Kunwar Khuldune Shahid tells us about a reactionary cleric who finds himself hoist by his own petard fatwa.
Pakistani pop singer turned religious cleric Junaid Jamshed has been accused of blasphemy recently. Jamshed has now taken refuge in London, rightly fearing for his life in Pakistan.
The allegation occurred after Jamshed re-enacted a hadith which suggests that the Prophet Muhammad’s youngest wife Ayesha occasionally faked illness to seek her husband’s attention. The re-enactment was entitled ‘even the prophet’s company cannot tame a woman’.
Jamshed is notorious – or renowned, depending on who you talk to – for his misogynistic views. He is on record as saying:
“If you want a happy life, do not teach your wives how to drive a car. Do not let her go outside. She might leave you.”
He has also said that “A husband only involves himself in an extra marital affair because his wife isn’t doing enough. She is to be blamed.”
He has also advocated a ban on women driving, drawn connections between respect and how much a woman covers herself, and generally espoused the view that women are men’s possessions.
Hmm. Is it very wrong of me to feel glad that he feared for his life in Pakistan and had to run away to horrible kuffar London? It probably is, but I do all the same.
Jamshed, who is on record as saying that ‘secularism is a curse’, is now taking refuge in a society that has secular laws, vying to dodge the ramifications of the jurisprudence that he has endorsed for 17 years.
Despite Britain’s increasing number of Sharia courts – 85 at time of writing – which are limited to financial and familial matters, Jamshed knows he is perfectly safe in Britain, a country that epitomises everything that’s ‘wrong’ with the ‘evil West’.
He was wise enough to not go into exile in Saudi Arabia, the country that is the epitome of Jamshed’s version of Islam, which is intolerant, fundamentalist and extremist.
The Saudi legal system is based on Sharia law and does not have a penal code. Therefore, in Saudi Arabia, where Jamshed’s endorsed law prevails, the punishment for his comments about Ayesha would be left at the mercy of a judge’s interpretation of the Sharia law, which more often than not leads to decapitated heads.
It’s interesting, isn’t it, that harsh laws and punishments seem so desirable until they are applied to oneself?
Schadefreude. Oh yeah.
I can certainly understand why his wives might want to leave him.
I must say I find situations like this darkly funny and very revealing of human hypocrisy.
Like when people who pontificate about human rights, transparency and freedom of information from dawn to dusk and then snuggle up to countries with less than stellar records regarding their oh-so hallowed ideals (*cough* Ecuador *cough*) and throw around lies and conpiracy theories to protect their own arses…
Yes, it is. Just as it’s not tolerated to joke about prison rape when one hears about a rapists getting locked up. Same deal.
The USA, like every other barbarian state that still cold-bloodedly kills people in the name of “justice”, depends on precisely this sentiment for the maintenance of its death penalty. Hold a national referendum on capital punishment, and ask two questions: (1) do you support the death penalty? and (2) given that it will be administered by fallible humans, and that the execution of innocents is inevitable, do you personally volunteer to be the first innocent person executed?
Only count a “Yes” vote if they vote “Yes” to both – anyone voting “Yes” to just the first one obviously doesn’t really mean it. Then round up and kill everyone who voted “Yes” to both. They volunteered, and at the end of it you can run the vote again, confident in the knowledge you’ve just raised the national IQ by a measureable amount.
No, it’s not same deal. Same deal would have been joking about his being killed.
This reminds me of some of the data in The Authoritarians, where it’s pointed out that strong authoritarians often are willing to support legislation that would put themselves in prison. They simply don’t seem to think very far ahead, so it never occurs to them that the laws might be used against them.
Of course, in England, he’ll be protected by the police. AND enjoy the freedom to preach all the hatred he wants. He may already be promoted to ‘Moderate Muslim Community Leader!’
@sonofrojblake, #4: Under such a situation, you would have to answer yes to both questions. You, too, support capital punishment, with arbitrary limitations and fallible judgements with your suggested system.
Even if it’s a joke; it’s more the kind of wry declaration that gets passed off as a joke when the obvious absurdities get pointed out.