Another case of alleged blasphemy

KARACHI: Waseem Shahzad, a resident of Malir, is in deep trouble. Not only has he been accused of ‘blasphemy’, he has also been declared ‘wajibul qatl’ (deserving to be killed) by an organisation called Muhibaan-e-Quran Pakistan.
According to the organisation’s spokesperson, Ghulam Rasool Khilji, issuing death threats is every Muslim’s duty when confronted with alleged blasphemy. “We’re not religious extremists,” Khilji insisted repeatedly. “As a Muslim, wouldn’t you be offended by Shahzad’s actions? Why wouldn’t you be offended?”
Shahzad’s ‘crime’, meanwhile, according to a press release issued by the organisation, is that he allegedly set fire to pages from the holy Quran on the roof of his house in Malir. During a conversation later, Khilji added to these charges by saying that Shahzad and his friends were actually having a party on the roof of his 80-yard house, where they built a bonfire by burning paper, including pages from the holy Quran.
“We got to know about this because one of our leaders, also named Ghulam Rasool, lives in the same area, a couple of houses down from Shahzad,” he said. “On the night of October 13, he heard a commotion in the gulee, and came out of his house. Shahzad’s neighbours were accusing him of desecrating the holy Quran, and Ghulam Rasool also saw burnt pages around his house and on the roof.”
Shahzad, meanwhile, is in hiding along with the rest of his family. “He is accursed and ‘wajibul qatl’; he cannot be forgiven under any circumstances; and if he is not arrested and punished immediately, we will punish him on their own,” according to the organisation, which has been organising demonstrations calling for Shahzad’s arrest and punishment.
During one such protest, Muhibaan-e-Quran Pakistan chief Qari Waheedur Rehman said that after Shahzad made a run for it with his family, residents of the area when to their local MPA, Muhammad Sajid Jokhio, who also holds the Zakat and Ushr portfolio. While Jokhio said that he was already aware of the incident and had “investigated it thoroughly”, during the meeting, he was also provided with Shahzad’s complete details, including his CNIC number. Jokhio assured participants of the meeting that Shahzad will be arrested soon and given exemplary punishment.
“Despite the passage of several weeks, however, officials concerned have failed to trace Shahzad. We are hopeful that being a Muslim, Jokhio and other officials concerned have found Shahzad’s actions as hurtful as any other Muslim. The purpose of our repeated demonstrations is to ensure that this incident is not swept under the carpet, because if that happens, Muslim citizens will be forced to punish Shahzad independently in accordance with the Quran and Sunnah,” Khilji said.
He conceded, however, that members of the organisation, which was reportedly set up in 1998, were neither qualified nor authorised to issue fatwas of this sort. “We are all ordinary Muslims,” he said, adding that he was not trained in religion.
“We run a school – not a madressah – in Malir, and another school is under-construction in Surjani Town. We are not fundamentalists, but according to the Quran and Sunnah, it is every Muslim’s duty to call for punishment for blasphemers. If the state doesn’t do it, we have to fulfil our own responsibility.” Scholars of religion, however, disagree with Khilji and his organisation’s stance.
“The proper method for discarding pages of an old copy of the holy Quran is to either throw it into the sea or bury it.”