Peace: The Summum Bonum

Crisis in a Muslim country leads to flourishing of Islamic fundamentalism. This is because since the time the Palestinian issue gained prominence, Ikhwanul Muslimeen (the Muslim Brotherhood) has gained a stronghold in Arab countries. The Muslim Brotherhood were initially against the West but later they also turned against their own Arab rulers and tried to dethrone them because they thought that these rulers were agents of the West. In order to destabilize the Arab rule, the Muslim Brotherhood began confronting and clashing with their rulers. As a result, Arab rulers became very sensitive towards Islamic movements, as they considered them to be a form of extremism or fundamentalism whose aim was to revolt against and de-stabilize the existing rule. A man was sentenced to death in Pakistan for ‘insulting the Prophet Muhammad’ on Facebook. What are your views on this? I t is generally held that Islam prescribes capital punishment for those who commit blasphemy, that is, using abusive language against the Prophet of Islam. But this is quite untrue. According to Islam, blasphemy is simply a misuse of freedom and not at all a cognisable offence; the blasphemer is not liable to incur any legal punishment. This kind of law has no basis in Islamic scriptures. If someone uses abusive language against the Prophet, Muslims must take it as a case of misunderstanding, and then try to remove this misunderstanding in peaceful ways. They are required to do so by engaging in discussion or by providing the ‘blasphemer’ with Islamic literature that gives the true image of the Prophet of Islam. This notion of killing in the name of blasphemy is itself haram or forbidden. The basis of such rulings in countries like Pakistan is religious extremism, which is the biggest hurdle Islam faces today. In fact, the reverse of prescribing death punishments has been enjoined on the believers. As a part of His creation plan, God has granted freedom to people and no one can take away this freedom. While exercising one’s freedom of expression, the only condition should be that one does not resort to violence of any kind. We find many instances in the life of the Prophet of Islam where he did not punish people for acts which insulted or humiliated him. Once a person approached the Prophet and addressed him as Mudhammam, which means the condemned one, while the Prophet’s real name was Muhammad (the praiseworthy one). According to a tradition narrated by Abu Huraira, at this incident the Prophet said: