Re: Blasphemy, Islam and Pakistan
Peace mahool
The original motive of the blasphemy law was to protect the sentiments of the Muslims by criminalising any defamation of those who we consider above reproof. Thus maintaining order.
Not sure according to the current law … but in order to be fair and to eliminate foul play I would add some caveats
a) The accuser and the accused need to be of sound mind
b) There needs to be no provocation present to have caused the incident
c) Any citizens taking matters in their own hands prior to trial should be prosecuted themselves - this includes shouting it around the community causing a stir (only discrete police reports should be allowed - this is because prior to proof it is simply slander and inciting hatred).
d) Public apology will exonerate the act and be considered a clean slate
e) Hudd to be given on only if the accused has been proven 3 times of similar cases or if the accused openly makes a statement or writes something blasphemous and attempts to publicly distribute it
The problem is not technically with the law - its the abuse of the law by the mobs that makes it dangerous … The government need to pick up trouble makers from the mobs and give them equally strong sentences so they think twice before accusing people about things.
The law needs to be enforced properly - lay people are not allowed to be witness, judge and jury …
I don’t know if religions require such a law … Pakistan needs to make it a law that false accusations are punishable and exercise its corresponding hudd without failure.
The companions used to request from RasoolAllah (SAW) if they could flog someone for doing something wrong … most of the time the answer was no …
I don’t know about some people here - but there is always room for forgiveness and judgement needs to be carefully thought through.