1.    Introduction:
Could a Christian compel Muslims, Hindus, Jews, Jens, Parsis, Buddhists, and atheists  to respect Jesus Christ the way he respects him, and the way he worships Him as his Lord, God, and Saviour?  If a Christian does so, then he is denying the very teachings of Lord Jesus Christ.  Could anyone be compelled to pay a respect to any religion, any faith, any book, any prophet, or any kind of beliefs held by some people, or a group of people, or individuals, if that person is not an adherent of that faith, or if he does not want to pay the same respect to that prophet, book, beliefs as the adherents of that faith do?  Why are Muslims so much intolerant towards the other faiths?  Why do they call Kaffirs (nonbelievers) to everyone who is not a Muslim?  Why has the hatred of the Sunni Muslims reached to a level whereby they are calling even Shias as Kaffirs? Why do they want people of all faiths to believe in Prophet Mohammed the way the Muslims believe in Prophet Mohammed?  What have been the effects of the Blasphemy Laws in Pakistan?  What will be the effects of religious intolerance on human culture and civilization?  The following article will analyze the above questions and the general attitudes of the Muslims towards the people of other faiths, and the impact of the intolerant attitudes of the extremist Muslims towards other faiths and among the different denominations of Muslims themselves.

2.    The negation of Christian Faith by Jews, Muslims and Qadiyanis:
The Christian belief is that God decided to come to the world and live here as a human being.  He was born from the Virgin Mary and came to the world as Jesus Christ in the form of a man, and that Jesus Christ is God, who lived in the world and preached his message, healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, and raised the dead.  Jesus, despite of being God, never reacted to the insult and torture inflicted upon him by the Jews priests and roman soldiers when he was arrested, tortured, and crucified, to tell the humanity that controlling ones anger is the greatest victory.  The Christians believe that there was no need of any prophet after Lord Jesus Christ because God himself came to the world to teach the human beings as to how should the human beings live a life full of sharing, caring, kindness, and generosity to the weak and the humble, and free of sin.
But unfortunately the Muslims are not ready to accept Lord Jesus Christ as God, and they treat Lord Jesus Christ like just an ordinary prophet.  The Muslims also day in and day out continue to say that the present Bible is not the original Bible because it has been changed.  This is a very insulting attitude of Muslims in the eyes of Christians.  But Christians never demanded, and will never demand to file cases under Blasphemy Laws against any Muslims because the Christian faith prohibits any such things like filing cases or inflicting violence against anyone.  The Christian faith teaches its followers to demonstrate tolerance and forgiveness by following in the footsteps of The Lord Jesus Christ, who even while on the cross had said "God forgive them because they do not know what they say".  We cannot blame Muslims for the insulting attitude toward the Holy Bible and Lord Jesus Christ because they only utter what they are being taught by their religious leaders.  The religious leaders of the Muslims pollute the minds of the Muslim even to the extent that Muslims call even Christians and Jews as Kaffirs (nonbelievers).    
According to the Qadiyani faith, Mirza Tahir Ahmed (the founder of the Qadiyani faith) is the rebirth of Jesus Christ (Masih-e-Maood --  The promised Messiah).  But this is a negation of the Christian faith because Mirza Tahir Ahmed is not the Messiah because the Messiah will come only on the Last Day.  The Christians just ignore the claim of the Qadiyanis and never file cases of blasphemy or never think of inflicting violence on Qadiyanis.  But extremist Muslims feel that it is their right to kill every Qadiyani because the Qadiyanis deny the philosophy of Khatm-e-Nabuat (Muslim belief that the prophethood ended after Prophet Mohammed because he was the last prophet of Allah, and there can be no prophet after him).
According to the Jews, the Christ has not been born so far, and the Messiah promised in the Old Testament of The Holy Bible has still to come.  This is a total negation of Christ and the Christian faith.  But, no Christian will ever inflict violence against any Jew because it is forbidden by the very teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ.           

