Religious laws & mob violence

Dawn, August 6, 2006
Religious laws & mob violence
By Kunwar Idris

RECENTLY, a large number of homes belonging to a minority community in a Sialkot village were set on fire by a mob enraged by the news that one of its members was seen burning the pages of the Holy Quran. The undisputed fact is that some worn-out pages of magazines carrying Quranic verses were indeed burnt within the compound of the community’s place of worship where a pit was also dug to bury the ashes.

The incident was seen by a neighbour from his rooftop. He conveyed the news to the people gathered at a festival taking place nearby. A rampage followed. It wasn’t unusual. The act, or even a rumour, of someone burning or discarding Quranic pages has been a cause of frequent mob violence in Pakistan.

The targets of rage generally have been minority groups as for instance the Christians of Sangla Hill and the Hindus of Taftan on Balochistan’s border with Iran. But the Muslims are not spared either. One can recall the lynching of a man in Hafizabad (central Punjab) by a hysterical mob despite his protestations that being himself a Hafiz-i-Quran he could not have ever thought of insulting the Holy Book.

Surely, the Quran is “exalted and purified in the hands of noble and virtuous scribes” (Sura Abasa) and disrespect to it in physical form or disparaging its message arouses grief and anger among Muslims. No punishment, however, is prescribed for the offence either in the Holy Quran or by the Holy Prophet (PBUH). The awe of its majesty, as the Quran itself says, is ingrained in the hearts of the people.

Wilfully defiling, damaging or desecrating a copy of the Holy Quran or an extract from it and using it in a defamatory manner or for any unlawful purpose was made an offence punishable with life imprisonment by General Ziaul Haq who added a new section (295-B) in the Penal Code in 1982. Before that, damaging or defiling a place of worship or an object held sacred by any class of persons was, and still is, an offence but the maximum punishment provided was two years’ imprisonment. Incidents of mob violence were rare before 1982. It is as if increased punishment has provided an impetus to accusations and violence.

The critical point to be considered is the correct way to dispose of the worn-out pages of the Holy Quran.

Among present-day scholars, Hafiz Sanaullah Madni of Ahle Hadith holds that throwing worn-out pages in a running stream or in a well or burying them in the ground is permissible but the best form is to burn these as Hazrat Usman had done. Mufti Mohammad Shafi of Deoband holds that burying and then lighting a fire over it is also permissible. Hazrat Shah Ahmad Raza Khan of Bareilly and other scholars belonging to his school, however, consider only burial to be proper.

Opinion on the details of this matter differs as it does in many other aspects of Islamic faith and practice. But it is tragic for people to be killed or driven out of their homes for the act of burning when their intention undoubtedly is not to desecrate the Holy Quran but to save it from desecration. One has not heard of riots or murders for difference of opinion on this count in any other country where the objective is the same.

The real and recurring danger in making Islamic laws part of the country’s penal code is that in their interpretation and enforcement emotions obscure reason and mob rage pre-empts fair trial. Perhaps no one so far has been sentenced to life imprisonment for defiling the Holy Quran but quite a few have been murdered and many hurt and harmed by angry mobs. The latest to die, according to press reports, is the imam of a Hasilpur (Punjab) mosque and a divine of the town who had intervened to rescue him.

Similar dangers, experience has shown, are inherent in the application of penal provisions for derogatory remarks against the Prophet, outraging the religious feelings of any class and laws specific to the Ahmadiyya community.

The current controversy on the repeal of the Hudood laws centres on their arbitrary or unjust use. The fact of the matter is that the standards of human behaviour, as also of evidence and justice under Islamic jurisprudence, are so exacting that in the present state of private and public morality they are bound to operate against the weak and poor whom they are intended to protect.

The exemplary punishments envisaged in Islamic laws have failed to check crime or deter criminals. As was reported in this paper a few days ago, the number of armed robberies in Karachi has doubled in a year. The same may be true for the rest of the country. This tragic paradox was summed up by a visiting foreign journalist who reported that if Islamic punishments were to be awarded many Pakistanis would be without a limb or bear marks of lashings on their backs.

It is conceded by clerics and scholars who oppose the repeal of the Hudood Ordinances that the fault lies not in the laws but in the investigative and judicial system. This defence itself clinches the argument. We should have only those laws which we are able to administer justly and speedily. The Hudood and other Islamic laws as they stand at the moment have become only a tool in the hands of the police and rabble rousers to oppress the weak and unwary.