest bail conditions</a>, Asia Bibi forging a new life in Canada and the protracted trial ongoing, TLP appears to have been politically neutralised.</p>
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<span class="caption">Pir Afzal Qadri, leader of TLP has stepped down and is under arrest.</span>
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<p>In Pakistan, any religious group or political party can survive as long as it doesn’t threaten the interests of the country’s strong military establishment. Critics argue that the TLP might have survived if it had not issued a fatwa against the military leadership. But Pakistan’s new government also took a bold stance in bringing the fanatics under the rule of law.</p>
<p>Both civilian and military leadership must understand that Pakistani society cannot afford to tolerate such extremist groups. It is time for everyone to be made accountable under the law. This would make the dream of Pakistan’s founder, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/jinnah_mohammad_ali.shtml">Muhammad Ali Jinnah</a>, a reality by creating a country that is safe for minorities. Today, rule of law and equal rights are the only way forward if Pakistan is to become a prosperous and progressive country.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119800/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Contributing authors include:
Alamgir Khan, a PhD student in Politics & International Relations, University o Dundee.
Faisal Yaqoob, a PhD student in Politics & International Relations, University o Dundee.
Rhiannon Dempsey, (Mlitt) International Security, University of Dundee.
</span></em></p>Taking on the state with threats and violent protests was met with a swift crackdown by Imran Khan’s new government.Abdullah Yusuf, Lecturer in Politics, University of DundeeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1147432019-04-15T20:17:52Z2019-04-15T20:17:52ZLife of Brian at 40: an assertion of individual freedom that still resonates<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268714/original/file-20190411-2898-1jdsosk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Eric Idle, from left, John Cleese, Michael Palin, and Sue Jones-Davies in Life of Brian (1979).</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">HandMade Films, Python (Monty) Pictures</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This year is the 40th anniversary of the release of Monty Python’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079470/">Life of Brian</a>. The film met with instant controversy in 1979 and was<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Python%27s_Life_of_Brian"> banned</a> in Ireland, Norway and parts of Britain. In the US, protesters gathered outside cinemas where it aired.</p>
<p>Life of Brian tells the story of Brian of Nazareth (played by Graham Chapman), who is born on the same day as Jesus of Nazareth. After joining a Jewish, anti-Roman terrorist group, The People’s Front of Judea, he is mistaken for a prophet and becomes an unwilling Messiah. All this eventually produces the film’s most remembered line, courtesy of Brian’s mother Mandy (Terry Jones). “He’s not the Messiah,” she tells us, “he’s a very naughty boy”. </p>
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<p>In November 1979, the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ni559bHXDg">BBC famously televised</a> a debate between Pythons John Cleese and Michael Palin and two pillars of the Christian establishment, journalist Malcolm Muggeridge and then Bishop of Southwark Mervyn Stockwood. Each side totally failed to understand the other. Muggeridge’s point was that Brian was nothing but a “lampooning of Christ”. The Pythons argued this couldn’t be so because Brian was not Jesus. Technically, they were right. Still, this did not satisfy the Bishop, or the film’s many critics. </p>
<p>How does Life of Brian – which is being re-released to mark the anniversary – stand the test of time? Watching it today, it strikes me that, as parody goes, it is a pretty gentle, even, respectful sort. Ironically, to be properly offended by it or even to get the joke – then or now – requires a good knowledge of the life of Jesus in the New Testament Gospels. </p>
<p>What of the Church’s complaint that Brian was Jesus and thus the film was sacriligious or even blasphemous? There are three places in it where Brian and Jesus are clearly distinguished. Firstly, when the wise men – having worshipped the wrong baby – realise their mistake, they return to the stable to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeWI5RcgOLs">retrieve their gifts</a>. Secondly, Brian is seen in the crowd listening to Jesus deliver the Sermon on the Mount. And in another scene, an ex-leper (Palin) complains to Brian about the loss of his livelihood as a beggar because Jesus has cured him.</p>
<p>Still, Brian is in some sense, “Jesus”. For the film relies on both the similarities and differences between the lives of both men. They are both born in stables. They both meet their deaths through crucifixion, although the one ends in Jesus’s resurrection from the dead and the other in Eric Idle’s nihilistic song Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. (“For Life is quite absurd, and Death’s the final word.”) The Pythons also make the point that there were many others like Jesus at the time (such as Palin’s really boring prophet) proclaiming the end of the world was at hand.</p>
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<p>Life of Brian was certainly considered blasphemous in 1979 – and the film itself makes references to the absurdity of blasphemy as a crime.</p>
<p>Today, however, blasphemy is no longer on the cultural agenda of the non-Muslim West. Christians and others look disapprovingly on Islam’s understanding of blasphemy and the severe punishments meted out for it. As a crime, it has been religiously “othered”. </p>
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<p>The virtue of the film today is its capacity to offend a whole new generation of viewers for different reasons. It is now more likely to be criticised for breaching the boundaries of “political correctness” around issues of gender, race, class and disability than blasphemy.</p>
<p>It is difficult, for instance, to hear Brian assert his Jewish identity in anti-Semitic terms: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’m not a Roman, Mum, and I never will be! I’m a Kike! A Yid! A Hebe! A Hook-nose! I’m Kosher, Mum! I’m a Red Sea Pedestrian, and proud of it!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Still, as gender transitioning becomes culturally mainstream, the desire of the revolutionary Stan (Eric Idle) to be a woman, to be called “Loretta” and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PObBA2wH5l0">to have babies</a>, will strike a chord. </p>
<p>And one cannot underestimate the sheer pleasure certain memorable scenes bring: from the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slbMe-aTY1A">misheard Sermon on The Mount</a> (“Blessed are the Cheesemakers”) to the sight of Brian rewriting “Romans Go Home” on the palace walls, after a passing Centurion disgusted at Brian’s faulty Latin grammar, forces him to write out the correct protest message 100 times.</p>
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<p>Life of Brian is undoubtedly a criticism of the unthinking nature of religious belief, from the perspective of the freedom and authority of the individual. In a key scene, Brian tells a crowd they are all individuals.</p>
<p>“Yes, we’re all individuals,” the crowd responds. </p>
<p>Then one lonely voice, Dennis, chimes in. “I’m not,” he says.</p>
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<p>In this assertion of the freedom of the individual, of the virtue of thinking for yourselves, the film exemplifies modernity. As Immanuel Kant put it in 1784, “‘Have the courage to use your own understanding!’ — that is the motto of enlightenment.” </p>
<p>This notion was at the heart of all of Monty Python’s work and is the central message of Life of Brian. </p>
<p><em>Monty Python’s Life of Brian – 40th Anniversary will screen at <a href="https://www.eventcinemas.com.au/EventsFestivals/LifeOfBrian40ThAnniversary">select cinemas</a> from April 18.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114743/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philip C. Almond does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As parody goes, this infamous Monty Python film is a pretty gentle, even, respectful sort. It is now more likely to be criticised for breaching the boundaries of ‘political correctness’.Philip C. Almond, Emeritus Professor in the History of Religious Thought, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1064872018-11-08T11:49:21Z2018-11-08T11:49:21ZBlasphemy law is repealed in Ireland, enforced in Pakistan – and a problem in many Christian and Muslim countries<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/244145/original/file-20181106-74787-1n0dk78.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pakistani religious groups protest against a Supreme Court decision that acquitted Asia Bibi, who was accused of blasphemy, in Islamabad, Pakistan.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Pakistan-Blasphemy/d2392ec56fe24adfb0aa2a72e7df1b82/12/0">AP Photo/B.K. Bangash</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The citizens of Ireland voted recently, in a nationwide referendum, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/27/ireland-votes-to-oust-blasphemy-ban-from-constitution">to remove a clause</a> from their constitution that had made blasphemy a criminal offense. </p>
<p>Ireland’s now-defunct Defamation Act of 2009 prohibited the <a href="http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2009/act/31/section/36/enacted/en/html#sec36">“publication or utterance of blasphemous matter.”</a> Just last year, in fact, Irish police <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/may/07/stephen-fry-investigated-by-irish-police-for-alleged-blasphemy">opened a brief investigation</a> into whether comedian Stephen Fry had broken the law when he described God as “capricious, mean-minded, stupid” and “an utter maniac” during a televised interview. The case was closed, however, as the police said they had been <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/stephen-fry-blasphemy-ireland-probe-investigation-dropped-police-gardai-not-enough-outrage-a7725116.html">“unable to find a substantial number of outraged people.”</a> </p>
