With growing hatred and religious intolerance, incidents of disrespect towards holy books are on the rise. The recent display of repeated Qur’ān burning incidents in Sweden have once again sparked debate on Blasphemy laws and its implementation.
On July 21, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, “Disrespect for holy books and places of worship is “unacceptable,” in response to the desecration of the Qur’ān in Sweden.
“What we need is mutual respect. I think we’ve been very clear that the desecration of holy books, the desecration of places of worship is unacceptable,” he said at a press briefing.
Even in countries where freedom overshadows the concept of religion, where there are no Blasphemy laws, morally and humanely it should be incumbent for the civilized people to respect holy books of all religions and faiths. The United Nations should persuade the people of the world to respect Holy Books and set an example of tolerant society for world peace.
Recently the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) strongly condemned the burning of the holy Qur’ān in Sweden and called for collective measures to prevent the recurrence of such provocative acts.
OIC member countries were also asked to make “collective efforts against vile acts” targeting the Qur’ān and other symbols of Islam, emphasising that exercising freedom of expression also entails responsibilities along with certain rights. OIC also called for expediting the process of implementation of the Plan of Action for Combating Islamophobia which was adopted at the 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly.
According to Pew Research Centre, 79 countries and territories out of the 198 studied around the world (40%) had laws or policies in 2019 banning blasphemy, which is defined as speech or actions considered to be contemptuous of God or of people or objects considered sacred. Twenty-two countries (11%) had laws against apostasy, the act of abandoning one’s faith. The analysis draws on the Centre’s wider body of research on global restrictions related to religion.
These laws were most common in the Middle East and North Africa, where 18 of the 20 countries (90%) in the region have laws criminalising blasphemy and 13 of them (65%) outlaw apostasy. In Saudi Arabia, an Indian national was charged with blasphemy in 2019, fined, and sentenced to 10 years in prison for tweeting criticism of Muhammad ﷺand Allah, as well as of the Saudi government.
In January this year, the high representative of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations condemned the burning of the Muslim holy book by a Swedish-Danish far-right politician as a “vile act”.
“While the High Representative stresses the importance of upholding the freedom of expression as a fundamental human right, he also emphasises that the act of Qur’ān-burning amounts to an expression of hatred towards Muslims,” a spokesperson for Miguel Angel Moratinos said in a statement.
According to Associated Press on July 12, “The UN’s top human rights body overwhelmingly approved a measure calling on countries to do more to prevent religious hatred in the wake of Qur’ān burnings in Europe, over the objections of Western countries who fear tougher steps by governments could trample freedom of expression.”
Applause broke out in the cavernous chamber of the Human Rights Council after the 28-12 vote, with seven abstentions, on a measure brought by Pakistan and Palestine that was backed by many developing countries in Africa, as well as China and India, and Middle Eastern countries.
There are 71 countries that have criminalised blasphemy, of which 32 are majority Muslim. Punishment and enforcement of these laws vary. Blasphemy is punishable by death in Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Brunei, Mauritania and Saudi Arabia.
According to Dr Syed Ali Mujtaba, a veteran journalist and Head of the Department of Visual Communication, Gurunanak College and commentator on foreign affairs, “Blasphemy laws cannot be uniformly applied to the entire world because the world is clear cut divided into two different segments like oriental and occidental societies. Occidental societies include Western Europe, America, North America. They all come under Occidental societies and free society. They have evolved a society which has all kinds of freedom including disrespect to their own religion and other religions. In those countries Blasphemy laws cannot work. Blasphemy laws can only work where there is dominance of religion because a majority of the people are of one religion. The conclusion is the societies have to evolve their own code of conduct.
“On the question of Blasphemy law, India is part of the larger Oriental societies which do not want any disrespect to any religion and it voted in support of the resolution for Blasphemy laws by Pakistan at UN. Blasphemy laws can be applicable to Oriental societies where the society is deeply religious. But in Occidental societies religion has very little to play and therefore Blasphemy laws will not work there.”
John Dayal, noted social and human rights activist said there are Blasphemy laws in India and many countries of the world but the point is it is not being implemented accordingly. He argued what is the use of such laws when it is not implemented.
“Respect is a key term for the understanding of human rights in general and for freedom of religion or belief. In the human rights framework, respect always relates to human beings, as evidenced in the opening sentence of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which proclaims the ‘recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family.’ Moreover, as in the Preamble to International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights specifically mentions “the inherent dignity” of human beings, which is apparently considered an absolute moral axiom, said Dr. Abul Hassaan, Associate Professor of Financial Economics, KFUPM Business School, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran 31261, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
“Blasphemy entails the irreverent or outrageous treatment not of a religion, but of those matters that a religion holds sacred. Necessarily, therefore, any ‘harm’ which blasphemy causes to religious devotees must be in the form of hurt to religious sensitivities and consequent anger and upset. Religious beliefs may be deeply held and faith-based, a matter of both identity and judgment is taken seriously,” said Dr. Hassaan.
“In other words, people who defend this position may hold for example that the Prophets of three monolithic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) as well as scriptures oftheir Holy Books considered sacred, should be qualified, where ‘considered’ should be interpreted as ‘commonly considered’ rather than as ‘individually considered’, since ‘sacred’ would otherwise arguably have no meaning,” he said.
“Hence there is requirement in adopting national/international level blasphemy laws protecting what are traditionally considered ‘sacred’ when a few people or organisations are committing blasphemy intentionally disturbing the mind of religious community particularly Muslims. On the other hand, it must be stressed that implementing a common standard code of conduct against blasphemy whileblatantly provoking orcreating hatred againstany‘religion’ or their Prophets has important consequences unlessspecial protection is accorded to religious elements in the form of blasphemy laws,” said Dr Hassaan..
“The disrespect of anything is a very negative trait. This would never be recommended by any sane person. We find rise in the incidents of disrespect for holy books recently due to negative traits on the rise. Social media, negative publicity, non-verified viral pictures and videos. All of them are targeting the good and the surviving.For now the whole world is focused on eliminating the good virtues and fuelling the bad ones,” said Sajid Nomani.
Nomani added, “The recent incident in Sweden is an example of people getting less tolerant of good things. They don’t have the guts to face the righteous person hence they have taken to the incorrect method of disrespecting the holy book. We have to be tolerant and disrespecting anyone or anything shows our true face. It’s high time that we should rise against hatred and save ourselves and the future generations fromthe wrath of demon which would surely engulf peace in times to come.”