Are we letting ourselves to be fooled by our 'religion'!

On 4^th of April, the media all over the world had a gala time over the coverage of the misery of the 17 year girl, who was publicly flogged for no crime of hers as per the human right. But there seemed to be a grave crime that had been committed by that girl as per the interpretation of those religious fanatics that control the very area of northern Pakistan and Afghanistan. For a few religious fanatics it was a punishment given to the girl for going against the tenet of ‘sharia’ (religious law) and thus a just punishment but for majority of the Muslims, this video was a shame perpetuated in the name of Islam For many people who are neutral it was a human misery and for the Islamophobic people around the world it was a great deal of entertainment in showing the ‘evil of Islam’.

The religious fanatics who are now gradually taking over the control of the religion in Pakistan, have completely made a fool of Islam in this very first week of April, which is celebrated all around the world as “Fool’s Day”! Even the so called Islamic religious heads (most of them) in Pakistan, have shown that they are hand in glove with those fanatics by not coming out strongly against and condemning this injustice matted out in the name of Islam.

The girl’s only ‘crime’ had been to go out of the house with a man who was not her husband or brother or father usually called ‘mehram’. Is this public humiliation of the girl justified?   What sanction does the ‘sharia’ give? Can anyone among the public give the punishment without the approval of the law of the land? Shall we, the silent majority that believes in the religion of Islam and follows it, let our religion be hijacked by these fanatics, who do not seem to know the basic teachings of Islam also? 

To differentiate whether this sadist behavior is sanctioned by Islam or these tribal fanatics are imposing their tribal customs and traditions on to Islam by giving it Islamic name of ‘sharia’, there are lots of questions that need to be asked and answers sought from these fanatics.

As per the media report the man in question was her father-in-law, which is actually a ‘mehram’ as per Islamic laws till her husband is alive. Let us presume that the man was not her father-in-law but some other man whom she knew. So what was the basis of giving this punishment? As per Qur’an injunctions, there is no punishment for going out with anyone, the only condition is being modestly dressed and having an outer garment (‘hijab’) worn by the women (though the later condition is still in debate among religious scholars). Only punishment assigned is for ‘zina’ (fornication and adultery) (Qur’an 24:2). The saying rightly goes, ‘having half knowledge is more dangerous than being fully ignorant’. This seems to be the case of these religious fanatics, they know that there is punishment of flogging in Islam, but they do not seem to know that there is also punishment on ‘accusing a chaste women’ (Qur’an 24:4). So what punishment should be given to those who were making a mockery out of the whole system of punishment as per ‘Islamic’ custom?

So we come to the next question, where did these fanatics get the injunction to flog the girl for going out? As per the mere knowledge of the writer of this article, there is prohibition on meeting with people who are not ‘mehram’ behind closed walls (alone) but never in public places when you are following all the dictum of modesty. Even the ‘Hadith’, saying of the prophets will not support the injustice they carried out as per their tribal law and gave it the name of Islam. Please let these fanatics enlighten us with their basis on which they were making mockery of Islam.

So let us even give them the benefit of doubt and presume that they can prove from some texts of the vast collection of ‘Hadith’ not taking the holistic view. The next question comes, who gave them the authority to give out the judgment.  They should know that only an established Islamic state which has sanctioned a religious court can grant this punishment. Didn’t they know that the Prophet had asked the people, whom he had directed to go to the Christian Kingdom of modern day Ethiopia to escape the prosecution of the people of Mecca, to follow the law of the land. So here, these fanatics are duty bound by the law of Pakistan and its constitution.  Now these people can claim that Pakistan’s president has ceded and accepted to establish the ‘sharia’ in Swat. But has it been established yet? Has the ‘qazi’ (judge) been appointed and accepted to hold the court?

Further to this, the main contention for doling out the punishment is that the girl was with a person who was not her ‘mehram’. Acceptable, as we have no facts. So, my question is, were the people who were touching her, who were holding her legs and arms and lifting her ‘hijab’ to lash her with punishment? Where did the question of ‘mehram’ now go? Why didn’t these contractors of religion flog these men for touching a girl who was not her ‘mehram’ or the man who was caught with her? Why this two scale of judgment? Doesn’t this show these religious hypocrites are biased towards our sisters and mothers? Alas!