Misuse of fatwas
The Council of
Islamic Ideology (CII) in its meeting on November 27, 2018 demanded that the
government enhance punishments for misuse of the issuing of religious decrees
(fatwas). CII chairman Dr Qibla Ayaz revealed that the Council had prepared a
comprehensive document titled ‘Paigham-i-Pakistan’ in January this year that
carried the consensus of senior clergymen from all four mainstream schools of
religious thought in the country. The document has been signed by 1,829
religious scholars. It declares several actions that have become rife over the
years un-Islamic. These include suicide attacks, spreading sectarianism and
anarchy in the name of religion, and issuing a call for jihad without the
consent of the state. Dr Qibla Ayaz elucidated the CII’s recommendation for
severe punishment for those clerics who misuse their position and issue fatwas
declaring Muslims non-believers or non-Muslim (kaafir) and declare them liable to be killed as per Sharia. All
such decrees have been rejected by the CII, Dr Qibla Ayaz added. It cannot be
denied that the advent of religiosity and extremism over the last four decades
has given birth to the phenomenon of clerics making free with issuing fatwas
declaring someone an apostate or kaafir
and calling for their head. One does not have to go far for a recent example of
this affliction. The Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) and others of its ilk
even went so far as to declare the honourable judges of the Supreme Court,
including the Chief Justice of Pakistan, liable to be killed for their verdict
acquitting Aasia Bibi in a false blasphemy case. The ‘culture’ of such extreme
fatwas may owe its origins and growth to the trajectory Pakistan has taken over
the last 40 years, especially its involvement in the so-called jihad in Afghanistan,
but by now there is sufficient evidence and enough cases to conclude that
fatwas have often been used for purposes more earthly than religious. These
include revenge, seeking the elimination of a person to capture property, and
sundry other similar reasons that have little to do with religion. In this
avalanche of hate-filled mob ‘justice’, blasphemy charges too have been found
‘handy’, especially when our religious minorities are targeted. All this has
created a climate of fear, especially amongst the religious minorities but by
no means confined to them alone.
The CII seeks
the government’s cooperation in bringing in legislation to impose prohibitive
punishments against fatwa grinders and exploiters of religious sentiment for
twisted purposes. While two of the PTI government’s federal ministers, Dr
Noorul Haq Qadri, Minister for Religious Affairs, and Ali Mohammad Khan,
Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, were in attendance at the CII’s
meeting, they expressed their support for the CII. Legislation, it is clearly
being felt by all the religious schools of thought in the country, is by now
critically and urgently required to quell the trend of half-baked mullahs and
vested interests exploiting religious sentiments for dastardly or even evil
reasons. It needs to be remembered that in the history of all revealed
religions, of which Islam is a part, the power to declare someone a kaafir and pass a death sentence on him
was limited only to the Prophets. They in their wisdom used this power
sparingly, if at all, often tilting more towards forgiveness, tolerance and
humanity. Our own Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) stood out boldly in this regard. Only
in cases where rebellion against the state was involved were such draconian
edicts issued, again, as stated above, sparingly and with great caution. As far
as blasphemy accusations in our experience are concerned, we know by now how
much mischief and loss of life has resulted, more often than not because of
false or motivated accusations. The time has therefore come, and none too soon,
for the government to safeguard people against unjustified (hopefully to be
made illegal) fatwas declaring persons kaafirs
and baying for their blood.
No comments:
Post a Comment