Maximum penalties for those “disrespecting wives, family members and companions of the Prophet”—some of whom are cursed by Shiites—pass from 3 years to life.
by Massimo Introvigne
Last month, Bitter Winter reported that a retired Muslim teacher was arrested in a rare application of Article 298-A of Pakistan’s Criminal Code, at that time punishing with imprisonment up to three years those who offended “the Prophet’s wives, family, close companions and the Righteous Caliphs.” The teacher, who denied all charges, was accused of having posted on social media material disrespectful of the Prophet’s companions.
It looked like little more than a curiosity, but it seems it was a test case and a way of fabricating evidence that the problem of disrespect towards those close to the Prophet is a serious one in Pakistan.
In June, Bitter Winter reported that, to appease the extremist Sunni movement Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, whose protests were disrupting the country, the government promised to toughen the laws against blasphemy.
Complying with that promise, the government has now amended Article 298-A, which mentioned a penalty from one month to three years in jail, changing it from a minimum of ten years to life imprisonment, plus a fine of one million rupees.
Some may believe that the crime punished by Article 298-A will remain rare. However, Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan is an anti-Shia movement, and Article 298-A can be easily applied against Shiites, in whose literature one can find curses against Aisha, the third and youngest wife of Muhammad, for her role in denying that Ali was the legitimate successor of the Prophet, a foundational claim for the Shia community, and against those companions of the Prophet who sided against Ali. Shiites, or at least some of them, will thus risk life imprisonment for maintaining their traditional negative view of Aisha and other historical characters.
Paradoxically, some Sunni Muslims may also risk being incriminated under Article 298-A, something that already happened in the past, for their criticism of Prophet Muhammad’s daughter Fatimah, who was the wife of Ali and supported his claims.
Massimo Introvigne (born June 14, 1955 in Rome) is an Italian sociologist of religions. He is the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), an international network of scholars who study new religious movements. Introvigne is the author of some 70 books and more than 100 articles in the field of sociology of religion. He was the main author of the Enciclopedia delle religioni in Italia (Encyclopedia of Religions in Italy). He is a member of the editorial board for the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion and of the executive board of University of California Press’ Nova Religio. From January 5 to December 31, 2011, he has served as the “Representative on combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination, with a special focus on discrimination against Christians and members of other religions” of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). From 2012 to 2015 he served as chairperson of the Observatory of Religious Liberty, instituted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to monitor problems of religious liberty on a worldwide scale.
