Matters arising: Kano musician and the law against blasphemy

By Rasheed Abubakar

I have searched for Sharrif Yahaya-Aminu’s controversial song online but found none. However, the mind boggling question I ask myself as I keep on surfing the net is; What kind of obsession will make a Muslim eulogise a fellow man just because he is his beloved Sheikh, over Prophet Muhammad (SAW), who Allah described as a mercy to mankind (Qur’an 21: 107)?

It is the highest level of extremism which must be condemned by all Muslims, irrespective of their ideological inclination. Little wonder the accused person, aged 22 (some reports say he is 30), didn’t deny the charge against him while standing before the Khadi (the judge) of the Upper Shariah court in Kano! So, why the fuss?

The accused person was sentenced by the competent court in line with the Shari’a Islamic law, as entrenched in the Nigerian constitution. Luckily for him, the law gives him the opportunity to appeal the judgement within 30-day. What else do the critics want? That every Tom, Dick and Harry be allowed to insult or belittle the personality of the best of mankind in a slovenly manner all in the name of freedom? Does freedom not have limitations? Blasphemy against Prophet Muhammad (SAW) is like insulting Islam and denigrating the entire Muslims.

The law has taken its course. Whoever isn’t pleased with it should appeal on his behalf. He might be lucky to be pardoned especially now that he has realised the magnanimity of the offence committed so as to serve as a deterrent.

Extra judicial killings

However, it would have been another unfortunate and sad scenario if the people, I mean, Kano Muslims had taken laws into their hands. We are people guided by law, hence, no one has the right to kill a soul for whatever reason, except by the competent court. The era of extra judicial killings all in the name of blasphemy, are gone. Those accused should be brought to the court with evidence; which is exactly what happened in the case of this singer, even though, reports said his family house was burnt by protesters. That’s bad though, bringing him to face the law is highly commended.

So why the fuss, I ask again? I strongly urge the State and security agent to protect the suspect to avoid the repetition of what happened in Pakistan, where an American, Tahir Naseem, standing trial for a similar offence, was shot and killed inside a courtroom, late last month (July 29).

The agents of hate

Of course, News of blasphemy like this will surely excite the critics – especially the atheists, who always want to justify that religion is the problem of the world. It will also give the ignorant ones among the Christians, opportunity to run diarrhoea of the mouth, in a matter that doesn’t directly concern them, forgetting that their holy Bible also condemns a blasphemer to death by hanging (Leviticus 24: 10 – 16).

“Rasheed, you’re not talking about the death sentence passed by your religion on a Muslim singer,” an Islamophobic journalist friend messaged me this morning, joining critics to call Islam imprinted names. Sadly, in their usual manner, the so-called human rights activists have dominated the social media, with their so-called ‘demand for justice’, thereby committing the same offence that brought Sharrif to court.

Their main intention is to extinguish Islam, the light of God on earth, with their mouths (Qur’an 61: 8) under the guise of freedom, but they forget, or pretend to have forgotten that this beautiful religion of Islam has so much respect for all Prophets and Messengers of God (from Adam to Moses, to Jesus, and then, the last of them all, Muhammad).

In fact, Allah warns the Muslims against blaspheming the gods of idol worshippers too (Qur’an 6: 108). Muslims don’t just have any excuse to be loose, because ‘there is a watcher by him ready to record whatever he says, or write, good or bad (Qur’an 50: 18)

Law of blasphemy

Apart from the clear position of Shari’a law on blasphemy (Section 382 {6} of Kano State Sharia Penal Code Law 2000), the customary law, which is also one of the four distinct legal system in Nigeria spelt out punishment for blasphemy. Section 204, chapter 77 of Nigeria’s Criminal Code, under the title; Insult to Religion, states:

“Any person who does an act which any class of persons consider as a public insult on their religion, with the intention that they should consider the act such an insult, and any person who does an unlawful act with the knowledge that any class of persons will consider it such an insult, is guilty of a misdemeanour, and is liable to imprisonment for two years.”

Interestingly, several European countries including Arab nations have different kinds of laws – such as sedition, defamation, invasion of privacy, blasphemy, semitism, etc, that place limitations on speech, expression, either written or audio formats. Many of them, as originally stood, place death as punishment for blasphemy, to be precise, especially against God (gods) before the laws went through different kind of amendments, which are either, based on fine or imprisonment.

In 2005, the Roman Catholic Church won a suit banning a depiction of the Last Supper by a fashion designer who replaced The Apostles with lightly clad women.

But in Islam, all the school of thoughts unanimously agreed that the punishment for blasphemy is death, not carried out by individuals but Shari’a or competent court of the land. Details of the position of Islam on blasphemy will be explained by the Muslim News Research Team in another article.

▪︎ Rasheed Abubakar writes for Muslim News Nigeria