In Palestine the forces of religious purity are at work. Adnan Abu Amer reports in AL Monitor:
… since Sept. 9, Khaled al-Khalidi, a professor of Palestinian history at the Islamic University in Gaza with ties to Hamas, has been posting statements on social media calling for the enactment of an anti-blasphemy law, provoking a storm of reactions online. …
Khalidi, the head of the Palestinian Encyclopedia of Historiography Documentation, told Al-Monitor that his move is a response to the spread of destructive ideas among Muslims in Palestine, such as not believing in the Prophet Muhammad’s hadith, which open the door to intellectual deviation and ideological mistakes. He bemoaned the failure of Gaza’s authorities to fend off these ideas, especially the Ministry of Religious Affairs and associations concerned with the welfare of future generations.
He added, “As a result, I will soon form an association of scholars to defend Islam from the erroneous interpretations of some religious scholars. I was accused by some of those who departed from religion of adopting the ideas of the Islamic State, but this will not scare me. I will keep fighting them.”
Reaction has not been entirely positive:
The call for an anti-blasphemy law stirred a wild wave of reactions. Palestinian intellectuals across the Gaza Strip and the West Bank argued over Khalidi’s suggestion. On Sept. 10, journalist Bothaina Ashtowi expressed objections to Khalidi’s idea and called for solving more pressing problems in Gaza before demanding an anti-blasphemy law. On Sept. 14, one citizen, Abu Bakr al-Banna, expressed support for the idea, attacked “blasphemers” for “distorting the image of the companions of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad” and called them infidels, warning them they were headed for the “ash heap of history.”
Opponents of such a law recall what happened in some stages of Islamic history, when some enlightened figures such as al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, Al-Ma’
arri, Abu Bakr al-Razi and Ibn Rushd were accused of blasphemy and killed.
In some ways, the forces of religion seem to be in a constant fight to sow division, much like those who like to throw the epithet RINO within the GOP. And I’m almost dumb-founded by a statement by Saleh al-Raqab, the former minister of religious affairs and endowments:
The Palestinian Penal Code should be amended to impose a penalty on insulting a divine being and to prosecute those who promote deviant ideas.
If a divine being is insulted, it can take care of responding to the insult itself, no? In fact, it’d be more impressive than if a human agency implemented punishment.