3.    Why do Blasphemy cases take place against Christians and others?:
A Christian never intentionally insults Prophet Mohammed, but when Muslims insult Christians, their Holy Book, The Holy Bible, or Lord Jesus Christ, and then a Christian might indulge in derogatory remarks as a reaction.  This situation occurs often in the backward areas of Pakistan, which have little or no education.  And also because the illiterate, semiliterate, and ignorant Muslims believe that Christians are a minority and it is the right of every Muslim to insult and degrade Christians because they have no voice.  Many Muslims also associate the Pakistani Christians with the American and European Christians and take revenge on Pakistani Christians of the real and perceived injustices done to Muslims around the world by the Americans and the Europeans.  Many Muslims have a lot of anger against the white man for overthrowing the so called Muslim Rule in India, and also for destruction of Iraq, Afghanistan by America directly and of Palestine, and Kashmir indirectly, by supporting Israel to usurp the rights of Palestinians, and of Kashmiris by India, and that America has not played any positive role in resolving the issues of Palestine and Kashmir.  This anger against America and Europe is often expressed by extremists Muslims of Pakistan by attacking Christian villages, slums, and churches. 
Studies have revealed that most of the cases of Blasphemy are lodged because of the personal enmities, rivalries, and disputes over exchange of money, or conflicts over property and/or women.  In many cases a Muslim owed a certain amount of money to a Christian, the Christian demanded his money, and the Muslim filed a blasphemy case against the Christian to escape payment of money.  In some other cases a Christian man had a love affair with a Muslim woman/girl, and the family of the woman filed a blasphemy case against the Christian man.  Fanish Masih of Sialkot was murdered because of this very reason.  He had a love affair with a Muslim girl and the family of the girl filed a false case against Fanish Masih under the Blasphemy Laws.  The boy was killed by the police in collaboration with the family of the girl in one of the police lock ups of Sialkot.  The family of that Muslim girl saved their honor in society by taking the life of a young boy, but they have certainly brought a bad name to their religion.
On the other hand, the Muslims think it is their right to kidnap or forcibly marry a Christian or a Hindu girl and later they say that she has embraced Islam and the police and the lower judiciary always supports the Muslims in such cases.  But the Muslims never allow their women to marry a Christian or a Hindu man.  
One important issue is of the invitation to Islam by the Muslim to the people of other faiths.  This creates serious problems in Pakistani society, which is predominantly a Muslim society and has 97 per cent Muslim, and only 3 per cent other religious minorities.  Muslims often invite their Christian neighbours and colleagues to embrace Islam.  The usual strategy is that the Muslim would siege their Christian colleague and all would bombard the Christian man/woman with invitations to Islam, and objections about Christianity.  They day and night hound him/her, and mentally torture him/her with their bombardments.  This drives the person crazy and he/she either prefers to leave the job or reacts angrily. 
The concept behind the invitation to Islam is that Muslims cannot enter into heaven and will not have salvation unless they bring at least one person to the folds of Islam.
Now this concept creates problems for many non-Muslims.  Many Muslims use all kinds of tactics to convert non-Muslims to Islam just to confirm their seat in the heaven.  They should rather focus on improving their “aamal” (actions and deeds) for booking a seat in heaven instead of compelling others by use of coercion and to embrace Islam. 
This intolerant attitude of the Sunni Muslims of Pakistan has also created serious problems for the 30 per cent Shia population of the country.  Extremist Sunnis Muslims consider Shias, who are the second largest sect of Islam, as nonbelievers and want to eliminate the Shias.  This is the sole job of the sectarian organizations like Sipah-e-Sahaba and Lashkar-e-Jhangavi.  

4.    The Implications of the Blasphemy Laws: 
The Blasphemy Laws have promoted intolerance among Muslims towards one another and also towards the people of other faiths.  The Blasphemy Laws of Pakistan are being enormously misused to take revenge or settle personal rivalries.   
Many Ahmedis/Qadiyanis have been killed on the charges of not accepting Prophet Mohammed as the last prophet of God.  The extremist Muslims are compelling people of other faiths to accept Prophet Mohammed as the last and the most superior prophet of God.  But if other people do not accept Prophet Mohammed as the last and the most superior prophet of God, then the extremist Muslims are ready to kill those people.  On the other hand, many of the Muslims use derogatory remarks against all the other faiths, their holy books, and even the founder prophets of other faiths.  For instance, they claim that Koran is the final word of God, and Prophet Mohammed is the last and final prophet of God, Koran is the final word of God and the only holy book, which was never changed, and all the other books, which were revealed before Koran, have been cancelled because the Koran is the final order from Allah. 