<p>The overturning of Ireland’s blasphemy law stands in stark contrast to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-06/pakistan-blasphemy-lawyer-flees-to-the-netherlands/10468072">recent news</a> out of Pakistan – where the release from prison of Asia Bibi, a <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-pope-francis-choice-of-a-pakistani-cardinal-means-for-christians-of-the-country-97604">Christian</a> woman, accused of blasphemy, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2018/oct/31/asia-bibi-protests-erupt-in-pakistan-after-blasphemy-conviction-overturned-video">has led to widespread protests</a>. In Indonesia, too, many people <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/10/25/human-cost-indonesias-blasphemy-law">have been jailed</a> for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/20/ousted-jakarta-governor-basuki-tjahaja-purnama-jail-blasphemy-indonesia">speaking irreverently against Islam</a>. </p>
<p>Despite its recent defeat, Ireland’s 2009 blasphemy law is an important reminder that laws against blasphemy have hardly been unique to the Muslim world – even in the 21st century. </p>
<h2>Understanding the Muslim world</h2>
<p>As of 2014, according to the Pew Research Center, nearly <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/07/29/which-countries-still-outlaw-apostasy-and-blasphemy/">one-fifth of European countries</a> and a third of countries in the Americas, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150717041904/http:/laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-46/page-155.html#h-89">notably Canada</a>, have laws against blasphemy.</p>
<p>In my research for <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/blasphemous-modernism-9780190627560?cc=us&lang=en&">a literary study of blasphemy</a>, I found that these laws may differ in many respects from their more well-known counterparts in Muslim nations, but they also share some common features with them.</p>
<p>In particular, they’re all united in regarding blasphemy as a form of “injury” – even as they disagree about what, exactly, blasphemy injures.</p>
<p>In the Muslim world, such injured parties are often a lot easier to find. Cultural anthropologist <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/28/us/saba-mahmood-dead.html">Saba Mahmood</a> said that many devout Muslims <a href="http://fordhampress.com/index.php/is-critique-secuar-paperback.html">perceive blasphemy</a> as an almost physical injury: an intolerable offense that hurts both God himself and the whole community of the faithful.</p>
<p>For Mahmood that perception was brought powerfully home in 2005, when a Danish newspaper published cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad. Interviewing a number of Muslims at the time, Mahmood was “struck,” <a href="http://fordhampress.com/index.php/is-critique-secuar-paperback.html">she wrote</a>, “by the sense of personal loss” they conveyed. People she interviewed were very clear on this point:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The idea that we should just get over this hurt makes me so mad.”</p>
<p>“I would have felt less wounded if the object of ridicule were my own parents.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The intensity of this “hurt,” “wounding” and “ridicule” helps to explain how blasphemy can remain a <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/02/pakistan-shrine-murder-blasphemy-170206103344830.html">capital offense</a> in a theocratic state like Pakistan. The punishment is tailored to the enormity of the perceived crime.</p>
<h2>Blasphemy and Christians</h2>
<p>That may sound like a foreign concept to secular ears. The reality, though, is that most Western blasphemy laws are rooted in a similar logic of religious offense. </p>
<p>As historians like <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/01/obituaries/01levy.html">Leonard Levy</a> and <a href="https://www.brookes.ac.uk/hpc/staff-and-students/academic-staff/?uid=p0070929&op=full">David Nash</a> have <a href="https://www.uncpress.org/book/9780807845158/blasphemy/">documented</a>, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/blasphemy-in-the-christian-world-9780199255160?cc=us&lang=en&">these laws</a> – dating, mostly, from the 1200s to the early 1800s – were designed to protect Christian beliefs and practices from the sort of “hurt” and “ridicule” that animates Islamic blasphemy laws today. But as the West became increasingly secular, religious injury gradually lost much of its power to provoke. By the mid-20th century, most Western blasphemy laws had become virtually dead letters.</p>
<p>That’s certainly true of the U.S., where such laws remain <a href="http://www.bu.edu/ilj/files/2014/05/Aswad-US-and-Blaspemy.pdf">“on the books” in six states</a> but haven’t been invoked <a href="https://www.uncpress.org/book/9780807845158/blasphemy/">since at least the early 1970s</a>. They’re now widely held to be <a href="http://www.bu.edu/ilj/files/2014/05/Aswad-US-and-Blaspemy.pdf">nullified by the First Amendment.</a></p>
<p>Yet looking beyond the American context, one will find that blasphemy laws are hardly obsolete throughout the West. Instead, they’re acquiring new uses for the 21st century.</p>
<h2>Religious offense in a secular world</h2>
<p>Consider the case of a Danish man who was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/23/world/europe/denmark-quran-burning.html">charged with blasphemy</a>, in February 2017, for burning a Quran and for posting a video of the act online.</p>
<p>In the past, Denmark’s blasphemy law had only ever been enforced to punish anti-Christian expression. (It was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/23/world/europe/denmark-quran-burning.html">last used in 1946</a>.) Today it serves to highlight an ongoing trend: In an increasingly pluralist, multicultural West, blasphemy laws find fresh purpose in policing intolerance between religious communities. </p>
<p>In other words, the real question for the 21st century has not been whether blasphemy counts as a crime. Instead it’s been about who, or what – God or the state, religion or pluralism – is the injured party. Instead of preventing injury to God, these laws now seek to prevent injury to the social fabric of avowedly secular states. </p>
<p>That’s true not only of the West’s centuries-old blasphemy laws but also of more recent ones. Ireland’s Defamation Act, for instance, <a href="http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2009/act/31/section/36/enacted/en/html#sec36">targeted any person</a> who “utters matter that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion.”</p>
<p>With its emphasis on the “outrage” blasphemy may cause among “any religion,” the measure was clearly aimed less at protecting the sacred than at preventing intolerance among diverse religious groups.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167387/original/file-20170501-17307-tfg2vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167387/original/file-20170501-17307-tfg2vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167387/original/file-20170501-17307-tfg2vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167387/original/file-20170501-17307-tfg2vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167387/original/file-20170501-17307-tfg2vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167387/original/file-20170501-17307-tfg2vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167387/original/file-20170501-17307-tfg2vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Illustrations of prophecy: particularly the evening and morning visions of Daniel, and the apocalyptical visions of John (1840).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/126377022@N07/14577102519">Internet Archive Book Images. Image from page 371.</a></span>
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<p>The law itself caused outrage of a different sort, however. Advocacy organizations, such as <a href="http://atheist.ie/">Atheist Ireland</a>, mounted fierce opposition to the law and to the example it set internationally. In late 2009, for instance, Pakistan <a href="http://atheist.ie/2016/01/irish-blasphemy-laws-are-five-years-old-today/">borrowed the exact language</a> of the Irish law in its own proposed statement on blasphemy to the United Nations’ Human Rights Council. </p>
<p>Thus, Atheist Ireland <a href="http://atheist.ie/campaigns/blasphemy-law/">warned</a> on its website that “Islamic States can now point to a modern pluralist Western State passing a new blasphemy law in the 21st century.” </p>
<h2>Blasphemy in modernity</h2>
<p>That warning resonates with the common Western view of blasphemy as an antiquated concept, a medieval throwback with no relevance to “modern,” “developed” societies. Atheist Ireland’s chairperson, Michael Nugent, drew on this tradition when he <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/27/ireland-votes-to-oust-blasphemy-ban-from-constitution">touted the significance</a> of the recent referendum victory: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“It means that we’ve got rid of a medieval crime from our constitution that should never have been there.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>As Columbia University professor <a href="http://english.columbia.edu/people/profile/412">Gauri Viswanathan</a> puts it, <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/6250.html">blasphemy is often used</a> “to separate cultures of modernity from those of premodernity.” Starting from the assumption that blasphemy can exist only in a backward society, critics point to blasphemy as evidence of the backwardness of entire religious cultures.</p>
<p>I would argue, however, that this eurocentric view is growing increasingly difficult to sustain. If anything, blasphemy has in recent years enjoyed a resurgence in many corners of the supposedly secular West – including <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/blasphemy-laws-reign-many-muslim-countries/3844962.html">prosecutions</a> in Austria, Finland, Germany, Greece, Switzerland and Turkey. Perhaps the fate of Ireland’s Defamation Act forecasts a broader reversal of that trend. </p>
