On October 9, 2012 2012 Malala Yusufzai, a 14 year old school girl was
shot by the Pakistan Taliban for promoting education for girls. On September 16
six persons were killed and a police station at Masuri near Ghaziabad torched
because some pages of the Quran were allegedly desecrated. On September 9, The
US ambassador to Libya was incinerated in a rocket attack by Muslim extremists
enraged by reports about an amateur film allegedly insulting The Prophet produced
by a Coptic Christian of Israeli nationality.
Few people know that such terrible crimes against humanity are
not allowed in the Quran or Hadis (that was composed some two hundred years
later). These, the most sacred sources of Islamic law, say very little about
blasphemy, heresy or sacrilege that seems to so easily inflame Muslim anger
today. Few therefore dare to question the scriptural authority that the Muslim
clerics must have to so readily pronounce their death sentences. Surprisingly such
actions are completely against the words of The Prophet who had very clearly
said… “anyone who sets another… even an ant… on fire commits the greatest sin
and is destined to the fires of Hell”. The Quran also expressly forbids an
attack on anyone who has offered no offence… to kill women and children… to
torture or take hostages and to commit suicide.
The Quran did not actually contain any comprehensive legal
code and most of the legal injunctions were basically to regularize pre-Islamic
tribal customs. The early sharia (Islamic law) was customary (urf) and only
about 80 Quranic verses have any legal content concerning customary rules,
crimes, polygamy, divorce and rights of inheritance, giving women a formal
legal status, etc. After the death of Muhammad in 632 CE, Islamic polity changed
fundamentally. The civil and religious order expanded beyond the borders of the
Arabia to create a huge Arab-Islamic imperial caliphate. A highly complex,
imperial Muslim society developed that was an amalgam of many cultures and
customs, with new legal authorities like the qazi or judge who was a representative
of a local governor. They soon became involved with complex legal matters and
to even oversee the functions of the police, taxes and the status of non-Muslim
subjects.
As Islam became an urban movement it became difficult for the caliphs to
administer their complex, multi-cultural realms without mosques, centers of
learning, bureaucracies and other
institutions essential for the governance of the empire. Islamic law had to
evolve continuously with the changing social and economic pressures during the
period of the Ummayids, Abbasids, the Caliphs of Cordoba, the Seljuks, Turks
and finally during the years of decline after the rise of European nations.
The main source of Islamic authority was clearly the Quran
and Hadis but it seems clear that many new laws were derived from the Jewish
Torah (Tawraat) that was later included into the 104 holy books of Islam. One
of its five books is the book of Leviticus that covers Jewish law. This book,
belonging to a very ancient era when the small bands of Jews were severely
oppressed lists all `The Lord’s’ laws with very harsh rules and prohibitions concerning
circumcision, food, suppression of women and lists draconian punishments with
death by stoning, burning, strangulation and beheading for a long list of
offences including adultery, worshiping other gods, blasphemy, witchcraft,
homosexuality, bestiality, etc. Death even for breaking the Sabbath,
prophesying falsely, having a stubborn or rebellious son, and many other sins. By
contrast to Yahweh, the angry god of the Jews, the Allah of Muhammad was a
merciful god and Muhammad usually advocated atonement for sins. Some scholars
believe that many Jews who had converted to the triumphant Islam and were probably
responsible for fusing Jewish laws into the evolving Islamic tradition after
the 10th century.
This may explain why the laws of The Prophet and the laws of
the later Islamic clerics are so very different. Muhammad had, for instance, prescribed
one hundred lashes for a woman who committed adultery which was much milder
than stoning her to death as was the later practice. Similarly the Jewish laws
regarding blasphemy, heresy and apostasy, not found in the Quran, are now readily
pronounced even by small town clerics. These bigoted mullas do not also seem to
understand that these ancient Jewish laws can so easily be used by the enemies
of Islam to cause death and disturbance among Muslims with just a few deliberate
cartoons, clumsy videos or by mocking some holy text. Paradoxically, Abd Al
Wahhab, the founder of the ultra orthodox Wahhabia movement, had personally led
the desecration of The Prophet’s tomb in Madina as they did not believe in reverence
for tombs.
No religion should ever be insulted but to moderate the
impact of extremists and the injustices that misguided Muslims can inflict on
innocent bystanders it is now necessary to educate the Muslim masses, who are
taught to memorize the Quran in Arabic, a language they do not understand,
making them vulnerable to bigots who give their own distorted interpretations. For
the peace of the world every nation with a Muslim population should get their
leading Islamic scholars to use the huge power of TV and other modern media to
tell them to listen to the words of their holy prophet and not to the draconian
injunctions of a very repressive Jewish law.
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