THOUGHT CRIME

A person who says that the Quran is created will be told to repent. If he does not, he will be beheaded. A person who does not adhere to the Shariah will be told to repent, and if he does not, he shall be killed. A person who claims that he has a way to reach God other than the Shariah given by the Prophet Muhammad, through which he can obtain God’s good pleasure, will be told to repent, and if he does not, his head will be chopped off. According to Muslim consensus, to eat a snake or scorpion is forbidden. But, Ibn Taimiyah argues, if someone considers it permissible to eat these, he will be told to repent. If he does not, he shall be killed. If someone says that God did not speak to Moses, he will be told to repent. If he does not, he shall be killed. The phrase ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is Great) is not written in the Quran and all Muslims accept this fact. If a person thinks that ‘Allahu Akbar’ is written in the Quran, Ibn Taimiyah opines, he will be asked to repent, and if he does not, he shall be killed. If someone delays the obligatory prayer to engage in hunting or to serve his teacher, so much that the sun sets, he must be punished. According to the majority of the ulema, Ibn Taimiyah argues, if the person does not repent it is compulsory that he be killed. The fatwas of Ibn Taimiyah unfortunately were not looked at critically by the later generation of the scholars (ulema). On account of this, even after the passage of 700-odd years, no scholar worth mentioning has written a book against this. Instead, despite the sort of claims that Ibn Taimiyah makes, he continues to occupy a very big position among the leaders of the ulema. With regard to the issues for which Ibn Taimiyah has given fatwas calling for the death penalty, it is instructive to note that not a single of these “crimes” is mentioned in the Quran or Hadith. Yet, despite this, why did Ibn Taimiyah and other ulema call for punishment for actions that are not mentioned as crimes in the Quran and Hadith? The reason for this is that these ulema did not distinguish between a “social crime” According to the Quran and Hadith, there is punishment for social crimes, but for one who expresses his difference through words, Muslims’ response should be in the form of exhortation and counselling, and not punishment.