<p><em>This piece incorporates elements of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/blasphemy-isnt-just-a-problem-in-the-muslim-world-75026">earlier article published</a> on May 1, 2017.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106487/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steve Pinkerton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There has been outrage over the release of a Christian woman accused of blasphemy in Pakistan. An expert explains how blasphemy laws are hardly obsolete throughout the West.Steve Pinkerton, Lecturer in English, Case Western Reserve UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/976042018-06-28T10:39:11Z2018-06-28T10:39:11ZWhat Pope Francis’ choice of a Pakistani cardinal means for Christians of the country<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225155/original/file-20180627-112601-1cwljnc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pakistani Christians attend Easter service in Lahore in April 2018.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Pope Francis will create <a href="https://indiancatholicmatters.org/the-goan-connection-pope-elevates-karachi-archbishop-joseph-coutts-as-cardinal/">14 cardinals on June 29</a>, among them Pakistan’s Joseph Coutts, currently the archbishop of Karachi. What might come as a surprise to some people is that Pakistan, though a majority-Muslim country, is home to some 2.5 million Christians, approximately half of whom are Roman Catholics. </p>
<p>As my research as a <a href="https://divinity.uchicago.edu/sightings/frances-incomplete-citizens-and-why-some-put-islam-first">scholar of global religions</a> shows, most of Pakistan’s Christians have an unusual history.</p>
<h2>Early conversions</h2>
<p>Most Christians in Pakistan, including Catholics, owe their religious affiliation to the activities of missionary societies during the 19th and early 20th centuries in the Punjab region of what was then British-ruled India. </p>
<p>Early evangelization efforts by both the British and Americans in India focused on upper-caste Hindus. The assumption was that these Hindus would use their influence to convert members of the lower castes. This approach led to few converts. However, in the late 19th century, American missionaries changed course and began to <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=z9c3AcIDCKkC&pg=PA1&vq=christian+colonies&dq=punjabi+presbyterian&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=3#v=onepage&q=christian%20colonies&f=false%20https://books.google.com/books/about/Nationalism_and_Minority_Identities_in_I.html?id=82jaiJ48vZQC">baptize Hindus from the sweeper caste</a>. </p>
<p>Hindus from this caste are traditionally assigned jobs considered “polluting,” such as skinning animals, removing the bodies of the unclaimed dead, and cleaning toilets. The missionaries’ new approach proved successful, in part because conversion to Christianity offered hope of escape from Hinduism’s caste system. </p>
<p>When the British left the Indian subcontinent in 1947, they carved territory out of India to create the new country of Pakistan for Muslims, who were a minority in India. The region of Punjab, where most Christians lived, became part of Pakistan. </p>
<p>The majority of Christians chose to remain in Pakistan. They believed that they would fare better there because Islam rejects social divisions on theological grounds. </p>
<h2>Lower socio-economic status</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224048/original/file-20180620-137717-1d6pc0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224048/original/file-20180620-137717-1d6pc0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224048/original/file-20180620-137717-1d6pc0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224048/original/file-20180620-137717-1d6pc0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224048/original/file-20180620-137717-1d6pc0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224048/original/file-20180620-137717-1d6pc0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224048/original/file-20180620-137717-1d6pc0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A church in Pakistan’s city of Lahore.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/40292981@N00/2488239579">leenient</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In practice, after the creation of Pakistan, not much changed economically or socially for the Christians who stayed: The <a href="http://www.serialsjournals.com/serialjournalmanager/pdf/1431325081.pdf">caste system continued to exist</a> in the new country. </p>
<p>Even today, most Pakistani Christians living in major cities are <a href="https://www.ucanews.com/news/christians-upset-over-controversial-pilgrimage-advert/80233">consigned to sanitation jobs</a> and a life of poverty. In Pakistan’s northwest city of Peshawar, for example, as many as 80 percent of Christians are sanitation workers. In another of its major cities, Lahore, Christians account for <a href="http://www.thefridaytimes.com/tft/christians-required-only-as-sweepers/">6,000 out of 7,894 sanitation workers</a>. </p>
<p>Newspaper ads for sanitation jobs, including by government agencies, frequently call for non-Muslims. One of Asia’s Catholic news agencies, UCANews, reported that in May 2017, the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation issued a call for 450 sanitation workers, <a href="https://www.ucanews.com/news/children-of-a-lesser-god-pakistans-sanitation-workers/79884">offering contracts</a> that required employees to be non-Muslim and to take this oath: “I swear by my faith that I will only work in the position of a sanitary worker and not refuse any work.” </p>
<p>Consigned to a low social hierarchy, poverty among Christians remains widespread. A <a href="http://minorityvoices.org/news.php/en/1081/pakistan-study-shows-christians-in-lahore-lag-behind-in-education-employment">2012 survey in Lahore</a> reported by the watchdog organization, Minority Voices, found that the average monthly income of Christian families was US$138, a per-capita daily income of US$0.92, which is well below the poverty line defined by the World Bank. In contrast, during the same year, the <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/226956/average-world-wages-in-purchasing-power-parity-dollars/">average monthly income for all Pakistanis</a> was US$255.</p>
<h2>Blasphemy laws target minorities</h2>
<p>The condition of Christians only worsened when General Muhammad Zia ul-Haq, Pakistan’s dictatorial president, started <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2759814?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">the Islamization of the country</a> in the 1970s. </p>
<p>Originally, for example, Pakistan’s blasphemy laws punished offenders who intended to wound the religious sensibilities of others. Zia added several Islam-specific clauses to this nonsectarian code, including making blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad punishable by death. </p>
<p>Anthropologist Linda Walbridge, writing about <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=z9c3AcIDCKkC&pg=PA1&vq=christian+colonies&dq=punjabi+presbyterian&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=3#v=onepage&q=christian%20colonies&f=false%20https://books.google.com/books/about/Nationalism_and_Minority_Identities_in_I.html?id=82jaiJ48vZQC">the conditions of Pakistani Christians</a>, notes that by the 1990s “Christians certainly believed they were the targets of systematic oppression.” That oppression, she observes came largely “in the form of laws that have increasingly been used against them.”</p>
<p>Indeed, laws intended to protect Islam have sometimes been used against Christians and other minorities to settle personal scores or business disputes. In one incident, a Christian couple refused to pay back their Muslim boss who had lent them money. A mob burned them alive after the boss <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/05/world/asia/pakistani-christian-couple-accused-of-blasphemy-is-killed-by-angry-mob.htm">accused them of blasphemy</a>. </p>
<h2>Goan Catholics and Coutts</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225152/original/file-20180627-112598-vemv87.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225152/original/file-20180627-112598-vemv87.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225152/original/file-20180627-112598-vemv87.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225152/original/file-20180627-112598-vemv87.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225152/original/file-20180627-112598-vemv87.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225152/original/file-20180627-112598-vemv87.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225152/original/file-20180627-112598-vemv87.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pakistan’s Joseph Coutts, currently the archbishop of Karachi.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mgr_Coutts_%C3%A0_la_Nuit_des_T%C3%A9moins_2016.jpg">Par Ollivry</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Unlike the <a href="http://www.serialsjournals.com/serialjournalmanager/pdf/1431325081.pdf">97 percent of Pakistan’s Christians</a> who trace their roots to the Punjab region, Archbishop Coutts traces his <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/A-dash-of-Goa-in-Pakistan/articleshow/9866412.cms">roots to the Goa region of India</a>. This lineage can make a big difference.</p>
<p>Colonized by the Portuguese at the end of the 15th century, Goa became a center for Catholic leadership in the region. During British rule, Catholic Goans found work with the British, and some established themselves in the city of Karachi, now in Pakistan. There they improved their lot by taking advantage of educational opportunities. </p>
<p>Today, Pakistan’s Goan Catholics, whose customs and attitudes tend to be Westernized, are generally considered an elite among Christian groups and fare better than other such groups. Coutts will be the fifth cardinal of Goan origin and the second cardinal from Pakistan. The first Pakistani cardinal, elevated in 1973, was also of Goan origin. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.arabnews.com/node/1307656/world">Coutts has been praised</a> for his interfaith and humanitarian work. <a href="https://www.dawn.com/news/1410627">The 56 schools run by his archdiocese</a> admit students regardless of caste, color or religion, and subsidize the education of poor students. </p>
