Blasphemy...

According to an article on the Guardian website, a man has been stoned to death, and his body hung from a tree, after he was accused of burning a copy of the Quran inside a mosque. While the details of this tragic incident are sketchy, it comforms to a depressingly predictable pattern, in a country where blasphemy is still a capital crime. To be accused of blasphemy is to be convicted… not by a court of law, but by a mob of self-righteous citizenry who assume the right to be prosecutor, judge, jury and executioner. As the article acknowledges, “blasphemy accusations have often been used to intimidate religious minorities and settle personal scores”.

The template for mob rule is firmly established in both the Bible and Quran. In a list of crimes which demand the death penalty (including adultery, homosexual acts and working on the sabbath), no legal mechanism is specified, to decide whether an accused person is innocent or guilty. The assumption is that the “men of the town” will interpret biblical and quaranic injunctions according to their own beliefs, and take the law into their own hands. Pakistani judges - and others - who have spoken out against the repressive blasphemy laws are routinely murdered. Among the populace in general the call is for the laws to be strengthened, not weakened. This is just one of the many reasons why Islam badly needs its own reformation (and why the implementation of sharia law, in any part of the UK, must be resisted)…