A love lyric, a ballad, a legend, an opera, an epic: there are many descriptions of the dhola, a genre of Punjabi folk music. It was through a dhola that a young Hanif Shaikh first learnt about Ilamdin, the 21-year-old carpenter’s apprentice who murdered the Hindu publisher of a “scurrilous” pamphlet about Prophet Muhammad (may peace be upon him).
Rajpal had already escaped two attempts on his life when, on an April afternoon in 1929, Ilamdin stabbed him eight times inside his bookshop in Lahore, relenting only when hapless bystanders began flinging books at him.
Executed six months later – his final appeal fought famously by one Muhammad Ali Jinnah – Ilamdin grew into a folk hero of sorts, inspiring popular accounts of his exploits in many formats: film, poetry, prose and what can only be described as fan fiction.
In the 1970s, an unabashedly hagiographic biopic titled Ghazi Ilamdin Shaheed hit cinemas, directed by Rasheed Dogar whose later credits would include the salaciously titled Pyasa Badan, Husn Parast and Madam X. When Shaikh went to watch Ghazi Ilamdin Shaheed, he wept.
With equal familiarity and fondness, Shaikh lists other men who took the law into their hands: Abdul Rasheed, who stabbed the Arya Samaj missionary and shuddhi (reconversion) advocate Swami Shraddhanand in Delhi in 1926; Abdul Qayyum, who, in 1932, attacked a Hindu leader, Nathu Ram, in Karachi while he was in court on trial over a provocative book on Islam; Mureed Hussain, who murdered a Hindu veterinarian in 1935 in Palwal town of Gurganw district, now in Haryana, India, because he had named a donkey after a beloved Muslim figure.
Shaikh has written books on all of them; he is a bit of an expert on this particular brand of the subcontinental ghazi. But when the conversation turns (inevitably) to Mumtaz Qadri, the security guard who, in January 2011, pumped 28 bullets into Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Punjab at the time, he hesitates, looking troubled.
The publisher was murdered in Court by Ilamdin. As a result, Ilamdin was honored with the honorifics 'Ghazi' and 'Shaheed'.
As the book did not cause enmity or hatred between different religious communities, it didn't violate Section 153(A). The Indian Muslim community demanded a law against insult to religious feelings.
Hence, the British Government enacted Section 295(A).
The Select Committee before enactment of the law, stated in its report that the purpose was to punish persons who indulge in wanton vilification or attacks upon other religions or their religious figures. It however added that a writer might insult a religion to facilitate social reform by grabbing attention. Therefore it recommended that the words with deliberate and malicious intention be inserted in the Section.
(Legislative history of Section 295(A) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) enacted in 1927, Wikipedia)
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THE FATHER of H. Farook, the atheist who was murdered in Coimbatore 10 days ago, allegedly by members of a Muslim radical group, has said that if his son was killed for his views, he too would become an atheist.
(Tamil Nadu youth killed for being an atheist, The Indian Express, Chennai, 27 March 2017)
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Hindu temple set on fire in Pakistan over blasphemy
(Reuters, 16 March 2014)
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Blasphemy charge against local vet triggers violent anti-Hindu riot in Pakistan
An unruly mob on Sunday ransacked “three temples, a school and multiple houses belonging to the Hindu community” after a principal was accused of blasphemy by a student in Ghotki, Sindh.
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To present the pinnacle of this demonisation discourse, I want to provide an excerpt of one of Hanif Qureshi’s speeches delivered only a few days before Taseer’s assassination. Hanif Qureshi is a famous na'at singer and Barelvi preacher who had viciously condemned Taseer for his public support of Asia Bibi. Mumtaz Qadri eventually revealed that Qureshi’s engaging sermons incited him to murder the governor. The following speech is an example of how Qureshi conjured hostility against Salman Taseer.
Listen, we are the heirs of Ghazi Murid Hussain Shaheed, we are the heirs of Ghazi Ilmuddin Shaheed, we are the lovers of Ghazi Abdul Qayyum Shaheed’s soul, we are the lovers and followers of Ghazi Abdul Rasheed Shaheed. Don’t you know that we say openly that we are not afraid of anything!
If the law in our country does not call for the death penalty for a blasphemer, for 295-C, then Allah gave us the power that we take the weapons in our own hands. We know how to shoot a gun, or how to cut a blasphemer’s throat. …
Are we Sunnis not able to do this? Remove the cowardice from yourself! Allah has given us so much power and courage. We can strangle the blasphemer, we can cut his tongue, we can dismember his body with bullets. No law can catch us!
