Pakistan Blasphemed against the Prophet by Killing a Sri Lankan Guest
By Dr Aslam Abdullah
Fontana, CA

The Sri Lankan manager of a factory in Pakistan's Sialkot killed and burnt is a martyr, complaining against people shouting Glory to God and taking selfies on his dead body. The law enforcement officials watched, and not many came to rescue him. His crime! He removed a sticker from the factory wall written in a language he did not know or understand. Those who claimed to be Muslims were enraged seeing the sticker bearing Islamic inscriptions removed. They chased him, attacked him with a cemented slab, and were not satisfied with that, burnt his body while taking selfies. The security guard ran away, and the police could not protect him.

Pakistan lost its reason to exist as a Muslim state on the model of Medina state created by the Prophet. As a result, the Pakistani religious and political leaders lost their legitimacy to speak in the name of Islam. Yes, the murder of a foreigner in God and his messenger's name is enough to call Pakistan anything but an Islamic state.

The Pakistani religious leaders and state officials should atone by declaring a day of mourning for the murdered guest. Additionally, they should bring the culprits to justice, remove the incompetent police officials, and compensate the deceased's family.

It's a day of shame for the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and its people, who are still trying to hide behind the absurd and brutal logic imposed upon them by Muslim scholars that blasphemy must lead to death. Muslim scholars believe that the punishment of blasphemy is death—all schools of thought this blasphemy against God and his messenger. However, the Qur’an does not prescribe it, and the Prophet did not practice it.

Without removing blasphemy as capital punishment, Pakistan's Islamic or civil state claim is doubtful. Therefore, Muslims must stand blasphemy laws wherever they exist. The scholars who support it are an accomplice to murder, and they are criminals in the eyes of God. The worst was when the killers defending their action quoted a statement they attributed to the Prophet. "Man Saba Nabiyan Faqtuluhu," whoever insults the Prophet, kill him.

The hadith is not part of the six authentic books of the Prophet's saying, and even if it were, it is an ambiguous statement. The Prophet knew that the Jews did not accept Jesus as their Messiah, and they called him a false Prophet. Applying his account, he should have physically taken Jews to the task. Yet, there is no incident to suggest using this so-called command to kill anyone who insulted previous Prophets. It's a concocted statement wrongly attributed to the Prophet. Religious leaders must have forged it to kill their opponents under the pretext of insulting any Prophet. Our Muslim scholarship has blasphemed against God and his messenger by repeating such a statement.

Pakistani American Muslims must take a firm stand on this issue. They should stop inviting any Muslim scholar from Pakistan who stands for death for blasphemy. The hate mongers have no place in a community that does not view God as a promoter of violence and the messenger as His executioner.

(Dr Aslam Abdullah is a resident scholar at Islamicity.org and editor-in-chief of the Muslim Observer newspaper. He is also the Indian Islamic Heritage Project director of the American Federation of Muslims of Indian origin and the interim President of the World Council of Muslims for Interfaith Relations, WCMIR.)