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Shah, “Islamic Law and the Law of Armed Conflict”

This month, Routledge published Islamic Law and the Law of Armed Conflict: The Conflict in Pakistan by Niaz A. Shah (University of Hull, UK).  The publisher’s description follows.Islamic Law

Islamic Law and the Law of Armed Conflict: The Conflict in Pakistan demonstrates how international law can be applied in Muslim states in a way that is compatible with Islamic law. Within this broader framework of compatible application, Niaz A. Shah argues that the Islamic law of qital (i.e. armed conflict) and the law of armed conflict are compatible with each other and that the former can complement the latter at national and regional levels. Shah identifies grey areas in the Islamic law of qital and argues for their expansion and clarification. Shah also calls for new rules to be developed to cover what he calls the blind spots in the Islamic law of qital. He shows how Islamic law and the law of armed conflict could contribute to each other in certain areas, such as, the law of occupation; air and naval warfare; and the use of modern weaponry. Such a contribution is neither prohibited by Islamic law nor by international law.

Shah applies the Islamic law of qital and the law of armed conflict to a live armed conflict in Pakistan and argues that all parties, the Taliban, the security forces of Pakistan and the American CIA, have violated one or more of the applicable laws. He maintains that whilst militancy is a genuine problem, fighting militants does not allow or condone violation of the law.

Posted on by Mark Movsesian

Pakistan Court Acquits Girl in Quran-Burning Case

A court in Pakistan today acquitted Rimsha Masih, the teenage girl whose arrest on blasphemy charges this summer drew worldwide attention. A local mullah had accused Masih, who has Downs Syndrome, of burning pages from a Quran. The case against her fell apart, however, when associates accused the mullah of planting the incriminating evidence. Masih has been out on bail at an undisclosed location. The case has shed light on Pakistan’s blasphemy law, which, detractors claim, is often used as a pretext for settling scores with Christians and other religious minorities. The Wall Street Journal has the story here.

Posted on by Mark Movsesian

Girl in Pakistani Quran-Burning Case to be Released on Bail

Rimsha Masih, the Pakistani Christian teenager who has been in prison for weeks on blasphemy charges, will be freed on bail to await trial, the Guardian reports. A local mullah had accused Masih, who has Down’s Syndrome, of burning pages from a Quran. This week, however, the mullah’s colleagues accused him of framing Masih by planting incriminating evidence on her as part of a plot to drive Christians from the neighborhood. A senior Muslim cleric subsequently spoke in Masih’s defense and personally guaranteed her safety if the court were to release her. The case has shed light on Pakistan’s blasphemy law, which, detractors claim, is often used as a pretext for settling scores with Christians and other religious minorities. Ali Dayan Hasan, the Pakistani director of Human Rights Watch, says that he hopes the Masih case will lead to re-examination of the law, but other experts have expressed doubt about the possibility of reform. The law enjoys great popular support in Pakistan.

Posted on by Mark Movsesian

Developments in Pakistani Quran-Burning Case

Some interesting developments in the case of Rimsha Masih, the 13-year old mentally handicapped Pakistani girl currently under arrest for violating that country’s blasphemy law. Masih is in custody on charges that she burned pages from a Quran; as a result of threatened reprisals, 900 of her fellow Christians have fled their neighborhood outside the capital of Islamabad. Yesterday, Pakistani police arrested one of the Masih’s  main accusers, a mullah named Hafiz Mohammed Khalid Chishti, on charges that he framed the girl by placing pages from a Quran in a trash bag she was carrying. Two of the mullah’s assistants have come forward to say that Chishti did this in order to drive Christians from the neighborhood, where Muslims wish to build a madrasa. Today, one of Pakistan’s senior Muslim clerics intervened in the controversy, condemning Chishiti and the plot to drive out Christians and personally guaranteeing the safety of Masih if she is released from prison.  The Guardian (why is the  American news media ignoring this story?) reports that the support for Masih “from the chairman of the All Pakistan Ulema Council, a grouping of Islamic clerics, is being seen as a remarkable turn of events in a country where individuals accused of insulting Islam are almost never helped by powerful public figures.” Last year, a regional governor and cabinet minister were assassinated after they publicly criticized the country’s blasphemy law.

