Library Catalog
Amazon cover image
Image from Amazon.com

Pakistan’s Blasphemy Laws : From Islamic Empires to the Taliban / Shemeem Burney Abbas.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Austin : University of Texas Press, [2021]Copyright date: ©2013Description: 1 online resource (222 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780292745315
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 200.9 22/ger
LOC classification:
  • KPL4172
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources:
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface: the ethnography of a military state -- Acknowledgments -- Chapter 1 Pakistan’s military state and civil society -- Chapter 2 Muhammad, the messenger -- Chapter 3 Blasphemy laws’ evolution -- Chapter 4 Colonial origins, ambiguities, and execution of the blasphemy laws -- Chapter 5 Risky knowledge, perilous times: history’s martyr Mansur Hallaj -- Chapter 6 Blasphemy cultures and Islamic empires -- Conclusion. The affiliates: where to? -- Appendix 1. Fieldwork -- Appendix 2. Text of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws -- Appendix 3. A statement by the Asian human rights commission -- Appendix 4. The Hudood ordinance; Qanun-e shahadat or the law of evidence -- Appendix 5. Fate of a teacher accused of blasphemy to be decided today -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
Summary: Under the guise of Islamic law, the prophet Muhammad’s Islam, and the Qur’an, states such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Bangladesh are using blasphemy laws to suppress freedom of speech. Yet the Prophet never tried or executed anyone for blasphemy, nor does the Qur’an authorize the practice. Asserting that blasphemy laws are neither Islamic nor Qur‘anic, Shemeem Burney Abbas traces the evolution of these laws from the Islamic empires that followed the death of the Prophet Muhammad to the present-day Taliban. Her pathfinding study on the shari’a and gender demonstrates that Pakistan’s blasphemy laws are the inventions of a military state that manipulates discourse in the name of Islam to exclude minorities, women, free thinkers, and even children from the rights of citizenship. Abbas herself was persecuted under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, so she writes from both personal experience and years of scholarly study. Her analysis exposes the questionable motives behind Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, which were resurrected during General Zia-ul-Haq’s regime of 1977–1988—motives that encompassed gaining geopolitical control of the region, including Afghanistan, in order to weaken the Soviet Union. Abbas argues that these laws created a state-sponsored “infidel” ideology that now affects global security as militant groups such as the Taliban justify violence against all “infidels” who do not subscribe to their interpretation of Islam. She builds a strong case for the suspension of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws and for a return to the Prophet’s peaceful vision of social justice.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9780292745315

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface: the ethnography of a military state -- Acknowledgments -- Chapter 1 Pakistan’s military state and civil society -- Chapter 2 Muhammad, the messenger -- Chapter 3 Blasphemy laws’ evolution -- Chapter 4 Colonial origins, ambiguities, and execution of the blasphemy laws -- Chapter 5 Risky knowledge, perilous times: history’s martyr Mansur Hallaj -- Chapter 6 Blasphemy cultures and Islamic empires -- Conclusion. The affiliates: where to? -- Appendix 1. Fieldwork -- Appendix 2. Text of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws -- Appendix 3. A statement by the Asian human rights commission -- Appendix 4. The Hudood ordinance; Qanun-e shahadat or the law of evidence -- Appendix 5. Fate of a teacher accused of blasphemy to be decided today -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

Under the guise of Islamic law, the prophet Muhammad’s Islam, and the Qur’an, states such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Bangladesh are using blasphemy laws to suppress freedom of speech. Yet the Prophet never tried or executed anyone for blasphemy, nor does the Qur’an authorize the practice. Asserting that blasphemy laws are neither Islamic nor Qur‘anic, Shemeem Burney Abbas traces the evolution of these laws from the Islamic empires that followed the death of the Prophet Muhammad to the present-day Taliban. Her pathfinding study on the shari’a and gender demonstrates that Pakistan’s blasphemy laws are the inventions of a military state that manipulates discourse in the name of Islam to exclude minorities, women, free thinkers, and even children from the rights of citizenship. Abbas herself was persecuted under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, so she writes from both personal experience and years of scholarly study. Her analysis exposes the questionable motives behind Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, which were resurrected during General Zia-ul-Haq’s regime of 1977–1988—motives that encompassed gaining geopolitical control of the region, including Afghanistan, in order to weaken the Soviet Union. Abbas argues that these laws created a state-sponsored “infidel” ideology that now affects global security as militant groups such as the Taliban justify violence against all “infidels” who do not subscribe to their interpretation of Islam. She builds a strong case for the suspension of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws and for a return to the Prophet’s peaceful vision of social justice.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 26. Apr 2022)