5.    The Sunnah of Prophet Mohammed:
God has closed the doors of wisdom and of the process of thinking and contemplation on the extremist Muslim religious leaders.  But of course there are exceptions like Javed Ahmed Ghamdi, Tahirul Qadri and few others.  The religious leaders like Maulana Fazalur Rahman and Jamatis like Munawar Hasan and Dr. Fareed Paracha widely use religion of Islam for political and economic gains.  So far so that they do not even bother to think and contemplate over the Sunnah of Prophet Mohammed.  The extremist Muslims do not have the courage to talk with patience and argue with logic.  A person with a weak case always resorts to violence.  A person who controls his anger is a much superior human being as compared to the one who resorts to anger and violence.  The problem with the extremist Muslims is that they lose their mind when it comes to the issues related to their religion. They are always looking for some excuse to go on rampant killings, arson, and loot.  The way they take Laws of the State into their own hand and carry out killings and loot, is shocking.  One is also not able to understand as to why the element of loot has always been part of the attacks by extremist Muslims upon villages and slums of the Pakistani Christians. 
The Blasphemy Laws are a negation and insult to the Sunnah of Prophet Mohammed because he always forgave people who insulted him.  A woman used to throw garbage at him and he always forgave her with a smile.  One person declared himself to be a prophet during the life of Prophet Mohammed, but Prophet Mohammed just ignored him.  But here the extremist Muslim religious leaders are telling us that they will get a respect for their prophet on the gun point.
Prophet Mohammed told his followers to love the Prophet more that their parents and children, but the Prophet Mohammed never said that the Muslims should kill everyone who does not respect Prophet Mohammed.  Prophet Mohammed never inflicted violence against anyone who insulted him. 
A person who does not have respect for human life has no respect for any religion, any prophet or even God Almighty.  It was Prophet Mohammed who said, “I swear in the name of God that the dignity of human life was much more than Ka’aba.”
Prophet also said “La Ikrah Fildeen” (The religion should not be imposed with coercion).
Prophet also said, “For you your religion, and for me my religion”. 

6.    The impacts of intolerance on the Human Civilization:
People of every faith believe and they are indoctrinated by the religious leaders of their faiths that only their religion, their holy book, and their prophet or founder of their faith is the true messenger of God, and that all the other holy books, faiths, and prophets are the self-created ones.  Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, etc. all have such attitudes towards other faiths. Unfortunately every one of them believes that they are the only holy, pure, clean, and the true believers and that the people of all other faiths are unholy, impure, dirty people, and non-believers.  Jews think people of all faiths are impure, and only Jews are the pure people of God.  Extremist Muslims call Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, and Parsis, as Kaffirs (Nonbelievers).  If people of all the faiths continue with this trend of hating, degrading, ridiculing, mocking, and insulting the people of other faiths, their holy books, and the founders of their faiths, then the whole world will be controlled by hatred.  There will be no humanness among human beings at all.  The terrorism, which is already an extension of this hatred and intolerance towards other faiths, ideologies, and cultures, will continue to increase in the world and ultimately will bring the human civilization to an end. 

7.    Conclusions:

• Implementation and promulgation of ones faith by use of force and coercion is prohibited by Islam, Christianity, and other religions as well.  
• The Extremist Muslims consider it their right to insult all other faiths, their books, and prophets, and also to kill anyone who does not accept Prophet Mohammed as a prophet in the ways the Muslims believe in Prophet Mohammed. 
• The extremist Muslims do not try to read and contemplate on the Sunnah of Prophet Mohammed, who showed by his actions that anger should be controlled and tolerance should be demonstrated by every Muslim.
• The extremist Muslims lose their minds when it comes to the issues related to their religion.  They go on rampant killings, burning, loot, and arson even without enquiring about the issue, which has caused their anger.
• People of all faiths have negative attitudes towards all the other faiths.  They believe their faith, book, and prophet is the truest, and the other faiths, books, and prophets are the false ones.  Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhist all have negative approach to other faiths, and think positively of their faiths only.
• The extremist attitude of the Muslim religious leaders is causing many problems for the Pakistani society.  They are spending their energies negatively, and are not contributing in the development and progress of Pakistan.  They are active in keeping Pakistan backward, politically instable, and economically poor.  That is why Allama Iqbal had said, “Deen-e-Mullah fisabeelillah fasad! (The religion of Muslim religious leaders is to create unrest in society in the name of Allah).
                 

8.    Recommendations:

• The Muslim intelligentsia must play a role in this regard and teach the Muslims to refrain from insulting the other faiths.  This will promote tolerance among Muslims and especially among Sunnis towards Shias and other smaller sects of Islam, and also towards other faiths.
                
• The Muslims also need to think that they cannot compel people of other faiths to think of Prophet Mohammed as Muslims, and particularly the Sunnis do.  A Christian cannot compel Muslims to think of Jesus Christ as a God as Christians do.  A Christian also cannot compel Qadiyanis to not think of Mirza Tahir Ahmed as a rebirth of Masih-e-Maood (the promised Messiah).  This is their faith and they have a right to have that faith.  But despite the fact that the faiths and believe of the Muslims and the Qadiyanis are a negation of the faith and beliefs of a Christian, yet he will never file any case against any Muslim or Qadiyani, and will continue to love them as human beings because that is the teaching and the demand of the Christian faith.
• We must deal each other on human levels.  Our foremost job should be to act upon the values of our own religion instead of spending our energies on finding wrongs in the religions of other people.     

Yunis Khushi is a Lahore-based sociologist and Chief Editor of www.pakistanchristian.tv

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