<p>While the selection of Coutts may not improve the living conditions of Pakistani Christians, it sends them a signal of solidarity. And, in spite of their ongoing persecution, <a href="http://www.dw.com/en/amid-christian-persecution-in-pakistan-pope-francis-nominates-karachi-archbishop-as-cardinal/a-43876412">it acknowledges, as Coutts said</a>, that “there is a viable, visible and active Christian community in Pakistan.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97604/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Myriam Renaud is affiliated with the Parliament of the World's Religions.</span></em></p>With Pope Francis recently elevating a Pakistani archbishop as cardinal, a scholar traces the history of persecution of the 2.5 million Christians of Pakistan.Myriam Renaud, PhD Candidate in Religious Thought and Ethics, University of ChicagoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/878902017-12-05T12:06:03Z2017-12-05T12:06:03ZNigeria set to pass a law against mob lynching. Will it make a difference?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197149/original/file-20171130-30912-1oofw4z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nigerians don't trust the police and often resort to mob justice. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Afolabi Sotunde</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>“Ole, ole!” (thief, thief!) is all that needs to be shouted in Nigeria before large crowds gather to beat, and often burn, the accused to death. Although there are no official statistics on the prevalence of mob lynching in Nigeria – referred to as jungle justice – media reports suggest it’s a regular occurrence. A 2014 <a href="http://www.noi-polls.com/root/index.php?pid=293&ptid=1&parentid=66">survey </a>revealed that 43% of Nigerians had personally witnessed a lynch mob attack.</p>
<p>Despite <a href="https://theconversation.com/vigilantism-is-flourishing-in-nigeria-with-official-support-86867">some Nigerian vigilante groups</a> holding the potential for success, execution style jungle justice clearly poses a threat to the rule of law and due process. The brutality of the methods used, and the fact that victims may be innocent and merely in the wrong place at the wrong time, has led to <a href="https://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/12/jungle-justice-disregard-rule-law/">widespread condemnation</a>. But the perpetrators are rarely arrested and prosecuted. In fact, security officials themselves are sometimes implicated in <a href="https://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/08/nigeria-recorded-40-extra-judicial-killings-2016-rights-group/">extrajudicial killings</a>.</p>
<p>A new bill being put through the Nigerian parliament aims to change this. The anti-mob lynching act recently <a href="http://www.nassnig.org/document/download/9065">passed its second reading in the Senate</a>. It now needs to clear a third reading before being signed off and passed into law. This is expected to happen in the new year.</p>
<h2>The extent of jungle justice</h2>
<p>Alleged offences that draw mob lynching in Nigeria range from serious crimes such as murder, armed robbery, rape and kidnapping, to petty theft, homosexuality, blasphemy and even witchcraft. </p>
<p>A case that shocked the country involved the necklacing of four male students from the University of Port Harcourt - known as the <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/26/world/africa/nigeria-mob-justice-duthiers/index.html">Aluu four</a> - in 2012. After being falsely accused of theft, the four had tyres doused in gasoline thrown around them and set on fire. The incident took place in Aluu, Rivers State in south Nigeria. </p>
<p>The brutal attack was filmed and circulated on social media, drawing widespread condemnation from the public. This led to the arrest of 12 people, and three, including a police officer, were subsequently <a href="https://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/07/aluu-four-police-sergeant-2-others-sentenced-death/">sentenced to death</a>.</p>
<p>More recently, in 2016, a homosexual was <a href="https://www.nigerianbulletin.com/threads/7-most-gruesome-jungle-justice-cases-in-2016-photos.226510/">beaten to death</a> in the south west Ondo State, and nine people were <a href="https://www.nigerianbulletin.com/threads/7-most-gruesome-jungle-justice-cases-in-2016-photos.226510/">burnt alive</a> in Zamfara State in the north west for insulting Prophet Muhammad. A man was <a href="http://dailypost.ng/2016/11/08/man-lynched-stealing-motorcycle-ebonyi/">lynched in Ebonyi State</a>, south east Nigeria, over the theft of a motorcycle.</p>
<p>Mob lynchings have continued to appear in the news this year. Lagos has been featured regularly, with <a href="https://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21712099-why-criminals-prefer-cops-mob-suspects-are-beaten-and-burned-jungle">several incidents</a> linked to alleged theft and kidnapping. Widespread fear over the Badoo cult saw numerous accusations of witchcraft <a href="https://guardian.ng/news/ikorodu-residents-on-edge-over-attack-by-badoo-gang/">resulting in deadly jungle justice</a>.</p>
<p>Children are not excluded from the horrors of mob lynching. In 2015, a child said to be <a href="https://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/11/lynching-7-yr-old-boy-residents-fume-want-perpetrators-brought-book/">as young as 7 </a> was necklaced, again in Lagos, for attempting to steal garri (cassava flour) from a trader. Young children <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooXBMU_06vg">accused of witchcraft</a> are also often targeted, sometimes by their own families.</p>
<p>This is not a complete list; Nigerians often resort to mob lynching as they view the police and judicial system as <a href="http://www.noi-polls.com/root/index.php?pid=293&ptid=1&parentid=66">corrupt and inefficient</a>.</p>
<h2>So what does the new bill aim to do?</h2>
<p>The nature of mob violence can make it difficult to charge offenders under the laws that cover murder and assault. The <a href="http://www.placbillstrack.org/upload/SB109.pdf">new bill</a> seeks to change that. It defines lynching as:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Three or more persons acting in concert for the purpose of depriving any person of his life without authority of law as a punishment for or to prevent the commission of some actual or supposed public offence. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Alongside lynching, the bill covers mob action that results in severe bodily harm, and riotous assembly causing destruction of property. A person found guilty of instigating any of these three criminal offences will be punished by imprisonment for life or not less than 25 years. </p>
<p>The bill stipulates that a security officer who fails to make reasonable efforts to prevent an attack, or to apprehend a perpetrator, will be punished by up to five years imprisonment or face a fine of up to N500,000 (USD$1400). A security officer who takes part in, or conspires to an extrajudicial attack, would be guilty of a capital offence. Those who have failed at prevention would be subject to dismissal and 15 years imprisonment.</p>
<p>These punishments could act as an excellent deterrent. However, the success of the bill will depend on police and judicial implementation. A legal system unable to deal with crime resulting in jungle justice may be unable or unwilling to prosecute the latter. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, the emphasis on security officer complicity is promising, and formal recognition will allow tracking and prevention.</p>
<h2>A global problem</h2>
<p>Mob lynching is not unique to Nigeria, nor to Africa. Nigeria is also not the first country to try and pass an anti-lynching bill. </p>
<p>Up until the mid-1900’s, <a href="https://lynchinginamerica.eji.org/">African-Americans</a> were commonly lynched in southern USA. Attempts were made to pass the <a href="http://www.naacp.org/oldest-and-boldest/naacp-history-anti-lynching-bill/">Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill</a>, but it was always halted by Southern congressmen in the Senate. In 2005, the Senate <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/14/politics/senate-issues-apology-over-failure-on-lynching-law.html">formally apologised</a> for this failure.</p>
<p>More recently, after a <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/04/27/india-cow-protection-spurs-vigilante-violence">spate of vigilantism</a> in India, the country has pushed for an a new <a href="http://stopmoblynching.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Masuka-05072017-PK.pdf">Protection from Lynching Act</a>, referred to as MaSuKa. This would make lynching a specific, non-bailable offence, punishable by a maximum of life imprisonment and a fine of 5 lakh (USD$7770).</p>
<p>The MaSuKa also compels security officers to preemptively identify attacks and to intervene without delay. Failure to do so would result in discharge and punishment for dereliction of duty. When a lynching does happen, a charge must be laid within three months or a review committee will investigate, and the respective state must compensate the victim’s family.</p>
<p>Although the proposed new law has support from 11 of India’s political parties, the ruling <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/07/india-epidemic-mob-lynching-170706113733914.html">Bharatiya Janata Party has complicated its passing</a> in parliament.</p>
<p>Conversely, there is little doubt that Nigeria’s anti-mob lynching bill will be passed. With police and judicial support, it could provide an important precedent for countries struggling with mob lynching and official indifference.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87890/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Nigeria is on the verge of passing a law to criminalise rampant mob lynching. Other countries have tried to do this and failed.Leighann Spencer, PhD Candidate in Criminology, Charles Sturt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/785452017-06-27T14:42:37Z2017-06-27T14:42:37ZIt defies belief that people are still being jailed – or killed – for blasphemy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175822/original/file-20170627-24741-k80me4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Demonstrators demanding that Jakarta's Christian governor, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, should be jailed for blasphemy.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Mast Irham</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>According to reports in the BBC recently, Stephen Fry has been investigated in Ireland on <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39830447">charges of blasphemy</a>. While the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39857543">investigation stalled</a> almost as quickly as it began, it was by no means the only occasion or high-profile matter of this type in recent weeks.</p>
