You can imagine our shock when we realised this evening that an Islamist extremist who lauded the brutal murder of Glasgow shopkeeper, Asad Shah, was on Twitter. Worse still, he had a ‘verified’ blue tick next to him, giving him some legitimacy in the eyes of member of the public.

The individual, Khalid Hussain Rizvi has been highlighted by us in Faith Matters many times. If you want to know what Rizvi is about, just take a look at this video which we compiled on just a few of his sayings to large congregations in Pakistan. In a bizarre twist, we even commented on Rizvi in 2016, and his comments were made to fawning congregations where he describes a telephone conversation with Tanveer Ahmed, the brutal murderer of Asad Shah. Rizvi has called Ahmed a ‘hero’ on many occasions and a ‘lion’ for the brutal stabbing to death of Asad Shah, a much loved shopkeeper in Glasgow.

In September 2017, Rizvi’s political party, Tehreek-e-Labaik, polled 7,000 votes in local municipal elections in a by-election in Lahore. The only campaigning point was the lionising of bodyguard Mumtaz Qadri, who murdered Punjab Governor, Salman Taseer. The murder was based on Taseer’s defence of imprisoned Christian female, Asia Bibi. Tehreek-e-Labaik have also latched onto Tanveer Ahmed as another person whom they have lionised, thereby pushing the view that ‘blasphemers’ and those who protect minorities, are fair game for murder. Twitter are therefore providing a ‘verified’ Twitter platform to the spiritual leader of Tehreek-e-Labaik, Khalid Hussain Rizvi.

Rizvi, is in effect, an Islamist sympathiser who agrees with the violent extremism, particularly if it is against those protecting and advocating for minorities and Ahmadi Muslims in Pakistan.

Given the facts, there is no justification that Twitter can provide for keeping Rizvi’s Twitter account open. 

We are increasingly concerned about the lack of due diligence by some faith leaders in the UK in meeting with preachers coming from Pakistan. In particular, there is a growing Islamist movement in Pakistan which supports violent extremism against ‘blasphemers’, Ahmadi Muslims, Shias, Christians and other minorities. These groups are not just the ones involved in direct terrorism in Pakistan, they are groups who also provide social services and who are able to rally tens of thousands of people on the basis of continuing the marginalisation of minorities. 

Here in the UK, we are concerned as to the legitimisation of such groups and preachers who have previously supported murderers such as Mumtaz Qadri, who murdered the Punjab governor Salman Taseer. There is evidence that a handful of these preachers who are on video praising the extremist, have been met with and promoted as ‘moderates’ by Imams in the UK. Pictures and social media posts of Imams in the UK standing next to such individuals, do nothing to delineate Islam and Muslims from the extremist messaging that such preachers pour out when they lionise people like Qadri, for murdering someone whose views they disagreed with. Frankly, Muslims deserve better and especially when Muslim communities are so under the spotlight at the moment and when headlines in some media sources do nothing but further marginalise them in the eyes of the wider public.

We will keep a watching brief on this situation and urge faith leaders in the UK to conduct checks and some due diligence on the groups and individuals they meet with and who visit the UK. 

The murder of Asad Shah, the Glasgow based shopkeeper was a brutal affair. We know this, partly because the spiritual leader of the Islamist group Tehrik-e-Labaik, Allama Khadim Hussain Rizvi, described in detail the actions that the convicted murderer, Tanveer Ahmed, undertook on the defenceless Shah.

The description of the murder of Asad Shah was not made in dusgust by Hussain Rizvi, the spiritual leader of the Islamist group in Pakistan. Yet, it was made in a manner which lionised the murderer, calling him a ‘Ghazi’ or warrior for the defence of Islam.

In September of this year, the Islamist party won over 7,000 votes in a local election and the Party was born from lionising another convicted murderer, Mumtaz Qadri. Qadri was the bodyguard of Salman Taseer, the Governor of Punjab, who subsequently went onto murder him at an Islamabad market in January 2011. Taseer was an outspoken critic of the country’s Blasphemy Laws and he had defended the rights of Christian minorities and individuals like Asia Bibi. Out of this brutal murder was born the Tehrik-e-Labaik Islamist party which has also acquired recorded phone conversations with Tanveer Ahmed, from Barlinnie prison in Scotland. Ahmed’s ‘messages’ to people in Pakistan have been played to Tehrik-e-Labaik audiences in the country who sit around their spiritual leader Hussain Rizvi. Rizvi has used the audio-tapes to whip up his audiences into frenzies, using deeply emotive language around the defence of Prophet Muhammad, whilst urging listeners to defend their faith. This has been code for the use of threats and violence.

