Blasphemy Laws: Why We Muslims Need a Second Thought By Aliyu Bashir Limanci

[danieldemol]

'Over a year after the arrest of Kano's famous humanist, Mubarak Bala who has been arrested and detained without trial, Kano is at it again, but this time it is a popular Muslim cleric, Sheikh Abduljabbar Nasiru Kabara being accused and prosecuted for blasphemy.

Unlike the mainstream Sunni scholars who defend everything attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, Sheikh Abduljabbar's only offenses that make him a pariah are his novel attempts to expel anything that derides the Prophet as a womanizer, alcoholic who was married to a 9-year old girl. According to him, Prophet Muhammad was so pure to be associated with these avuncular trivialities.

The mammoth followers he managed to attract was the last straw that broke the camel's back. Salafi scholars were abruptly alarmed, and started accusing him of insulting the Holy Prophet even though, he took most of his cues from Sunni books...

... Days after, prominent clerics in the state claimed the sheikh should executed and began to incite the public to lynch him despite his public apology that his speeches were taken out of context.'

Source: Blasphemy Laws: Why We Muslims Need a Second Thought By Aliyu Bashir Limanci | Sahara Reporters

Seems a shame that certain clerics are trying to silence the opinion of a cleric who is probably relatively progressive compared to them and in such a barbaric fashion.

In my opinion.

 

[Link]

Yes, it is a shame. Which is why I call myself a seeker of twelve and won't claim really Islam as my religion since it's current state is ugly and despicable.

 

[AlexanderG]

'Over a year after the arrest of Kano's famous humanist, Mubarak Bala who has been arrested and detained without trial, Kano is at it again, but this time it is a popular Muslim cleric, Sheikh Abduljabbar Nasiru Kabara being accused and prosecuted for blasphemy.

Unlike the mainstream Sunni scholars who defend everything attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, Sheikh Abduljabbar's only offenses that make him a pariah are his novel attempts to expel anything that derides the Prophet as a womanizer, alcoholic who was married to a 9-year old girl. According to him, Prophet Muhammad was so pure to be associated with these avuncular trivialities.

The mammoth followers he managed to attract was the last straw that broke the camel's back. Salafi scholars were abruptly alarmed, and started accusing him of insulting the Holy Prophet even though, he took most of his cues from Sunni books...

... Days after, prominent clerics in the state claimed the sheikh should executed and began to incite the public to lynch him despite his public apology that his speeches were taken out of context.'

Source: Blasphemy Laws: Why We Muslims Need a Second Thought By Aliyu Bashir Limanci | Sahara Reporters

Seems a shame that certain clerics are trying to silence the opinion of a cleric who is probably relatively progressive compared to them and in such a barbaric fashion.

In my opinion.

From a Western perspective, when stories like this are selectively presented to us, it makes it very easy to cast Islam as a morally backward, lingering relic of the Iron Age. It makes it difficult to see how Islam is compatible with the rest of modern civilization, or even compatible with human flourishing. So I don't think these sorts of events are doing Islam any favors from an outside perspective.

I know it's also easy to find tales of Western immorality and cast them in a bad light to the Muslim world, and I know a lot of Muslims in my community who are much more progressive than Middle Eastern conservative clerics. Still, though, jailing people for criticizing a religion? Get with the 17th century already...