<p>Discussing blasphemy feels anachronistic – something out of the middle ages. But it has recently been an issue as far away as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/may/09/the-guardian-view-on-blasphemy-in-indonesia-exploiting-religion-for-political-purposes">Indonesia</a> and as close as <a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/don-t-blame-christians-for-the-stephen-fry-blasphemy-nonsense-1.3079537">Ireland</a>. W H Auden <a href="http://southerncrossreview.org/44/auden-eiseley.htm">once observed</a> that “one can only blaspheme if one believes”, but accusations of blasphemy have mainly been levelled against people who don’t share the same faith as the accusers. </p>
<p>Blasphemy charges are often used to express genuine religious outrage – but unproven allegations are also used for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/sep/05/pakistans-blasphemy-laws-colossal-absurdity">political or personal ends</a> to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/sep/05/pakistans-blasphemy-laws-colossal-absurdity">persecute minorities or settle vendettas</a>. </p>
<p>In the UK, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=HFZTAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA927&lpg=PA927&dq=thomas+aikenhead&source=bl&ots=AvIEX-pNSR&sig=IcPkZ-0Hy07nfDwdLZhTCh1_Tfc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi4meTEi9zUAhWIExoKHfNEAuU4HhDoAQg3MAQ#v=onepage&q=thomas%20aikenhead&f=false">Thomas Aikenhead</a> was hanged for it in 1697, while <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3753408.stm">John William Gott</a> was the last to be imprisoned for the offence in 1922 – for publishing tracts on birth control and likening Jesus to a clown.</p>
<p>Such activity clashes with traditional notions of freedom of religion and freedom of speech. As John Roberts, the chief justice of the US Supreme Court argued in <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/562/09-751/opinion.html">Snyder v Phelps (2011)</a> in 2011:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Speech is powerful. It can stir people to action, move them to tears of both joy and sorrow, and … inflict great pain. … we cannot react to that pain by punishing the speaker. As a nation we have chosen a different course – to protect even hurtful speech on public issues to ensure that we do not stifle public debate.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But even in some countries that pride themselves on their ability to openly discuss matters publicly, the topic is coming up more frequently. </p>
<h2>Religious politics</h2>
<p>The subject is not uncommon in many countries that are avowedly religious and where the state would be expected to take such claims seriously. In Pakistan, for example, accusations of blasphemy have resulted in deaths from mob violence. Pakistan’s prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, intervened in April 2017 after the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-39610175">killing of Mashal Khan</a>, a university student accused of posting blasphemous messages on social media. </p>
<p>“The nation should stand united to condemn this crime and to promote tolerance and rule of law in society,” he said. </p>
<p>Notwithstanding Sharif’s warning, a mob stormed a police station a couple of weeks later in an attempt to lynch a Hindu man charged with blasphemy. A <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/04/10-year-old-boy-killed-attempted-blasphemy-lynching-pakistan">10-year-old boy was killed</a> in the violence and several adults were injured. The mob was reportedly led by an influential cleric as well as Zia Shehzad, a politician from the ruling Pakistan Muslim League political party, giving the incident both religious and political overtones.</p>
<p>In March, the governor of Indonesia’s capital Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama – a Christian in this majority Muslim nation – was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/09/jakarta-governor-ahok-found-guilty-of-blasphemy-jailed-for-two-years">successfully convicted</a> of blasphemy in a trial which raised a counter accusation of “<a href="http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/12/06/expediting-of-ahoks-case-indicates-trial-by-mob-setara.html">trial by mob</a>” by the Setara Institute, a Jakarta-based rights group. “Ahok”, as he is known, will spend the next two years in jail. </p>
<p>These recent occurrences raise concerns regarding religious tolerance and pluralism in modern society. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2010/mar/25/blasphemy-law-ad-hoc-committee">Representations have been made</a> by the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to the United Nations General Assembly and the Human Rights Council between 1999 and 2010, proposing resolutions relating to “defamation of religion”. These have been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2010/mar/25/blasphemy-law-ad-hoc-committee">condemned by opponents</a> who believe they aim to create a sort of international blasphemy law that may lead to domestic laws being passed.</p>
<p><a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/05/25/the-islamic-world-has-a-blasphemy-problem/">Krithika Varagur</a>, an American journalist living and working in Indonesia, has identified a spike in blasphemy charges over the past decade, especially in Indonesia where there is a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/09/world/asia/indonesia-governor-ahok-basuki-tjahaja-purnama-blasphemy-islam.html">near nil chance of acquittal</a>. This is not isolated to Indonesia, she says – it’s becoming more common across the Muslim world. Some of this she suggests can be attributed to local circumstances – such as unrest in Egypt since the removal of the former president, Hosni Mubarak. </p>
<h2>In the West</h2>
<p>Accusations of this sort are less common in Western countries, which was what made the accusation against Fry remarkable. In May, <a href="https://www.rte.ie/entertainment/2017/0506/873060-stephen-fry/">Irish police investigated a complaint that he had blasphemed</a> while being interviewed on RTE, the state broadcaster, about what he might say if he met God.</p>
<figure>
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</figure>
<p>Ireland is one of the few Western countries to retain laws of this kind, in this case the <a href="http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2009/act/31">Defamation Act 2009</a>. This no trifling issue in Ireland, the offence attracts a fine of €25,000. </p>
<p>In February, meanwhile, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/denmark-man-burned-quran-koran-video-blasphemy-facebook-islam-prosecuted-charged-46-years-a7594796.html">a man in Denmark was charged with blasphemy</a> for burning a copy of the Koran, a charge not made there for 46 years. Iceland only recently <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-33378778">removed the offence</a> from its books in 2015. Nor can we forget, of course, the murder of 12 of the staff of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-30708237">French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo</a> by Islamist militants who took offence at the magazine’s lampooning of Islam.</p>
<h2>Free speech on trial</h2>
<p>US academic <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/jlr.2013.12">M. Christian Green</a> has asked if there is an “inherent and inevitable conflict” between the right to express one’s religion and the right to criticise it. <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0340035215584778">Paul Sturges</a>, meanwhile, has argued that freedom of expression is too valuable to be limited by religious sensitivities. </p>
<p>Freedom of speech and freedom of religion are hard-fought human rights that appear to be slowly eroding. In 2012, then US president Barack Obama <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/sep/25/obama-un-general-assembly-transcript">told the UN General Assembly</a> that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Given the power of faith in our lives and the passion that religious differences can inflame, the strongest weapon against hateful speech is not repression; it is more speech – the voices of tolerance that rally against bigotry and blasphemy, and lift up the values of understanding and mutual respect.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Let us hope that a common understanding prevails.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78545/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tony Meacham does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When free speech comes into conflict with religious sensitivity, common sense must prevail.Tony Meacham, Lecturer, School of Law, Coventry UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/789902017-06-19T03:59:44Z2017-06-19T03:59:44ZBlasphemy is still a crime in Australia – and it shouldn’t be<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173944/original/file-20170615-25000-17d5jks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The crime of blasphemy is about protecting God and Christian doctrine from scurrilous commentary, and Christians from offence</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The crime of blasphemy has had a bit of publicity lately. British comedian Stephen Fry was recently <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/may/07/stephen-fry-investigated-by-irish-police-for-alleged-blasphemy">reported to police</a> in Ireland on accusations of blasphemy, for comments made on TV about what he would say to God if he had the chance. </p>
<p>Jakarta Governor Ahok was recently convicted and sentenced to <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/world/jakartas-christian-governor-ahok-jailed-for-two-years-for-blasphemy-20170509-gw0t4y.html">two years in prison for blasphemy</a> in Indonesia.</p>
<p>You might also find yourself reported to police or sent to prison for blasphemy in Australia, where is it still a crime. </p>
<h2>The crime of blasphemy</h2>