The recorded phone conversations are used to whip up audiences into a frenzy around Hussain Rizvi who regularly has made a point of lionising Tanveer Ahmed,  now in Barlinnie prison. The main theme for Tehrik-e-Labaik has been the ‘defence’ of Islam and the vilification of those who ‘blaspheme’ against Islam, yet it is so easy to forget the brutal actions of people like Ahmed in this extremist charade which is being played out in Pakistan. It is important to reflect on the comments of Judge Lady Rae who presided over the murder trial of Tanveer Ahmed.

Summing up after the guilty verdict of Ahmed, Judge Lady Rae told him:

“This was a barbaric, premeditated and wholly unjustified killing of a much loved man who was a pillar of the local community.”

A Pakistani Senate committee is set to debate how to prevent the country’s blasphemy laws being applied unfairly, despite opposition from religious conservatives who support legislation that carries a mandatory death penalty for insulting Islam.

Senator Farhatullah Babar told Reuters that the Senate Committee on Human Rights, of which he is a member, will start discussions on blasphemy laws as early as next week, based on recommendations from a 24-year-old report.

He said it would be the first time in decades that any parliamentary body had considered a formal proposal to stop the abuse of the blasphemy laws.

According to Babar, the committee would consider a proposal making it binding to investigate complaints before registering a case, to ensure “genuine blasphemy” had been committed and the law was not being used to settle scores, as critics say it is.

He also said the committee would debate whether life imprisonment was an adequate punishment, instead of the mandatory death penalty.

Many conservatives in Pakistan consider even criticizing the laws as blasphemy, and in 2011 a Pakistani governor, Salman Taseer, was assassinated by his bodyguard after calling for reform of the laws.

His killer was hailed as a hero by religious hardliners, and tens of thousands of supporters attended his funeral after he was executed last year.

If the committee makes any recommendations, it would be only the first step in a long process to bring about change in how the laws are enforced.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s office declined to comment on the Senate committee’s moves.

His party’s support would be needed for any measures to move forward, and while legislation protecting women’s rights has been passed and Sharif has reached out to minorities, it is unclear if he would risk a backlash over blasphemy.

UNEARTHED REPORT

Hundreds of Pakistanis are on death row for blasphemy convictions, and at least 65 people, including lawyers, defendants and judges, have been murdered over blasphemy allegations since 1990, according to figures from the Centre for Research and Security Studies based in the capital Islamabad.

Pakistan’s religious and political elites almost universally steer clear of speaking against blasphemy laws, but a small group of lawmakers has been looking for ways to reduce abuses.

Babar said the Human Rights Committee hit a “gold mine” when he discovered a 24-year-old Senate report that called for a more specific definition of blasphemy and said further debate was needed on whether expunging “imprisonment of life” from an earlier law had been correct.

“So we convinced other senators that here we have a chance, we have a starting point, we have this report in hand. Let’s debate it and see how we can prevent abuse of this law,” Babar said.

However, powerful religious conservatives who have millions of followers strongly support the laws.

Tahir Ashrafi, head of the influential Pakistan Ulema Council of Muslim clerics, said it would oppose any change.

“Make new laws to punish those who abuse blasphemy laws,” Ashrafi told Reuters. “But no one can even think about changing this law.”

“FIRMER STANCE”

Last week, Pakistani police arrested 150 hardline activists rallying in support of the blasphemy laws on the anniversary of the assassination of Taseer, the Punjab governor shot dead by his bodyguard for calling for reform.

Police have also resisted a demand by hardliners to register a blasphemy case against Shaan Taseer, the slain governor’s son, over a Christmas message calling for prayers for those charged under the “inhumane” legislation.

“This government has shown a firmer stance than the government when my father was martyred,” Shaan Taseer said.

But public opinion remains a major obstacle to reform. On the outskirts of Islamabad, thousands still visit the shrine of Mumtaz Qadri, executed last February for Taseer’s murder.

The large shrine, with a glass roof and shiny marble floors, was built over his grave days after the burial.

Taxi driver Waheed Gul says he has come to the shrine every day since it was built:

“What better way to spend my days than to pray every day at the grave of someone who sent a blasphemer to hell?”