The punishment for blasphemy is death! The punishment for blasphemy is death! The punishment for blasphemy is death! Somebody who insults the prophet has no right to live. [Crowd chanting in the back: We are the servants of the Prophet. In the servitude of the Prophet we also accept death. Without the Prophet’s love life is in vain.]
(Outrage: The Rise of Religious Offence in Contemporary South Asia, edited by Paul Rollier and others, published in 2019 by UCL Press)
Rajpal had already escaped two attempts on his life when, on an April afternoon in 1929, Ilamdin stabbed him eight times inside his bookshop in Lahore, relenting only when hapless bystanders began flinging books at him.
Executed six months later – his final appeal fought famously by one Muhammad Ali Jinnah – Ilamdin grew into a folk hero of sorts, inspiring popular accounts of his exploits in many formats: film, poetry, prose and what can only be described as fan fiction.
In the 1970s, an unabashedly hagiographic biopic titled Ghazi Ilamdin Shaheed hit cinemas, directed by Rasheed Dogar whose later credits would include the salaciously titled Pyasa Badan, Husn Parast and Madam X. When Shaikh went to watch Ghazi Ilamdin Shaheed, he wept.
Shaikh is something of an authority on Ilamdin. He wrote an extensive account of the young vigilante’s life, tracking down his family home in Lahore’s Mohalla Sirian Wala. Originally named after the siris (slaughtered animals’ heads) sold there, it was later rechristened Mohalla Sarfaroshan to commemorate Ilamdin’s bravery.
He recounts meeting Ilamdin’s bhabhi, sister-in-law, who reportedly cooked sweetened rice to celebrate the assassination of Rajpal. With equal familiarity and fondness, Shaikh lists other men who took the law into their hands: Abdul Rasheed, who stabbed the Arya Samaj missionary and shuddhi (reconversion) advocate Swami Shraddhanand in Delhi in 1926; Abdul Qayyum, who, in 1932, attacked a Hindu leader, Nathu Ram, in Karachi while he was in court on trial over a provocative book on Islam; Mureed Hussain, who murdered a Hindu veterinarian in 1935 in Palwal town of Gurganw district, now in Haryana, India, because he had named a donkey after a beloved Muslim figure.
Shaikh has written books on all of them; he is a bit of an expert on this particular brand of the subcontinental ghazi. But when the conversation turns (inevitably) to Mumtaz Qadri, the security guard who, in January 2011, pumped 28 bullets into Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Punjab at the time, he hesitates, looking troubled.
“If someone were to actually insult the Prophet, I’m afraid even I might not spare him. But Taseer didn’t blaspheme, not really — he only criticised the law.”
Shaikh, whose real name is something else, so wary is he even of musing out loud on this subject, has been thinking about this lately, this creeping expansion of what constitutes blasphemy.
Suppose someone who cannot read, buys food from a street side stall, suppose what he buys is wrapped in newspaper which has the name of the Prophet written on it. If the wrapper is thrown away, wonders Shaikh, if the person who cannot read unthinkingly tosses it into the trash — insult would have occurred, but without intent. Shaikh, whose real name is something else, so wary is he even of musing out loud on this subject, has been thinking about this lately, this creeping expansion of what constitutes blasphemy.
“That isn’t blasphemy,” he says. “Is it?”
[Acts of faith: Why people get killed over blasphemy in Pakistan; by Alizeh Kohari, The Herald monthly (Dawn Media Group), 14 Jul 2019]----------
A book, Rangila Rasul, was published in 1927. The book concerned the marriages and sex life of Muhammad. On the basis of a complaint, the publisher was arrested but later acquitted in April 1929 because there was no law against insult to religion. The publisher was murdered in Court by Ilamdin. As a result, Ilamdin was honored with the honorifics 'Ghazi' and 'Shaheed'.
As the book did not cause enmity or hatred between different religious communities, it didn't violate Section 153(A). The Indian Muslim community demanded a law against insult to religious feelings.
Hence, the British Government enacted Section 295(A).
The Select Committee before enactment of the law, stated in its report that the purpose was to punish persons who indulge in wanton vilification or attacks upon other religions or their religious figures. It however added that a writer might insult a religion to facilitate social reform by grabbing attention. Therefore it recommended that the words with deliberate and malicious intention be inserted in the Section.
