Pakistan: Another victim of blasphemy accusation

There are times when one is reminded of how brutal and inhumane a society we have become. The latest murder in a long series of such cruelties is that of Muhammad Shakil Auj, a liberal religious scholar who was also the dean of Islamic Studies in the University of Karachi. He was gunned down on Thursday by the all too familiar 'unidentified' motorcyclists who have, unsurprisingly, escaped. The news of the murder of Professor Auj has been received like a kick in the gut by all sane Pakistanis who are appalled that a man of such high esteem could be done away with in so coldblooded a manner. Mr Auj was, it turns out, in fear for his life as he had been accused by four other professors working in the same university of having made blasphemous remarks during a speech he delivered in the US in 2012. His fears have come tragically true but his death is by no means the first of its kind and, unfortunately, it will probably not be the last.

That is because we live in a country where a rabid kind of fanaticism has been allowed to fester and grow, right into the rotting heart of the system. The blasphemy laws of this country have seen many innocent men and women suffer unimaginable atrocities because there exist no safeguards for their protection and vindication. If one is accused of having committed blasphemy, it is as good as a death sentence. The crazed lynch mobs that are easily flared up as soon as a blasphemy accusation makes its way out of the woodwork have shown their ghastly work when they burn down entire residential colonies targeting members of a minority community and when they shoot down people who have done no one any harm, on a mere hunch. Even those who stand up for the rights of those unjustly accused are killed as was Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer and Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti. The growing religiosity in our society has turned into a bloody shade of fanaticism where one is guilty until proven innocent of blasphemy, for which the accused never are given a chance.

It has become obvious that any talk of repealing the black blasphemy laws will stir up a hornets’ nest. We are so helplessly afraid of the extremism shaping our society that we hesitate even to inculcate any safeguards in the blasphemy laws to protect those falsely accused, including the minorities who are often the victims. Those who wrongfully accuse must be dealt with harshly and mobs and those who take the law into their own hands must be administered swift punishment. This genocide in the name of blasphemy must stop.