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Recent reports that the Sultan of Brunei plans to introduce the death penalty for blasphemy as part of his country’s Shariah code is a cause for concern and should be opposed by all right thinking people. Although it is generally agreed by Islamic scholars that the punishment for insulting the Prophet is death, there is a provision for repentance as in apostasy, where if the offender repents after his or her deed, he or she is not to be punished. This is based on a precedent set by the Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) himself. If there is no such provision for repentance such a harsh law should simply not be imposed. If it does, it will only lead to extremism and acts of injustice as we see in Pakistan today.
Pakistan’s blasphemy laws introduced by its dictator Zia Ul Haq in 1986 mandates death without any opportunity given for the offender to repent for “Use of derogatory remarks etc in respect of the holy Prophet (PBUH) by word, either spoken or written. Or by visible representation, or by importation, innuendo or insinuation, directly or indirectly, defiling the sacred name of the holy Prophet (PBUH)”. Never has such a harsh law ever been seen in the history of mankind. And not just that, it put Pakistan on the road to non-return, breeding a most maddening kind of extremism with suicide bombings and killings of innocents being the order of the day. This hateful law showed no mercy and the entire nation became a hateful one. Its hate spilled into every level of Pakistani society and corrupted it. Pakistan suffers to this day because of it. There is a well known saying of the Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) which Zia and his coterie lost sight of when they imposed this draconian piece of law: “Show Mercy to those on Earth and the One in Heaven will show Mercy to you” (Abu Dawud).
We ask is Sultan Bolkiah trying to do one better than Zia and make his country another failed state like Pakistan? Muslims must always be concerned about the good image of their faith and do everything in their power to protect this image. Showing that Islam is a harsh religion only does it a great disservice and anybody who does so cannot be a friend of Islam, but rather a great enemy of Islam. If the Sultan is indeed truly concerned about Islam, he will desist from implementing such a blasphemous law, for what can be a greater blasphemy against Islam than such harsh and unreasonable laws. As the Qur’an says: "And if you punish, let your punishment be proportionate to the wrong that has been done to you; but if you show patience, that is indeed the best course (Qur'an 16:126). Reading an account of how Zia died, it struck me what a hypocrite the man was, consorting with the greatest enemies of Islam in his time – the US military. Yes, Zia was an American puppet. And guess how he died. Well, you see his plane blew up one fine day in August, 1988. It just didn’t kill him. Killed along with him were the American ambassador to Pakistan Arnold Raphel and the head of the US military mission General Herbert M. Wassom. Here was a man who portrayed himself as a hero of Islam and had to die an ignoble death among the enemies of his faith.
We ask does Sultan Bolkiah aspire to be another Zia, to be cursed by his countrymen for generations to come, for taking his prosperous country into the dark ages from which it will never be able to extricate itself.
In conclusion let us see how the Qur’an, the very Word of God, advices us to deal with those who blaspheme our faith: "When ye hear the signs of Allah held in defiance and ridicule, ye are not to sit with them unless they turn to a different theme." (Qur'an 4:140).
