A day after a Hindu person named Kanhaiya Lal was murdered by two radical Islamists in Rajasthan’s Udaipur district, the Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid in Delhi condemned the killing and called it an act of cowardice. The Imam also said that the heinous murder was an act against Islam and that Islam was the religion of peace and tranquillity.
“The heartbreaking murder committed in Udaipur has shaken humanity. The inhumane incident of the murder of a man named Kanhaiya Lal by two persons named Riaz and Ghous and that too, in the name of the Holy Prophet, is not only an act of cowardice but an act against Islam, unlawful and inhuman”, the statement read.
Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid, Delhi issues a statement on the Udaipur beheading incident; condemning the act, he calls it “not only an act of cowardice but an act against Islam.” pic.twitter.com/UVVpvqYM4h
— ANI (@ANI) June 29, 2022
It added that had the murderers studied the life and character of the Prophet and had been well versed with the spirit of the Quran and Shariah, they would not have committed the heinous crime. Also, Ajmer Dargah Deewan Zainul Abedin Ali Khan condemned the incident and claimed that the Muslim community in India would never allow the Taliban mindset to surface in the country.
“No religion promotes violence against humanity. Especially, in the religion of Islam, all the teachings act as sources of peace. Some non-ethical minds committed a brutal attack on a poor man which is received as a punishable sin in the Islamic world”, he said pleading the government to take strict action against the murderers. He also claimed that the accused were part of some radical groups that believed only in the path of violence.
Reportedly, Maulana Hakimuddin Qasmi, who is the General Secretary of the Islamic organisation named Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind stated that there was no way to justify the murder as it was against the law of the land and the religion. “There is a rule of law in our country, no one has the right to take the law in their hands,” he said in the statement condemning the murder carried out by Riaz and Ghous Mohammad.
Even as Muslim leaders condemn the killing of a Hindu man in Udaipur, they had maintained defeating silence on chants of beheading over alleged ‘blasphemy’
It is important to note that while the above-mentioned Islamic organizations and Masjid Imams said that the murder was a huge hammer on humanity, none of them appealed to the Muslim community to stop killing humans in the name of blasphemy. In the past, several non-Muslims including Kamlesh Tiwari, Mahashay Rajpal, Christain student Deborah Samuel, Kishan Bharwad, Bajrang Dal activist Harsha, Sri Lankan man Priyantha Kumara, etc have been brutally killed for allegedly committing blasphemy. Considering the recent cases, ex-BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma and Naveen Kumar Jindal also continue to receive death threats over their alleged ‘blasphemous’ remarks.
According to the reports, Islamic juridical texts have prescribed death punishment for blasphemy. The same is agreed by all Islamic scholars of Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama’ah as claimed by Mufti Obaidullah Qasmi from Deoband. In the countries of the Indian Subcontinent and Africa where the state has often surrendered before Islamist fundamentalism, ‘Gustakh-e-Rasool ki ek hi saza, sar tan se juda sar tan se juda’ is a war cry that is often justified. Also, in Islamic nations like Pakistan, Iran etc, people are executed or jailed for years for alleged blasphemy, if not already killed by Islamist mobs before being arrested by police.
However, according to the Global Muslim Community in the name of the Islamicity Organisation, the idea of blasphemy is foreign to Islam. It claims that ‘the idea of blasphemy was justified by many medieval Muslim scholars based on their understanding of Christian and Jewish texts supporting laws against those who blaspheme and vilify their religions’. It affirms that blasphemy is not punishable by death in the religion of Islam.
While condemning the heinous murder of Kanhaiya Lal who had supported Nupur Sharma for her alleged ‘blasphemous’ remarks, the Islamic organizations and Muslim Imams failed to address the Muslim community regarding the blasphemy as the prescribed death punishment is accepted and promoted by many Islamic scholars.
Meanwhile, the Muslim Law Board while speaking about the recent murder noted that nobody was allowed to take the law into their hands and declare someone a criminal and then murder in a highly condemnable act. It also appealed to the Muslim community ‘to act patiently and to not take law into their own hands and not indulge in any such action that might disturb the communal harmony and social cohesion of the country.
Kanhaiya Lal beheaded by Islamists over post supporting Nupur Sharma
Kanhaiya Lal was murdered on June 28 by two radical Islamists named Riaz and Ghous Mohammed. The duo disguised as customers and entered the tailoring shop of the deceased. While Kanhaiya Lal was busy taking the cloth measurements, one of the accused attacked him with a long sharp knife. The other accused recorded the entire murder on his phone. According to the post-mortem report, he was stabbed 26 times on his body from his neck to shoulder. Kanhaiya Lal was killed for uploading a social media post in support of ex-BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma.
