Death
For Apostasy And
The Draconian Shariah Law: Afghanistan And Beyond
By Taj Hashmi
25 March, 2006
Countercurrents.org
The
latest spine chiller from Afghanistan is the revolting news about sentencing
one Abdul Rahman to death for converting to Christianity, a capital
crime as per the obscurantist Shariah law. One might be surprised at
the recrudescence of barbarism in the name of Islam in presence of UN
peace keepers and almost five years after the overthrow of the demonic
Taliban regime. However, those who know about the Shariah code have
nothing to be surprised about dispensing death penalty to apostates
from Islam.
In view of the judgment,
one may even assume that since the UN has recognized the post-Taliban
regime, Hamid Karzai being an important US ally in its “war against
terrorism”, the Afghan government, including its judiciary, is
a legitimate part of a sovereign country. Consequently one may surmise
that condemning someone to death for apostasy or blasphemy in accordance
with the Shariah, as it has been going on in countries like Saudi Arabia,
Iran and Pakistan, is but an “internal affair” of a sovereign
entity like Afghanistan.
On the one hand, some American
observers are raising the question if the Afghan regime wants to revert
to the Taliban way of doing things, then it should do so without American
help; and on the other, both the US President and Canadian Prime Minister
have asked the Afghan President to restore the freedom of religion in
the country in accordance with the UN Declaration of Human Rights. We
believe, despite the sabre-rattling by mullahs and judges, finally the
Afghan government will prevail by unhooking Abdul Rahman from the claws
of the Shariah. As we understand, unfortunately this will happen not
by scrapping the barbaric Shariah code but through a deceptive compromise,
by declaring the victim not an apostate but an insane.
Both the progressive Muslims
and upholders of human rights everywhere should come forward and declare
unanimously: “Enough is enough, no more Shariah law anywhere in
the East and West.” Let us bury the past inadequacies, vacillations
and double standards of liberal Muslims and non-Muslims (mainly due
to the exigencies of the Cold War) towards the violation of human rights
in the name of Shariah – from Saudi Arabia to Iran and Sudan to
Pakistan and Afghanistan. Both the liberal democrats and secular humanists
in the West and East, including the Muslim World, should fulfill their
moral obligations towards humanity. Nothing would be more counter-productive
than portraying the West as the enemy of Islam and the Muslims as obscurantist
Shariah loving terrorists. A bridge is essential and a “dialogue
of civilizations”, to paraphrase former Iranian President Khatami,
between Islam and the West is the only viable alternative to the Shariah
obscurantism and provocative Islamophobia nourished in the West.
Exerting pressure on Karzai
to save Abdul Rahman’s life is fine, but not enough. Exposing
the un-Islamic nature of the Shariah code, together by liberal, progressive
Muslims and non-Muslim upholders of human rights and dignity with a
view to abolishing the so-called Islamic code everywhere is the only
solution to the violation of human rights in the name of Islam, once
for all.
Those who consider attacking
Shariah as an affront on Islam and as a violation of the UN Charter
should know that there is nothing “divine” about the code.
Shariah is the combination of legal opinions of Muslim jurists sought
and enforced by medieval Muslim rulers. Although claimed to be emanating
from the Quran, Shariah code is mainly based on problematic “sayings”
of Prophet Muhammad, individual and collective opinions of medieval
jurists, local customs and common sense.
Interestingly, the Islamic
scripture or the Quran spells out: “Let there be no compulsion
in religion” [2:256] and does not prescribe any death penalty
for apostasy either: “Surely (as for) those who believe then disbelieve,
again believe and again disbelieve, then increase in disbelief, Allah
will not forgive them nor guide them in the (right) path” [4:137].
The Quran sanctions death penalty for murder and other horrendous crimes,
not apostasy: “You shall not kill any person - for GOD has made
life sacred - except in the course of justice. If one is killed unjustly,
then we give his heir authority to enforce justice” [17:33]. One
also finds the following in the Quranic text: “For this reason
did We prescribe to the children of Israel that whoever slays a soul,
unless it be for manslaughter or for mischief in the land, it is as
though he slew all men; and whoever keeps it alive, it is as though
he kept alive all men” [5:32].
However, the Shariah law
condemns the apostate to death. One finds striking similarity between
this barbaric provision with the Biblical prescription: “And he
that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, he shall surely be put to death,
and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger,
as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the
LORD, shall be put to death” [Bible, King James Version, Leviticus
24:16].
There are many other incongruities between the Islamic scripture and
the Shariah code. As for example, while the Quran prescribes 100 lash
as punishment for adultery, the Shariah sanctions stoning to death for
both the adulterer and adulteress, in accordance with the Old Testament.
The Shariah with all its
variations and contradictions has created problems both for Muslims
and non-Muslims in Muslim-dominated as well as other countries in our
times. The term “Shariah” evokes bad memories among its
victims as well as opponents who want the abolition or drastic reforms
of this Draconian code. Our experience tells us that Shariah is inherently
prejudicial to women, non-Muslims and freethinkers and that its language,
spirit and above all, execution, go against the spirit, ideals and teaching
of Islam. However, ironically the mullahs, who are supposed to be the
upholders of the ideals of Islam, have been the main promoters and defenders
of Shariah which stands in contravention of human rights, decency and
civilized behavior.
The collective ignorance
of the Muslim community combined with the vested interests of many Muslims
is sustaining this incongruous Shariah code. The Muslim community in
Afghanistan and beyond can replace this absurd, outdated un-Islamic
code of Shariah with a liberal and modern one only through collective
efforts of the members of the civil society, human rights groups, intellectuals
and liberal politicians. They need to educate both the mullahs and ordinary
Muslims with regard to the obscurantist aspects of the Shariah. The
core of the problem is political. So, only social reformist agenda by
a few cultural groups will not be able to resolve the issue.
However, this arduous task
requires global support from the UN agencies to the various human rights
organizations, liberal democratic governments and donor-driven development
agencies and NGOs. The West must call the shots not by demonizing Islam,
Prophet Muhammad and the not-so-monolithic Muslim community or by selective
condemnation of the anti-Western “Islamic” countries such
as Iran and Sudan. Violation of human rights in any form in “Islamic”
countries like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt or Bangladesh, despite
their pro-Western foreign policies, should become a global concern.
With UN sponsored sanctions, and if required, military interventions
as taken against the rogue Serbian regime in the early 1990s, the terror
of Shariah may be contained and eliminated eventually.
The Afghan President’s
assurance to the West that his government is not going to yield to the
pressure of the blood-thirsty mullahs who want to kill Abdul Rahman
for apostasy is but an isolated act of redemption, not an outright victory
against Shariah and barbaric obscurantism in the name of Islam. We have
a long way to tread to get human rights and dignity for all the victims
of Shariah in Afghanistan and beyond.
Taj Hashmi, Simon Fraser
University, Canada [email protected]