The mess called "Blasphemy Laws of Pakistan"

During the first week of January 2011, Governor of the largest province of Pakistan, Punjab was assassinated by his own security guard because he had called for modifications in Pakistan blasphemy laws.  Note that his stance was quite guarded as he did not call for its repeal but just modification.  I would consider his stance below par but in Pakistan even getting that much was no less than a miracle.

After that his assassin became a hero.  Even people living in US, Canada, and Europe were hesitant in calling this what it was.  Pakistan President and chief minister of Punjab did not attend the funeral of the governor.  Leaders of several parties openly said that the governor was to be blamed for his own death.

Quite sadly, majority of the people of Pakistan support these "blasphemy laws" and they have no idea about what is in it.  So here it goes (These are taken from http://www.pakistani.org/pakistan/legislation/1860/actXLVof1860.html):

Section 295-B
Whoever wilfully defiles, damages or desecrates a copy of the Holy Qur'an or of an extract therefrom or uses it in any derogatory manner or for any unlawful purpose shall be punishable with imprisonment for life.


Section 295-C
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.




Section 298
Whoever, with the deliberate intention of wounding the religious feelings of any person, utters any word or makes any sound in the hearing of that person or makes any gesture in the sight of that person or places any object in the sight of that person, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to one year or with fine, or with both.


Section 298-A
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 any wife (Ummul Mumineen), or members of the family (Ahle-bait), of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him), or any of the righteous Caliphs (Khulafa-e-Rashideen) or companions (Sahaaba) of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years, or with fine, or with both.


Now many Pakistanis will read this and say "so what is wrong with that?"  So lets see some scenarios:

1. Defiles or "damages" Quran or an "extract".  You do not need to be a rocket scientist to see how ridiculous such a language is.  The word "kafir" (disbeliever) is in Quran so is the word for Satan.  Similarly many authors start their writings with "Bismillah" (in the name of Allah) and several newspapers carry some extracts of Quran and then later on these same newspapers are found on the street corner.  
2. Directly or "indirectly"  "defiles" the sacred "name" of the Holy Prophet (sa).  Again the language is very ambiguous and about a few weeks ago a person was charged for throwing a business card with name "Muhammad" written on it.  Really it is not a joke.  And what about "indirectly" - it makes it completely subjective.  For example I find it offensive to say as some Muslims suggest that Holy Prophet (sa) did not have shadow because it questions his humanity; should I then press charges against everyone that holds that belief?  Some Muslims suggest that at certain times the Holy Prophet (sa) lied as a strategy - I find it offensive and so on.  Personality that is accepted as the most influential in the history of humanity will generate controversy - even among Muslims.  I find those who suggest that the Holy Prophet (sa) used sword to spread the message of Islam (as suggested by Maulana Maudoodi) to be the most offensive accusation against Islam!
3. Defiling the sacred name of the wives of the Prophet - can anyone guess who is this targeted for?  The conflict that arose between Hadrat Ayesha and Hadrat Ali is a historical fact and different Muslims have different perspective on it.  Similarly conflict between Hadrat Ali and Hadrat Ameer Muavia etc.  According to this, probably the "scholar" called Zakir Naik is guilty as well for saying "razi allah" after Yazid's name.  Some Muslim sects suggest that Hadrat Imam Hussain was also at fault in the tragedy of Karbala.  Can Muslims not even discuss their own history openly?

Real Story
In fact these laws were originally made just to target Ahmadi Muslims and are brainchild of General Zia ul Haq.  But lets not blame him for everything the "elected" legislators have ratified all of these laws.  The problem is that when you make bad laws, they will end up shaking the foundation of a society even if the target was someone else - because such laws provide an opportunity.


That is what happened here as well.  Ahmadies are still the largest victim of these laws but people have now started using these laws to settle old scores and to push their point.  


In lieu of this, the stance of the late governor was quite timid.  Anything short of total repeal should be unacceptable to any decent human being - yet he was targeted and most people blame him for his own murder.  But then we are talking about decent humans and there are probably none left in Pakistan.