<p>Blasphemy is a crime against the common law (the body of judge-made law we inherited from England). Only Queensland and Western Australia have abolished it. But it continues to exist in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory, the ACT and Norfolk Island.</p>
<p>The crime of blasphemy is not about vilifying or inciting hatred against people on the basis of their religion. Some states have <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/consol_act/rarta2001265/s8.html">separate laws</a> against that. </p>
<p>The crime is about protecting God and Christian doctrine from scurrilous commentary, and Christian religious sensibilities from offence. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/FCA/1987/36.html">Federal Court</a> has described the elements of the offence of blasphemy as follows:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The essence of the crime of blasphemy is to publish words concerning the Christian religion, which are so scurrilous and offensive as to pass the limits of decent controversy and to be calculated to outrage the feelings of any sympathiser with or believer in Christianity. </p>
<p>A temperate and respectful denial of the existence of God is not an offence against the law, which does not render criminal the mere propagation of doctrines hostile to the Christian faith. The crime consists in the manner in which the doctrines are advocated. Whether in each case this is a crime is a question of fact for the jury.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In other words, it is a crime to “outrage the feelings” of Christians in respect of their religious beliefs.</p>
<p>Blasphemy has a loose similarity with Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, which makes it unlawful (but not a crime) to offend someone on the basis of their race. Federal Liberal MP and former human rights commissioner Tim Wilson has said that extending 18C to cover religion would amount to a “<a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/legal-affairs/anne-aly-mark-dreyfus-selfwedge-on-figures-of-speech/news-story/3d1d65e73ccfea6697a00f40fddd3af6">national anti-blasphemy law</a>”.</p>
<p>The crimes legislation in <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/ca190082/s574.html">NSW</a> and the <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/act/consol_act/ca190082/s440.html">ACT</a> both set out identical minor limitations on blasphemy prosecutions:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>No person shall be liable to prosecution in respect of any publication by him or her orally, or otherwise, of words or matter charged as blasphemous, where the same is by way of argument, or statement, and not for the purpose of scoffing or reviling, nor of violating public decency, nor in any manner tending to a breach of the peace.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In other words, it’s a crime in NSW and the ACT to outrage the religious feelings of a Christian, but only if you’re intending to scoff at Christianity. Blasphemy can be committed by speech, writing, art or other form of communication.</p>
<p>The crime of blasphemy is only about Christianity. You are legally free to blaspheme against any other religion. </p>
<p>There have been no recent prosecutions in Australia. The most recent NSW conviction was of <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/lawreform/NSWLRC/1994/74.html#R74APPENDIXA">William Jones in 1871</a> who was sentenced to two years’ prison for blasphemy. In 1919, <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/60905230">Robert Ross</a> was sentenced to six months’ prison under old federal postal laws for attempting to send blasphemous material about communists ransacking Heaven through the post. </p>
<p>However, in 1997 George Pell tried unsuccessfully to get a court injunction to prevent the National Gallery of Victoria <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/vic/VSC/1997/52.html">from displaying the Piss Christ artwork</a> on the basis that the artwork was blasphemous. </p>
<h2>Why blasphemy laws are bad</h2>
<p>The crime of blasphemy is wholly inconsistent with a secular and religiously diverse Australian society.</p>
<p>The crime of blasphemy gives official preference to Christianity over other religions, since it is lawful to outrage the religious feelings of adherents of non-Christian religions. The law should not play favourites among religions. </p>
<p>It also involves the state enforcing religious orthodoxy (correct belief) and religious orthopraxy (correct behaviour) and threatening people who do not conform with criminal punishment. This is not a proper role for the law.</p>
<p>Blasphemy laws are also contrary to international human rights norms, which Australia is supposed to uphold. The United Nations Human Rights Committee has said in its <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/text-human-rights-committee-general-comment-34">General Comment 34</a>, outlining its official interpretation of the right to <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/freedom-thought-conscience-and-religion-or-belief">freedom of thought, conscience and religion</a>, that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Prohibitions of displays of lack of respect for a religion or other belief system, including blasphemy laws, are incompatible with the [International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights].</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>When might the crime of blasphemy be abolished?</h2>
<p>New Zealand Prime Minister Bill English recently <a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11852061">promised</a> to abolish the crime of blasphemy after he was told it still exists in NZ, but has said there’s no urgency to do so.</p>
<p>In 1994, the NSW Law Reform Commission <a href="http://www.lawreform.justice.nsw.gov.au/Pages/lrc/lrc_completed_projects/lrc_completedprojects1990_1999/lrc_blasphemy.aspx">recommended</a> abolishing the offence of blasphemy in NSW. The commission also noted that every law reform commission that has considered the offence of blasphemy has recommended it be abolished. Due to lack of political will, NSW has never acted on this recommendation. </p>
<p>Abolition in Australia might occur soon. A federal parliamentary committee is currently conducting <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Foreign_Affairs_Defence_and_Trade/Freedomofreligion">an inquiry</a> into the right to freedom of religion or belief. I recently appeared before that committee and suggested that the committee recommend that federal parliament use its constitutional power to implement Australia’s international human rights obligations to abolish the crime of blasphemy throughout Australia.</p>
<p>As yet there is no indication of when the committee will hand down its recommendations. Let’s hope those recommendations include abolishing the crime of blasphemy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78990/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Luke Beck does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Laws against blasphemy privilege the feelings of Christians over other religious people, and have no place in a modern, inclusive society.Luke Beck, Senior Lecturer in Constitutional Law, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/775652017-05-16T04:56:20Z2017-05-16T04:56:20ZCan support for the jailed former Jakarta governor bring change in Indonesia’s blasphemy law?<p>Across Indonesian cities and abroad, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/indonesia/indonesia-39906030">candlelight vigils</a> have been held in support of Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, the Chinese-Christian former governor of the capital Jakarta. He was recently sentenced to two years in prison for blasphemy for insulting Islam. </p>
<p>Purnama, popularly known as Ahok, is one of many people jailed under this controversial law. In the last 15 years <a href="http://www.amnestyusa.org/research/reports/prosecuting-beliefs-indonesia-s-blasphemy-laws">more than 100 people</a> have been convicted of blasphemy and jailed in Indonesia. </p>
<p>Human rights activists have argued that the laws <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2013/02/28/indonesia-religious-minorities-targets-rising-violence">discriminate against religious minorities</a> and promote religious intolerance.</p>
<p>Ahok, a brash politician who enjoyed high popularity among Jakarta’s people, became embroiled in the blasphemy case after an edited video of him criticising opponents who use a verse in the Quran to dissuade people from voting for a non-Muslim went viral. </p>
<p>The blasphemy case factored in Ahok’s loss in the recent Jakarta gubernatorial election. His opponents exploited the brewing religious and racial sentiments against the double-minority Ahok. They aligned themselves with hardline Islamic groups that organised a series of <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-hundreds-of-thousands-of-muslims-rallied-against-the-jakarta-governor-68351">massive rallies</a> demanding he be jailed. </p>
<p>Although Ahok lost the race, he received 42.05% of the vote, or 2,351,141 people. The size of his vote presents an opportunity to gather support to challenge the blasphemy law. </p>
<p>It’s not yet clear whether Ahok’s supporters will move to challenge the problematic blasphemy law or not. So far, his supporters are focusing on Ahok’s innocence. The sentence was harsher than prosecutors’ demand of two years’ probation. Some of Ahok’s supporters rally behind him not to protest the blasphemy law, but to save their idol. </p>
<p>In fact, Ahok’s supporters are using the same blasphemy law to report the firebrand Muslim cleric Rizieq Shihab, leader of the Islamic vigilante group Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), which organised protests against Ahok. </p>
<h2>Blasphemy law</h2>
<p>Indonesia’s first president, Sukarno, introduced the blasphemy ban by decree in 1965, when communists, Islamists and the military were competing for power. </p>
<p>His successor, Soeharto, who rose to power after ordering the rooting out of communists in Indonesia, got the parliament to promote the decree into law in 1969 and insert anti-blasphemy clauses into the penal code. </p>
<p>Blasphemy charges have been laid against people considered to be spreading unorthodox interpretations of religion. Ahmadis have been banned from practising their faith in public and from spreading their belief using this law. In 2012, a Shiite cleric from Madura was imprisoned. </p>
