ANALYSIS: Remembering John Joseph —Rafia Zakaria

Pakistanis seem to have settled for the myth that any law in their books calling itself “Islamic” is automatically worthy of the title. In this instance, the Blasphemy law contained in the PPC accomplishes the most salacious ruse on our self-image as a piteous nation

On May 6, 1998 Bishop John Joseph, the first Punjabi Roman Catholic priest and bishop, shot himself to death in front of the Sessions Court in Sahiwal. His death was a protest against the infamous blasphemy laws included in the Pakistan Penal Code that have made life miserable and precarious for religious minorities in the country.A few years earlier, at the funeral of Manzur Masih, Bishop John Joseph had kissed the feet of the poor labourer’s corpse and vowed that he would be the next person to die at the hands of the draconian blasphemy law. Manzur Masih was already dead, having been shot by those who had accused him of blasphemy.

In the days prior to his suicide, Bishop John Joseph was helping put together an appeal for yet another poor Christian who was being persecuted under the Blasphemy law. Ayub Masih, an illiterate Christian, was accused of praising Salman Rushdie’s book The Satanic Verses and sentenced to death. Bishop John Joseph was appealing his death sentence before the Lahore Sessions Court when he chose to end his life to bring attention to the ignominy of Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code.And yet, despite the dramatic death of a promising Christian leader and the persecution of hundreds of Christians and Muslims at the behest of a vague and crudely-written law, nothing has been done by parliaments present and past to repeal it.

The brutal killings in Gojra and the avalanche of barbarity and hatred with which a mob watched as innocent children as young as two years old died in their beds is yet another episode in the ignored plight of Pakistan’s minorities.

In the past year alone, scores of Pakistanis, including an eye doctor and his wife among others, have had to either flee the country or face charges of blasphemy at the hands of those who choose to avenge a vendetta by amassing a mob and drawing on misguided religious fervour. Accuse anyone of blasphemy, it seems, and one is guaranteed a supportive crowd of bloodthirsty avengers willing to kill even small children in the supposed name of faith.

The slew of Blasphemy laws contained in the Pakistan Penal Code is despicable not because the intent to protect the sanctity of our holy books and our faith is wrong. Indeed, blasphemy laws have existed since early medieval times in both eastern and Western societies. The perfidy of these particular blasphemy laws is that their poor construction essentially gives a blank cheque to the state and religious zealots.

Take for instance the fact that unlike any other crime, the construction of these laws removed any requirement that necessitates that the prosecution prove “intent” to commit the crime of blasphemy. The dismal result is that even “insinuation” of anything desecrating the Holy Prophet (PBUH) or the Holy Quran is punishable by death; the fact is that even an unintentional insinuation can lead to a death sentence. If this is not terrifying enough, the established precedent of cases tried under 295-C has allowed such convictions even when only a single witness is presented to corroborate the story. In other words, one man’s lie can legally take another man’s life.

If the Pakistani public was truly able to read the Holy Quran and understand it, it would also note another tragic inadequacy of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. Nearly all the verses in the Holy Quran that address the crime of blasphemy treat the issue as a spiritual matter requiring existential repentance by the individual believer. In its status as our Divine spiritual text the Holy Quran also promises punishment in the afterlife and on the Day of Judgment for those that commit such crimes against the Oneness of God. There is however no correlation between the Quranic treatment of blasphemy and the positioning of blasphemy in the PPC as a crime that has no requirements of proof of intent and places all discretion in a state-appointed judge who arbitrarily decides the fate of the accused.

Bishop John Joseph died nearly eleven years ago. His memory and the memory of hundreds of others killed by similar mobs and under dubious circumstances make only transient marks on the memory of the Pakistani public. Unable to truly grapple with the role of religion in state functions, Pakistanis seem to have settled for the myth that any law in their books calling itself “Islamic” is automatically worthy of the title. In this instance, the blasphemy law contained in the PPC accomplishes the most salacious ruse on our self-image as a piteous nation.How could a law aiming to protect the sanctity of that which is most dear to us possibly be wrong? This question has and continues to stump Pakistanis and forces them into a trance that allows dictators and power-drunk rulers to force supposedly “Islamic” laws down the throats of an anaesthetised public.

The task becomes even easier when those persecuted under these laws are already the poorest and, unfortunately, most reviled members of our society. There is no Muslim in the world who would question that the core principles of Islam comprise mercy and justice. Yet, we forget both of these when evaluating our laws. It is true that discrimination exists everywhere in the world, but when it is given the legitimacy and support of a legal system it becomes the shame not of a few but of an entire society that allows it to exist.Empathy is rare in today’s Pakistan and it is difficult to find anyone who will shed a tear for a Bishop who died trying to draw attention to the hapless condition of a group of people who stand to be persecuted at the behest of those who are prepared to lie and kill in the name of religion. Entrapped in the circuitous logic that anything affixed with the label of faith must indeed be deserving of it, our moral and spiritual paralysis has led to yet another cataclysm which we, in our seemingly infinite apathy, will undoubtedly forget very soon. Rafia Zakaria is an attorney living in the United States where she teaches courses on Constitutional Law and Political Philosophy. She can be contacted at rafia.zakaria@gmail.com

(Daily Times)