On Blasphemy and Muslims – Comprehensively Exploring the Religion of Peace and Crossing of Redlines -By Solihu Abdulmumin

The recent killing of a 200 level Home Economics student of Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto, in the person of Ms. Deborah Samuel, has garnered much attention across the globe. The Christian communities are of the opinion that the killing is totally unjust and the perpetrators must be brought to book. The Muslim communities, on the other hand, were divided on the stand of the issue. While some were in support of the action, others were wholesomely against the unjustified brutal killing of the young lady. In this article, I am going to explain in detail, what the exact stand of the religion is on blasphemy and what is the take of the Shariah (Islamic jurisprudence) on the killing of Deborah.

To start with, I deem it necessary to shed more light on what blasphemy is and what the two religions see to it (punishment for anyone who blasphemes). It is so disheartening that someone who is well-revered and respected as a great activist also has an issue differentiating between blasphemy and disbelief/heresy. Blasphemy can be described as the action or offence of speaking sacrilegiously about God or sacred things; profane talk. It is further described, according to Merriam-Webster, as a great disrespect shown to God or something holy, or something said or done that shows this kind of disrespect. Disbelief/Heresy, on the other hand, refers to the belief or opinion that does not agree with official belief or opinion of a particular religion. Where is the correlation?

Clearing the air on the statement of Aisha Yesufu and some other individuals, including Christians who are blindfoldedly justifying the fact that, not accepting Jesus Christ as the Lord and Saviour, but rather as a Prophet in the Ummat (Islam community), is also a blasphemy which they, of course, don’t kill us for. The above is merely a heresy or disbelieving in what they believe in has nothing to do with Blasphemy. If I may ask, did they also accept the prophet of Islam as the last messenger and the comforter promised in the bible? The answer is No, is that not blasphemy against him? The answer is No – they only disbelieve in him. Therefore, it is imperative for every one of us as the citizens and educated ones to be called, to seek adequate and worthy knowledge and facts about a subject matter before contributing blindly due to our past experience or malice we have towards the involved parties. Resolved!

Now on blasphemy and religions; In Islam, the punishment of anyone who blasphemes – most especially – insulting the prophet, is to be killed by an authority after a thorough investigation has been carried out. Underline the two phrases – “by an authority” and “thorough investigation”. The former implies that an individual or group of individuals must not, no matter what the case may be, take action into their hands (jungle justice). It is only the responsibility of the authority of the state or nation to decide the fate of a blasphemer. The latter, that is, to carry out a thorough investigation, involves checking whether or not the blasphemer is insane, drunk (as at that time) or mentally derailed. This investigation can also consider footage of the statement or a recorded statement of the blasphemer like the Sokoto’s case. In simple terms, the killing of Deborah, as much as the judgment (killing) is right, is totally unjustified and illegal because it wasn’t carried out by the necessary body.

Does this imply Islam is a religion of violence and killing as the public is made to believe? The answer is No! What we have is only redlines. At this junction, it is important that we explore some biblical verse which presents judgment on Blasphemy. Leviticus 24 v 10-16 stated that “¹⁴ Bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp; and let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him. ¹⁵ And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, Whosoever curseth his God shall bear his sin. ¹⁶ And he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord, shall be put to death.”

I will implore anyone reading this to also check out verses like Leviticus 20:9, Exodus 21:17, Matthew 15:4, Matthew5:17, John 8:3-11, Leviticus 20:10-12, Deuteronomy 22:22-23, Luke 19:27, Deuteronomy 13:6-17, Deuteronomy 17:6-13, Luke22 (Good News Translation), among several others that talked about punishment for blasphemy, disrespecting one’s parent and killing generally. Does that imply the bible teaches unjust killing? No! That is just the religion’s standard for redlines.

Apparently, Islam is a religion of peace. Do we know the number of our brothers that have been dragged and influenced by the Christians? No one will say anything about this. We walk around on campus and roadsides, apparently looking like a Muslim, yet they deem it fit to approach and preach. Inside campus shuttle buses, they preach and several other public places without respecting any other religion. Who’s saying anything about this?  All we care about is using past issues and grudges to react to present issues. Up till now, some clamourers and social media analyzers (those who became data analysts at the start of this issue) are still yet to know what exactly the girl said about the prophet of Islam before she was killed, including the Muslims. All we care about is, “they killed her? What a bad religion! What bloody killers they are! Is that a so-called religion of peace? And other statements that are irritating enough to spark a religious fight within the nation.

No one cared about the story of the woman Ms. Seun Bunmi Adegunsoye, a student of the Law faculty at the University of Ibadan and a Christian Evangelist who dressed like a Muslim and went to the mosque with Jumaat service ongoing screaming “Except you accept Christ in your life, you are not safe. All of you here, no matter the number of the congregation accept Jesus Christ. Allah is not God”. What happened to her afterwards? She was protected by the Muslim community and went unscathed; unharmed. Which religion is propagating peace here? Who heard of the story? Virtually no one! Islam is always at the receiving end of the media’s propagation. It is only when we are at it that the world will hear. That is not a problem anyway, since the country is not a homogenous one.

The bottom line – like every other learned Muslim concluded – is that the rule of blasphemy against the prophet is killing after thorough investigation and must be carried out by an authority. However, the killing of Deborah doesn’t meet the necessary criteria and thus, is an unjustified killing which must be totally condemned.

Kindly share your opinion in the comment session or reach out to me @ +2349129720863 and abdulmuminsolihu@gmail.com.

Thanks for reading!