<p>Al-Qiyadah Al-Islamiyah, a syncretist sect, was declared heretical in 2008. Its leader, Ahmad Musaddeq, was sentenced to four years’ jail. He was <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/03/07/indonesias-anti-gafatar-campaign-ends-blasphemy-convictions">convicted again on blasphemy and treason charges</a> in 2017 because of his leadership of the Gafatar, which was presented as a reincarnation of Al-Qiyadah.</p>
<p>The law has also been used to punish people deemed to have insulted religion. Even a poll result could put one in jail.</p>
<p>Arswendo Atmowiloto, the Christian chief editor of a weekly tabloid, served five years in prison. His poll had listed the Prophet Muhammad as the 11th-most-revered figure among his tabloid’s readers – behind Soeharto, who took first place. </p>
<p>Seeing how the blasphemy law has put people behind bars for matters that are highly subjective and private, human rights defenders have twice requested, without success, that the law be reviewed. </p>
<p>Indonesia’s Constitutional Court maintained that the law was needed to prevent instability arising from polarisation and violence. Criminalising blasphemy was believed to deter people from taking the law into their own hands when they felt their religion was being insulted or threatened by unorthodox interpretations. </p>
<p>But it is impossible to try blasphemy without the judiciary being influenced by political and social pressure. Mob protests have prompted many blasphemy cases. </p>
<p>Large-scale riots after a blasphemy trial in 1996 in Situbondo, East Java, also demonstrate the ineffectiveness of the blasphemy law in maintaining public order.</p>
<p>The judges sentenced a man named Saleh to the maximum five-year jail term for insulting the head of a local Islamic boarding school. The mob, which wanted the death penalty for Saleh, was not satisfied. They burned down buildings owned by Christian-Chinese businesses, schools and 25 churches, killing five people. </p>
<h2>Remove or revise?</h2>
<p>Despite the clear problems inherent in the law, it will be difficult to petition the Constitutional Court once again to review it.</p>
<p>The court is unable to review any material substance (paragraphs, articles and/or a section of a law) that has already been subjected to review.</p>
<p>The first petition (2009) used rights issues as an argument to cancel the law. The second (2012) focused on Islam in Indonesian history and tradition. </p>
<p>In its 2010 ruling on the first petition, the Constitutional Court encouraged the petitioners to appeal for a revision, instead of revoking the law. </p>
<h2>Tough middle ground</h2>
<p>Considering the dominance of right-wing politics in Indonesia, it may be tough to amend the law through the parliament. Politicians, even those from the ruling party who supported Ahok’s candidacy as governor, might hesitate to tackle sensitive religious issues. </p>
<p>But unless human rights lawyers can find a different argument from the past petitions, revising the blasphemy law through legislative processes so as to not impinge on people’s religious freedom might be the most possible path.</p>
<p>Consistent pressure from the public will be needed to convince legislators that the law should be revised.</p>
<p>It’s not impossible if enough people stand up for the right of all people to individual freedoms. But this will need more than flowers, balloons, candles or hashtags.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77565/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rafiqa Qurrata A'yun does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Ahok is only one among many people in Indonesia who have been jailed under the country’s controversial blasphemy law.Rafiqa Qurrata A'yun, Lecturer, Department of Criminal Law, Faculty of Law, Universitas IndonesiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/775152017-05-12T14:32:03Z2017-05-12T14:32:03ZPakistan’s outdated blasphemy laws are not fit for the 21st century<p>A recent escalation of violence in Pakistan inspired by reports of blasphemy online has highlighted the need for the country’s restrictive laws to be changed. </p>
<p>In early May, a 10-year-old boy <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/04/10-year-old-boy-killed-attempted-blasphemy-lynching-pakistan">was killed</a> in the town of Hub after he was caught up in a brawl related to a young Hindu man who had been accused of putting up blasphemous content online. A month earlier, a 23-year-old university student was <a href="https://www.dawn.com/news/1326729">lynched</a> to death in Mardan in the north of the county for publishing blasphemous content online. And in January, five Pakistani bloggers who were critics of censorship <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/20/opinion/bring-pakistans-missing-bloggers-home.html">disappeared</a>, though all of them <a href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/Three-weeks-on-five-missing-Pakistani-rights-activists-return-home/article17108386.ece">were released</a> three weeks later.</p>
<p>British lawmakers introduced legislation aimed to protect minorities from religious persecution in the middle of the 19th century, back when Pakistan was part of the complicated political landscape of South Asia, comprised of British India and hundreds of independent princely states. It was these laws that would later be turned into strict blasphemy rules specifically relating to Islam. </p>
<p>Religion was the genesis for the creation of the Pakistani state. As the end of British rule loomed, Muslims feared Hindu domination would follow British withdrawal. The head of the Muslim League, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who had lobbied for a separate state, became the first head of Pakistan following partition in 1947. It was a bloody birth and constituted one of the largest recorded migrations ever of people across borders as Hindus and Sikhs left the newly created Pakistan for India and Muslims in India crossed the border to both East Pakistan and West Pakistan (later Pakistan and Bangladesh). </p>
<p>As a “home for the Muslims of South Asia”, religion features significantly in the collective consciousness of Pakistan and has at times featured prominently in politics. In his first <a href="http://www.pakistani.org/pakistan/legislation/constituent_address_11aug1947.html">address to the Pakistani nation</a>, Jinnah was clear about his secularist stance: “You may belong to any religion, caste or creed. That has nothing to do with the business of the state.” Some subsequent leaders have disagreed.</p>
<p>In 1974, the head of state at the time, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, pronounced Pakistan’s <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8711026.stm">Ahmadi</a> community as non-Muslim, a nod to the power of <a href="http://www.anthempress.com/the-ahmadis-and-the-politics-of-religious-exclusion-in-pakistan">conservative religious lobby</a>. </p>
<h2>Laws hardening</h2>
<p>Under the military government of general Zia-ul Haq in the early to mid-1980s, the country went through what is known as Pakistan’s period of “<a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=X91zeacwHTkC&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=islamisation+under+general+zia+in+pakistan&ots=rruwNkRYFc&sig=GQqx4I6ijjE7eDZ9qhyKDmY8M_M#v=onepage&q=islamisation%20under%20general%20zia%20in%20pakistan&f=false">Islamification</a>”. It was during this period that amendments were made to the framework of legislation against religious persecution which the country had inherited from the British colonial rule. </p>
<p>The current blasphemy laws hark back to that period, when three key amendments were made. The first, in 1980, outlawed derogatory remarks against people who followed Islam. Then in 1982, wilful desecration of the Qu'ran was criminalised. And, in 1986, blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad was made into a criminal offence punishable by death. </p>
<p>Verbal or written, direct or indirect besmirching of the Prophet Muhammad, still carries a death sentence today. <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15570274.2015.1005918?src=recsys&journalCode=rfia20">Many</a> have argued that these laws discriminate against religious minorities, since a disproportionate number of those convicted of blasphemy come from religious minorities. They have also been used as an easy way to <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/05/living-fear-under-pakistan-blasphemy-law-20145179369144891.html">settle personal quarrels</a>, since only the word of the accuser is necessary to bring about a prosecution. </p>
<p>Some Pakistani politicians have tried to amend the legislation. In 2010, Sherry Rehman from the Pakistan’s People Party proposed a private members bill to amend Pakistan’s Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure, the two primary sources of criminal law. She <a href="https://www.dawn.com/news/587351">argued</a> that: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The aim is to amend the codes to ensure protection of Pakistan’s minorities and vulnerable citizens, who routinely face judgements and verdicts in the lower courts where mob pressure is often mobilised to obtain a conviction.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The bill was batted down by the religious lobby.</p>
<p>It is a dangerous business to speak out against the blasphemy laws. In 2011, Salman Taseer, the then-governor of Punjab was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jan/06/pakistan-salman-taseer-assassination">murdered</a> by his own bodyguard for his public criticisms of the blasphemy laws. Soon after, another critic of blasphemy legislation, Shahbaz Bhatti, the minister for religious minorities, and a Christian was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/mar/10/shahbaz-bhatti-obituary">shot dead</a>. </p>
<h2>Update for social media age</h2>
<p>In the recent attacks, the proliferation of social media use in Pakistan has opened up a space for public debate on religion and politics in the country. But the disappearance of social media commentators and public lynchings of those who put up online content deemed to be blasphemous shows that there are some in the country who want to shut down debate. They are wreaking age-old religious tyranny on modern forms of online expression. </p>
