Government appeases religious parties on blasphemy law

[TARIQ BN ZIYAAD]

assalam alaikum

Even these securalists parties cant go against the will of the ppl , as u might have heard qamar zaman kair day before yesterday said they will not change the blashemy law ( he is the spoke person of the govt.) . yesterday khorshid shaw another minister said it. And who told u these religion parties r angels and nobody said all the political parties r bad ( i dont belong to any party). my comments were vis a -vis blashemy law

TARIQ

 

[Mabs]

The debate about what kind of Pakistan did Jinnah want is a long one leading through many dark alleys with no side willing to back down,lets leave it for some other thread.

On topic:

There are some procedural changes that need to be made to the article C-295 of the constitution.Even, Aijaz Ul Haq (son of Gen Zia who made article 295 part of the constitution) agrees to this fact and admits that here are loopholes, that have been and are being exploited.The Gojra incident took place because three Muslims guys lost to a Christian man in gambling, and instead of paying up, accused him of blasphemy, and this is not the first incident of its kind. People misuse the blasphemy law to their advantage because the punishment for falsely accusing someone of blasphemy is just 2 years while the accused is hung. Some of the suggested changes are:

1) A capital punishment for both the accused if proven guilty, and the accuser if found to be making false charges. Right now, the accused is hung while the accuser only gets away with 2 years of jail time if found guilty of leveling false charges.

2) A capital punishment for anyone who abuses any religion. be it Islam or Buddhism.In it's current form,the law only protects Muslims, while all the other religions can be made mockery off and that would not be considered blasphemous, at least in a court of law.

The reasons for these procedural changes are both constitutional and religious.Lets say a person gets capital punishment, but later it's found out that he was innocent. The accuser will just get 2 years while an innocent man was wrongly hung . Also, it is the responsibility of the an Islamic state to ensure the security of wealth,life and respect of all the minorities under its rule.The procedure in is current form goes against the right of a citizen to a fair trial and jury(granted in the 18th amendment), and also the Islamic principle of Justice, where even the caliph was held accountable. This change will act as a deterrent against anyone who tries to falsely accuse someone of blasphemy because he would be putting his life on the line as well.

The second change also has both religious and constitutional justification. Religiously, we are told in the Quran to " Refrain from mocking others religions because in retaliation and out of ignorance, they will mock Islam"*not literal translation*. It is therefore,against the teachings of Islam to just protect Islam and leave all the other religions unprotected. Constitutionally, it is the duty of the state to grant equal rights to all its citizens. Safe guarding the rights of only one segment of the society and abandoning the rest is thus, unconstitutional. Therefore, a capital punishment or any equal punishment should be handed out to anyone found guilty of blasphemy against any religion.

Any patriotic Pakistani and a devout Muslim should support these procedural changes, for this country and also for the hereafter.

 

[mehru]

Ok everyone Calm down.

The point of this thread was not flaming or to discuss whether we want secularism or not in Pakistan. It's a separate issue.

Point was to just show my disgust that how matters of national interest are decided outside parliament by street goons. In other words rather than leaving it to parliament to decide, religious parties decided to go for a strike. They are literally blackmailing the Govt. Why? What's wrong in atleast discussing this law? I have voted for this parliament. They are my representatives. Not these street goons. If noone wanted any changes surely the bill will not be passed and blasphemy law will stay intact. So why not let the law to take it's course?

I don't want to remove blasphemy law because i know it's not possible. However, i am in favour of certain amendments so that in future noone could exploit it. End of story.


@ Umer Rajpoot
I am no Indian. I am a proud Pakistani Muslim.

 

[Karachiite]

Amazing how these mullahs have shut down the whole country causing billions of rupees loss just for this bullshit law. It's embarrassing now.

 

[TARIQ BN ZIYAAD]

assalam alaikum

street power is used and why not bay naeer tried so did nawaz for the judges.
2 million protested in london before invadeing iraq if i m not wrong ( may be the no. is wrong anyhow they protestd outside the parliment why the ppl of pakistan can't do it?)

This is why i love the will of ppl. ppl dont care for just 1400 hundered registered cases. there r many other problems let's solve them don't waist energy on this topic.

