This is a great injustice, but they could have put him to death. There is much support in the Qur’an and Sunnah for the death penalty for blasphemy. It can arguably be found in this verse: “Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive upon earth [to cause] corruption is none but that they be killed or crucified or that their hands and feet be cut off from opposite sides or that they be exiled from the land. That is for them a disgrace in this world; and for them in the Hereafter is a great punishment.” (5:33)
Also: “Those who annoy Allah and His Messenger – Allah has cursed them in this World and in the Hereafter, and has prepared for them a humiliating Punishment” (33:57)
And: “If they violate their oaths after pledging to keep their covenants, and attack your religion, you may fight the leaders of paganism – you are no longer bound by your covenant with them – that they may refrain” (9:12).
There is more in the hadith. In one, Muhammad asked: “Who is willing to kill Ka’b bin Al-Ashraf who has hurt Allah and His Apostle?” One of the Muslims, Muhammad bin Maslama, answered, “O Allah’s Apostle! Would you like that I kill him?” When Muhammad said that he would, Muhammad bin Maslama said, “Then allow me to say a (false) thing (i.e. to deceive Kab).” Muhammad responded: “You may say it.” Muhammad bin Maslama duly lied to Ka’b, luring him into his trap, and murdered him. (Bukhari 5.59.369)
“A Jewess used to abuse the Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) and disparage him. A man strangled her till she died. The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) declared that no recompense was payable for her blood.” (Sunan Abu-Dawud 38.4349)
“Mauritania ‘blasphemy blogger’ in jail despite serving time,” AFP, May 5, 2018:
NOUAKCHOTT: A young Mauritanian blogger whose death penalty for blasphemy was downgraded to a two-year sentence that ended in November is still in detention despite growing calls for his release.
Cheikh Ould Mohamed Ould Mkheitir was given a two-year term on November 9 after he repented for charges of insulting the Prophet Muhammad in a blog post, and should have left jail because he had already served four years in jail.
He had originally been sentenced to death on December 24, 2014.
But on Friday, Rassoul Ould El-Khal, a senior official in the national rights commission, said he was “still in administrative detention awaiting the end of the judicial process.”
Mauritanian authorities have not commented on his fate since November. An informed source told AFP he was “being held in a secure place in Nouakchott,” the Mauritanian capital.
“This administrative detention breaches the law,” the blogger’s lawyer, Fatimata M’Baye, told AFP.
Some 20 NGOs on Friday also asked the state to end the “secrecy” and guarantee the safety of the blogger, who is in his thirties.
The death sentence has not been applied in Mauritania since 1987.
Mkheitir was accused of challenging decisions taken by the Prophet Mohammed and his companions during holy wars in the seventh century….
Krishna says
Mauritania is worst Muslim country of Africa
gravenimage says
Possibly so. Slavery is so rife there an estimated 17% are in slavery.
J D S says
“Blasphemy”….one more of un-numbered reasons for Islam to just disappear……How does it, or at least how does those things in it that butt up against all other religions, disappear? LEGISLATION!
Don’t say legislation can’t do it because there many BAD things that go against the law of the land that are already covered by our laws but there are many that aren’t…It just takes the WILL of the legislators and law enforcement to stand up and be counted and coming up to the 2018 elections…..I’ve been counting.
gravenimage says
Islamic Republic of Mauritania: “Blasphemer” still in jail despite serving twice longer than his sentence
…………………………
I wish I could say that this surprises.
DHazard says
Allah gets triggered rather easily. His believers do too, because he gave them vague, open ended, reasons he might get angry; “spreading corruption in the land” or “mischief on the earth”. This leads to situations like this one. The penalties for the crimes of corruption or mischief can be severe. Usually, however, humanity creeps into the minds of Muslims which is why we don’t see people getting their hands and feet cut off, at least not among the established Muslim countries.
Most Muslim countries don’t follow 100% Islam. Pakistan may be the closest. There, if the justice system doesn’t follow Allah’s wishes, mobs of Muslim citizens will often fill in the gap. Still, who really chops off body parts on a regular basis?
Expat88 says
When I worked in Saudi Arabia I saw an old-timer who had had his hand amputated for theft years ago.
Executions were still common but amputation of hand for theft wasn’t as common.
gravenimage says
Horrible.
duh swami says
‘The future must not belong to those who slander the Prophet of Islam’…
Who said that? Maxine Waters, Michael Moore? Jerry Brown? B.H.Obama? Nancy Pelosi? Donald Trump?
If Trump said that, Maxine would try and impeach him…
Expat88 says
That means Obama would be cool with this guy still being in prison after 2 years.
gravenimage says
Or even executed, one presumes…