(Legislative history of Section 295(A) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) enacted in 1927, Wikipedia)
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Kamlesh Tiwari (died 18 October 2019) was a Hindu nationalist politician who founded the Hindu Samaj Party in 2017.
When Samajwadi Party politician Azam Khan made fun of members of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), suggesting they were homosexuals, Tiwari retaliated by stating that Muhammad was the first homosexual.
Tiwari's comment was considered derogatory by thousands of Indian Muslims who protested and demanded a death penalty for Tiwari. He was arrested, charged under National Security Act, and jailed for a few months by the Uttar Pradesh Police.When Samajwadi Party politician Azam Khan made fun of members of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), suggesting they were homosexuals, Tiwari retaliated by stating that Muhammad was the first homosexual.
In October 2019, he was murdered at his house in Lucknow.
----------THE FATHER of H. Farook, the atheist who was murdered in Coimbatore 10 days ago, allegedly by members of a Muslim radical group, has said that if his son was killed for his views, he too would become an atheist.
(Tamil Nadu youth killed for being an atheist, The Indian Express, Chennai, 27 March 2017)
----------
Hindu temple set on fire in Pakistan over blasphemy
(Reuters, 16 March 2014)
----------
Blasphemy charge against local vet triggers violent anti-Hindu riot in Pakistan
(RT, 28 May 2019)
----------An unruly mob on Sunday ransacked “three temples, a school and multiple houses belonging to the Hindu community” after a principal was accused of blasphemy by a student in Ghotki, Sindh.
The violence took place after a First Information Report was registered against the principal of Sindh Public School which accused him of committing blasphemy. The case was filed under Article 295-C and accused the principal of committing blasphemy on the school’s premises.
Videos showing a frenzied mob venting their anger on a Hindu temple and the Sindh Public School in reaction to the alleged incident of blasphemy were making rounds on social media.
According to reports, houses of Hindu families have also been reportedly attacked, with the mob blocking off roads in the area.
Residents of the area demanded the police to arrest the principal, and issued a call for a shutterdown strike and took to the streets in protest.
Large contingents of law enforcement agencies and paramilitary forces, including Sindh Rangers, were deployed to prevent any untoward incident.
(Ghotki mob runs amok after Hindu principal accused of blasphemy, Pakistan Today, 16 September 2019)Videos showing a frenzied mob venting their anger on a Hindu temple and the Sindh Public School in reaction to the alleged incident of blasphemy were making rounds on social media.
According to reports, houses of Hindu families have also been reportedly attacked, with the mob blocking off roads in the area.
Residents of the area demanded the police to arrest the principal, and issued a call for a shutterdown strike and took to the streets in protest.
Large contingents of law enforcement agencies and paramilitary forces, including Sindh Rangers, were deployed to prevent any untoward incident.
-----------
To present the pinnacle of this demonisation discourse, I want to provide an excerpt of one of Hanif Qureshi’s speeches delivered only a few days before Taseer’s assassination. Hanif Qureshi is a famous na'at singer and Barelvi preacher who had viciously condemned Taseer for his public support of Asia Bibi. Mumtaz Qadri eventually revealed that Qureshi’s engaging sermons incited him to murder the governor. The following speech is an example of how Qureshi conjured hostility against Salman Taseer.
Listen, we are the heirs of Ghazi Murid Hussain Shaheed, we are the heirs of Ghazi Ilmuddin Shaheed, we are the lovers of Ghazi Abdul Qayyum Shaheed’s soul, we are the lovers and followers of Ghazi Abdul Rasheed Shaheed. Don’t you know that we say openly that we are not afraid of anything!
If the law in our country does not call for the death penalty for a blasphemer, for 295-C, then Allah gave us the power that we take the weapons in our own hands. We know how to shoot a gun, or how to cut a blasphemer’s throat. …
Are we Sunnis not able to do this? Remove the cowardice from yourself! Allah has given us so much power and courage. We can strangle the blasphemer, we can cut his tongue, we can dismember his body with bullets. No law can catch us!
The punishment for blasphemy is death! The punishment for blasphemy is death! The punishment for blasphemy is death! Somebody who insults the prophet has no right to live. [Crowd chanting in the back: We are the servants of the Prophet. In the servitude of the Prophet we also accept death. Without the Prophet’s love life is in vain.]
(Outrage: The Rise of Religious Offence in Contemporary South Asia, edited by Paul Rollier and others, published in 2019 by UCL Press)
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