<p>Jinnah’s vision was for religion to be a private matter. But in contemporary Pakistan, legislation inspired by religion is still used as a tool for the political persecution of religious minorities and to settle personal quarrels in public. </p>
<p>Many countries have some iteration of blasphemy legislation to deal with genuine cases. But Pakistan needs to rethink its laws so that they are updated for the social media age – and cannot be used to unfairly target religious minorities or resolve personal vendettas.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77515/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Parveen Akhtar has received funding from the British Academy and the Economic and Social Research Council. </span></em></p>A spate of violence linked to accusations of blasphemy has rocked Pakistan.Parveen Akhtar, Lecturer in Political Science, Aston Centre for Europe, Aston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/774802017-05-12T03:43:36Z2017-05-12T03:43:36ZShould we worry about Islamism in Indonesia?<p>Anxiety about radicalism and religious tolerance in Indonesia have triggered reactionary responses that could be dangerous for the country’s democracy. Joko Widodo’s administration recently announced <a href="http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2017/05/09/govt-moves-ban-hti.html">plans to disband Hizb ut-Tahrir Indonesia</a>, which seeks to establish an Islamic caliphate. The government is looking to implement legal measures to dissolve the Indonesian branch of the global Islamist group. </p>
<p>The move came amid increasing concern <a href="http://indonesiaatmelbourne.unimelb.edu.au/ahoks-defeat-bodes-ill-for-the-future/">among some analysts</a> and members of the public about rising Islamic radicalism and religious intolerance.</p>
<p>Several analysts saw the victory of Anies Baswedan in the Jakarta gubernatorial election as an indicator of rising Islamism. This movement seeks to institutionalise certain literal understandings of the Quran in the political system.</p>
<p>Baswedan was supported by conservative Muslims. They had staged enormous protests demanding the jailing of his rival, then-incumbent Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (better known as Ahok), who was embroiled in a blasphemy case for allegedly insulting Islam.</p>
<p>Even after the election, mass rallies continued to pressure the court to punish the Chinese-Indonesian, Christian non-active governor. The court recently sentenced Ahok to <a href="https://en.tempo.co/read/news/2017/05/09/055873617/Ahok-Sent-to-2-Years-in-Prison-for-Blasphemy">two years in prison</a>. </p>
<p>The court’s decision left many people feeling devastated. They rallied in a show of support for Ahok in front of the prison where he’s detained. Communities concerned by the rising influence of Islamist groups have launched social media campaigns defending the country’s founding principles of <em><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pancasila">Pancasila</a></em>. This promotes pluralism, among other values.</p>
<h2>Opportunist politicians</h2>
<p>There are elements of <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/02/02/indonesias-religious-minorities-under-threat">intolerance and racism</a> in Indonesia. But that does not necessarily mean that an organised Islamic political movement is on the rise.</p>
<p>The problem is not an upsurge of Islamism. Instead, the problem is that political elites are increasingly exploiting religious sentiments and racism, especially as Indonesia approaches the 2019 presidential election. </p>
<p>Analysts have noted that in many Muslim-majority countries, Islamic political movements have shifted <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674291416&content=reviews">toward conservatism</a> rather than maintaining their Islamist tendency. Such movements have become more concerned with Islamisation of society through <em>dakwah</em> (religious outreach) instead of Islamising the state. This is because Islamism has failed to pass the test of power. </p>
<p>Islamist parties such as the PKS (Justice and Prosperous Party) in Indonesia and the AKP (Justice and Development Party) in Turkey have abandoned their Islamist agenda to broaden their political support in the contest for power in democratic political systems. </p>
<p>Signs of mainstreaming Islamic conservatism in Indonesia emerged 12 years ago, according to Dutch anthropologist <a href="https://bookshop.iseas.edu.sg/publication/1806">Martin van Bruinessen</a>. Then, the MUI (Indonesian Ulama Council, a group of clerics) declared that secularism, pluralism and liberalism (<em>sipilis</em>) were incompatible with Islam.</p>
<p>This “Arabisation” of Islam in Indonesia was partly influenced by the transnational Islamic movement and the strengthening of conservative factions within mainstream Islamic organisations Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama (NU). Muhammadiyah and NU’s role in defining the friendly moderate Indonesian Islam was weakened. </p>
<p>Why did the conservative faction of “Indonesian Islam” became dominant in Indonesia’s democratic era and the moderate faction less so? To answer this question, we should put contestation between conservatives and moderates within the context of competition over power and resources.</p>
<p>The MUI has successfully disseminated anti-pluralist ideas since 2005 simply because the state provided the group with the opportunity to gain support from conservative Muslims. </p>
<p>On July 26, 2005, when <a href="http://nysean.org/post/indonesia-battle-over-islam">Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono</a>, the sixth Indonesian president, opened the MUI national congress, he said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We want to place [the council] in a central role in matters regarding the Islamic faith, so that it becomes clear what the difference is between areas that are the preserve of the state and areas where the government or state should heed the fatwas from the council and ulamas.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This statement shows the state had a vital role in strengthening the MUI’s position, through which the organisation became more authoritative and influential in society. </p>
<p>The MUI’s 2005 fatwa on <em>sipilis</em>, for example, had legitimised vigilante groups to enforce Islamic morality. That same year, MUI also declared Ahmadiyya a deviant sect, prompting persecution of its followers. </p>
<p>In 2006, MUI successfully demanded the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Ministry of Home Affairs issue a joint decision on regulating the building of places of worship. Following this, violence against the Christian minority increased. </p>
<h2>Remnants of Soeharto’s politics</h2>
<p>Such a state approach toward conservative Muslims is not new. </p>
<p>In the early 1990s, after decades of repressing religious organisations’ political power, Soeharto built an alliance with conservative Muslims to bolster his regime as a response to his rivals in the military. </p>
<p>Yudhoyono reproduced and continued Soeharto’s strategy in accommodating conservative Muslims as part of his alliance. This has allowed Islamic conservatism to gain strength in political and social life.</p>
<p>Such is also the case in 2017 Jakarta’s gubernatorial election. When many of the conservative Muslims organised mass protests against Ahok, Anies and his political supporters saw an opportunity to align themselves with this social force. </p>
<h2>Fragmented <em>Ummah</em></h2>
<p>Although conservatives consider Anies’ victory as theirs, it doesn’t mean that Islamic radicalism will flourish in Indonesian politics or that the state will be Islamised.</p>
<p>Social agents of conservative Muslims are very diverse. There’s a power struggle among them to represent the imagined <em>Ummah</em>, the unified Islamic community. </p>
<p>These agents range from Darul Islam and HTI, which attempt to Islamise the Indonesian state, to Islamic parties such as PKS that accept electoral democracy, and other groups such as FPI (Islamic Defender Front) that use vigilantism to enforce Islamic morality and embrace illiberal ideas. </p>
<p>The incoherent characteristics of the Islamic populist alliance have provided a route for political elites to be able to claim to be advocating Islamism to gain their supports. </p>
<p>Since there is no dominant Islamist agency that could represent a coherent <em>Ummah</em>, any political actors can claim to represent this community. Meanwhile, Islamic groups enjoy political access by building an alliance with powerful elites. </p>
<p>Thus, the proliferation of religious intolerance and racism in contemporary Indonesian politics should be understood as a means to maintain such an alliance for the next presidential election in 2019.</p>
<p>The fragmented nature of this Islamic populist alliance also indicates that conservative Muslims’ capacity to foster their Islamic agenda is weak. </p>
<p>Anies himself has <a href="https://en.tempo.co/read/news/2017/04/21/057868381/Anies-Baswedan-Denies-Plans-to-Issue-Sharia-Bylaws">maintained that his policy</a> will not be directed toward the Islamisation of Jakarta. His campaign team did not make any political contract with the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) for their support of his candidacy, he said. This means conservative groups like FPI will remain marginal, operating at the street level of politics. </p>
<p>Against this backdrop, what is worrying is not the rise of Islamism, but the increasing tendency of political elites to mobilise religious sentiment and racism in the contest over power and resources. </p>
<p>Disbanding Islamist groups to supposedly counter rising radicalism is not only misleading but goes against Indonesian democracy’s guarantee of the freedom to organise. </p>
<p>Our concern and energy instead should be directed at the opportunistic political elites in the context of predatory democracy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77480/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Abdil Mughis Mudhoffir does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There are elements of intolerance and racism in Indonesia. But that does not necessarily mean that an organised Islamic political movement is on the rise.Abdil Mughis Mudhoffir, PhD Candidate in Politics at the Asia Institute, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.