Affection for the Prophet more than for life itself
The plight of the Pakistani Christian woman known as Asia Bibi has attracted much attention and comment in Australia since the unanimous judgment announced on 31 October 2018 by a three-judge panel of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. The court set aside her conviction in November 2010 for blasphemy, and acquitted her of the charge.
By contrast, the English language version of the court’s reasons, which can be read online, has excited little consideration here. This is unfortunate. The reasons set out the central role of blasphemy in Islam and why it is punishable by death. Australians should be encouraged to read the reasons. It will enable them to form and express their opinions in the ongoing public debate about the scope of the unique politico-religious claims made by Islam. That uniqueness supplies an internal, albeit grim, logic underpinning Islam’s life-controlling proscriptions and prescriptions.
The Supreme Court states that anything which in any way attacks any aspect of the Prophet’s sacred life, infuriates Muslims to an intolerable limit, resulting in extremely serious law and order situations, with grievous, disastrous consequences. The Prophet’s followers have immense love, admiration and affection for him, more than their own lives or the lives of their parents and children. No one can be allowed to defy the name of the Prophet nor can a person guilty of disrespecting the Prophet be let off scot-free.
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The Supreme Court of Pakistan’s assessment that blasphemy infuriates Muslims across the globe to an intolerable limit was demonstrated in the violence of protesters in Sydney’s Hyde Park in late 2012 which was prompted by the film Innocence of Muslims. Their fury was further evident in the preparedness of some participating adults to parade children, at least one of them obviously below school age, holding aloft signs which contained the exhortation ‘BEHEAD THOSE WHO INSULT THE PROPHET’.
On 11 December 2018 Justice Bellew of the Supreme Court of New South Wales sentenced a man who had been convicted of doing acts in preparation for, or planning, a terrorist act or acts to sixteen years’ imprisonment.