Posted on by Mark Movsesian

Girl in Pakistani Quran Case Ruled a Minor

The lawyer representing a Pakistani girl charged with blasphemy for allegedly desecrating  a Quran announced today that a medical review board has determined the girl is a minor. According to the Guardian, this determination may defuse the case. The accusations against the girl, discussed here, have ignited her neighborhood and caused 900 Christians to flee for fear of reprisals. The Guardian explains:

The case has once again put the spotlight on Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, which critics say can be used to settle vendettas or seek retribution. Many of Pakistan’s minorities, including Christians, live in fear of being accused of blasphemy.

Once someone is labelled a blasphemer, even if they are never convicted, they can face vigilante justice. In July, thousands of people dragged a Pakistani man accused of desecrating the Qur’an from a police station, beating him to death and setting his body alight.

The potential public backlash also means few people have spoken out to change or repeal the law. Last year two prominent politicians who criticised the blasphemy law were murdered, one by his own bodyguard, who then attracted adoring mobs.

Posted on by Mark Movsesian

Re: That Old-Time Religious Persecution

The Telegraph has more information about that incident in Pakistan, in which an 11-year old mentally disabled girl is said to have destroyed pages from a Quran. The Telegraph suggests that Muslim neighbors have been looking for a way to dispel a Christian community in their midst for months now and may have found a way:

As communal tensions continued to rise, about 900 Christians living on the outskirts of Islamabad have been ordered to leave a neighbourhood where they have lived for almost two decades.

On Sunday, houses on the backstreets of Mehrabadi, an area 20 minutes’ drive from western embassies and government ministries, were locked with padlocks, their occupants having fled to already overcrowded Christian slums in and around the capital.

One of the senior members of the dominant Muslim community told the Christians to remove all their belongings from their houses by 1 September. “I don’t think anyone will dare go back after this,” said one Christian, Arif Masih. “The area is not safe for us now.”

As for the girl herself, she has been charged with blasphemy, an extremely grave offense under Pakistani law. The law, the Telegraph reports, “has a proven track record of ensnaring people on the flimsiest of evidence and being cynically used to intimidate communities or settle quarrels over money and property.”

Posted on by Mark Movsesian

Re: That Old-Time Religious Persecution

Authorities in Pakistan have arrested an 11-year old Christian girl on blasphemy charges. She apparently was carrying a waste bag which contained some pages from a Quran. According to the BBC, police were reluctant to arrest the girl, who has a learning disability and seems unlikely to have destroyed a Quran on purpose, but “an angry mob demanded her arrest and threatened to burn down Christian homes outside the capital city of Islamabad.”

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Mughal on Islamic Human Rights

Munir Ahmad Mughal (Punjab University Law College; Superior Law College; LIMIT Law College, Lahore) has posted Islamic Concepts of Human Rights. The abstract follows.

This paper deals with the Islamic concept of Human Rights with special reference to its application in Pakistan. It is heartening that the United Nations Organization is taking all such steps which are enunciated by Islam for the betterment and welfare of mankind and its dignity.

In this paper, judgements of Supreme Court of Pakistan, Federal Shariat Court and High Courts of all the provinces have also been added for facilitation of further research by all those who are interested to work for the human rights and the fundamental rights.
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Ali on Women’s Rights in Pakistan

Shaheen S. Ali has posted Overlapping Discursive Terrains of Culture, Law and Women’s Rights: An Exploratory Study on Legal Pluralism at Play in Pakistan. The abstract follows.

This paper argues that plural regulatory frameworks (‘laws’ broadly defined) including religion, culture, customs, tradition as well as ‘formal’ law (national and international) informing women’s human rights, collude to create and perpetuate gender hierarchies. Whilst ‘informal’ norms of culture, custom and tradition expressly advance this position, gender neutral laws adopted by the state and her institutions are suspect, as these too, operate within a male socio-legal and political environment. Using the example of Pakistan, the paper attempts to present the contours of an analytical framework for mounting a challenge to plural legal systems from the perspective of women’s lived experiences and realities of their being.

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Munir on Taliq and the Pakistani 1961 Family Law

Muhammad Munir (International Islamic University Islamabad) has posted Talaq and the Muslim Family Law Ordinance, 1961 in Pakistan: An Analysis. The abstract follows. – ARH

Divorcing one’s wife is considered as one of the most hated but legal acts by God, yet divorces do happen among married couples. Muslims attach tremendous significance to issues involving Talaq. Unfortunately, Pakistani law on Talaq is one of the most controversial and confusing and its interpretation by our superior judiciary has made it even more confusing. The current law is not only against the injunctions of Islam, it has also been misinterpreted by the judiciary.