Blasphemy Laws Do Great Disservice To Islam

Pakistan needs to understand that zealotry hurts both societal harmony and religious values

- Mustafa Akyol

On March 29, in Dera Ismail Khan, a city in northwestern Pakistan, a teacher, Safoora Bibi, was ambushed by another teacher and two students, and her throat slit, for committing “blasphemy” against Prophet Muhammad. The killers hadn’t heard any blasphemous words from the victim herself. They had reportedly heard that one of their relatives saw the blasphemy in her dream!

It sounds insane, as it really is. Far worse, Pakistan’s blasphemy obsession destroys a life almost every month. In February, a mentally ill man was lynched by an enraged mob, who believed he burnt pages of the Quran. In January, a 26-year-old woman was sentenced to death for sharing cartoons of prophets on a private phone chat. And last December, a Sri Lankan factory manager just pulled down some posters that he didn’t understand – and which happened to have verses from the Quran – only to be burnt alive.

Since 1987, over 1,865 people have been charged and jailed for blasphemy. Recall the Christian farmworker Asia Bibi, mother of four, who spent eight years on death row in solitary confinement, until her acquittal in 2018. Over 130 people have been killed by mobs, whose victims are mostly minorities – Christians, Ahmadis, Shiites – often targeted with false accusations.

There’s no honour in vigilantism