TARIQ

 

[Muhammad-Bin-Qasim]

@Mehru... I think almost everyone would be with you on this!!! Thumbs up

We also need to look at the wider picture... You asked about what I meant and what I mean is that since the western elites are realizing their failures and seeing Capitalism collapsing and a resurgence of Islam across the globe, they need to prepare their people against any threat that may come to them from the Muslim world in the future... This is why they insulted our prophet saw and made a mockery of Rasool in their newspapers... The problem with these people is that they are not looking for any discussion or debate because when they have indulged in such debates they have lost miserably and are unable to counter the beauty of our deen with the man made system that they have... It has theological as well as socioeconomic and political dimensions... They simply refuse to discuss or debate and only want Muslims to be insulted... Once you lose that basic dignity, after that you are fair game for the vultures... So when these things come up in the media we should basically address it by stating that NO ONE should be insulted by anyone and NO ONE should have the right to insult any other person... this is for ordinary people like us... then how can you even comprehend such insults against our Nabi saw... this is something that destroys all notions of community harmony and co operation... This is why in Ireland despite massive opposition the Government stick to its guns and kept the blasphemy law in place... They realize that the Muslim community is doing tremendous work for them in their country and do not want any disturbance...

So let us keep this bigger picture in mind... It is nt just about religious nutjobs... The world is a global village... there are powers that want to attack the Muslim identity at every available opportunity and we have to refuse them such luxury... certainly the law should not be abused (like a poster mentioned about three Pakistanis blaming a Christian who won against them in Gambling etc)... but that is a different debate from not having a law against blasphemy at all...

Interestingly as I note this law has a clause that could potentially bridge the rift between Shia and Sunni as well...

 

[Ticking Bomb]

Amazing how these mullahs have shut down the whole country causing billions of rupees loss just for this bullshit law. It's embarrassing now.

Aashiq i know who you are, so keep ur comments civilized.

 

[Xestan]

@ Umer Rajpoot
I am no Indian. I am a proud Pakistani Muslim.

Sorry Sis But I haven't said anything like that I guess and yeah I'm a teenager But still have pan Islamic views This is the lil' difference, that's why I jumped in because I couldn't tolerate people calling it a stupid law.

Now as per Mullahs, I agree with you, and other things too, about the procedural changes in the law etc etc...

I hope you don't mind

*Peace*

 

[Muhammad-Bin-Qasim]

Islam holds no value in state affairs in a secular environment. So how exactly would that law be recognized by the state. The individual could try to live his life by it of course and the state would not interfere and that would constitute neutrality in the specific matter. (As long as none of the laws bring the person to commit violence or go against the state itself) Blasphemy laws dont hold neutrality though it is something that state has imposed based on interpretation of Islam on all the masses in the 70s. Now no one has the willpower to change it because religious parties are having say in the states affairs. See how that handicaps Pakistan.

Or as Ataturk said

I take it that you are a very young (and naive) man...

Dude... When you have a system of Riba in place in a state... it is nt about personal conscious anymore... Everyone and everything is traded according to Riba after that... i.e IT IS ENFORCED AND APPLIED ON PEOPLE (against their wishes if it is a state of Muslim majority)... So this talk of neutrality is ludicrous... Secularists are as vicious as commuinsts in attempting to run the affairs of the people in their own way... Secularism is in direct conflict with Islam because it removes the Islamic principles of ruling, economics, foreign affairs, judiciary and social system from the community of Muslims...

As for how it would be applied in the state... A book on Turkish history could help you with that... The Ottoman state since its inception until Sultan Abdul Majeed did not trade in Riba... Unfortunately Sultan Abdul Majeed made the mistake of adopting Riba because of wrong advice of the scholars who misunderstood the issue... One of the reasons why the Ottoman state failed was because of this issue during Tanzeemat... before they realized it, they had fallen in huge amounts of debt because it was also the time of the Crimean war... This debt was paid back later by Sultan's son Abdul Hameed Han... until he decided to default on the excess loans that was breaking the back of the Ottoman Millet...

As for the religious parties... I take your point... I m opposed to pseudo religious groups... I have supported you on the issue of our own AKP in Turkey... but the thing is that Pakistan never had a religious group ruling it and rather its in a mess because it has always been ruled by secular parties... The religous parties have not tied the hands of the secular parties to implement progress... but secularists because they have no fear of God in their hearts due to their feudal upbringing have done just one thing which is to fill up their own bank accounts by the money they have stolen from the people of Pakistan...

 

[Karachiite]

Aashiq i know who you are, so keep ur comments civilized.

I don't care.

 

[Awesome]

One of the things I really like to tell our Mullahs is that, they really should give up throwing these tantrums over something silly as Blasphemy. If you truly believe in what you do, then please use that brain God granted you all to realize that just what someone says - does not make it true.

Asking to repeal blasphemy laws is a step in the right direction. It is a more mature attitude towards life. You say what you want to say, and you let the other say what they want to say. Whoever has the best thing to say would be heard and the other one won't be.

In fact to say that you need Blasphemy laws to protect your religion should be Blasphemy. I mean technically you're saying that your religion is so bad, that people won't stop abusing it until you threaten to kill them or throw them in jail.

Asking to repeal Blasphemy is not about being religious or not. Its about bringing freedom in Pakistan and freedom must not be feared in the way you all do.

Grow up and serve Pakistan.