Over-protecting the prophet (op-ed)

Recently, in Nigeria a Christian pastor’s wife was stabbed to death for insulting “The Prophet” Muhammad.

Supposedly the woman said, “The Prophet” Muhammad was not important.

Under Sharia Law insulting “The Prophet” is a capital offense. But two suspects were arrested. That means even Sharia has vigilantes.

A spokesman for the Christian Association of Nigeria believes the police tried to cover up the crime. He also said the killing was a part of a larger problem the Nigerian government hasn’t addressed properly.

The spokesman didn’t elaborate on the larger problem in Nigeria, but these types of “insulting Islam” charges have been human rights concerns elsewhere because the larger problem was never the insult.

In 2013 Raif Badawi, a rights activist in Saudi Arabia, was convicted of insulting Islam and violating the Kingdom’s anti-cyber crime laws.

He was sentenced to seven years in prison and 600 lashes.

He appealed the verdict and was retried. After the retrial he was sentenced to ten years in prison and 1,000 lashes.

Badawi’s wife asked, “How is it possible they could take a sentence that was already harsh and make it harsher?”

On the surface the answer is simple; to deter others from insulting Islam, but Amnesty International said Badawi was a “prisoner of conscience” who is guilty of nothing more than daring to create a public forum for discussion.

Badawi created what the Saudi government labeled a liberal website. Apparently, Badawi used this site to call for reforming a system controlled by religious clergy “who violated the basic human rights of Saudi citizens”.

The website also promoted critical thinking. And that got him charged with “insulting Islam”.

In 2014 Mohamed Cheikh was sentenced to death in Mauritania. His crime was writing an article that was critical of “The Prophet” Muhammad.

His article was actually about how religious texts and narratives of the life of “The Prophet” Muhammad are used to justify slavery.

In 1981 Mauritania became the last country in the world to abolish slavery, but it wasn’t officially criminalized until 2007.

In 2012 The Guardian (US edition) ran a headline: Slavery Still Shackles Mauritania, 31 years after its abolition. The reporter stated up to 800,000 people in a nation of 3.5 million remained in slavery.

Mohamed Cheikh argued for new interpretations of Islamic teachings.

In that case the issue was slavery and not “insulting The Prophet”.

Now in Nigeria the Christian woman wasn’t charged by the government for insulting the prophet so the motives of the suspects have to be reexamined.

The alleged insult was “The Prophet” was not important. This is a faith fact from a Christian that has no intent to insult.

But according to Daniel Akbari, an attorney certified by the Iranian Bar Association, “The range of actions that constitute insulting Muhammad is very broad. For example, discussing the fact that Muhammad married Aisha when she was 6 years old -- even though this is recorded in the Hadith -- is considered an insult.”

If that’s the case this separates the suspects from defenders of their faith to over-protectors of “The Prophet” from facts they find insulting.

I’ve heard of honor killings, but over-protection kills?

Immediately following this murder, Christians demanded for the authorities to do more to protect them, because in 2015 more Christians were killed in Nigeria than in the entire world combined according to a study by a religious violence monitoring group.

And if over-protection kills are the larger problem the Nigerian government hasn’t addressed properly, it’s most likely because they don’t know how.

First published in the New Pittsburgh Courier 6/15/16