Younus Shaikh
Encyclopedia
Mohammed Younus Shaikh (Punjabi
, , born 30 May 1952} is a Pakistani medical doctor, human rights
activist and freethinker
.
When he was a teacher at a medical college in Islamabad
, Shaikh was an active member of the South Asia Peace Movement and of the International Humanist and Ethical Union
(IHEU). He took part in the Pakistan-India Forum for Peace and Democracy, and was a member of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. A free-thinker, he founded Enlightenment, an organization associated with the IHEU.
In October 2000, Pakistani authorities charged Shaikh with blasphemy
. A judge ordered that he pay a fine of 100,000 rupees, and sentenced him to death by hanging
. On 20 November 2003, a court acquitted Shaikh, who fled Pakistan for Europe soon thereafter.
After getting through the pre-Medical exams, he went to the Nishtar medical College Multan and earned a M.B.B.S. degree. In October 1979 he went to Ireland for postgraduate training in Surgery; he passed FRCS (Part I) from Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and started working in a hospital in summer of 1980. He worked in different hospitals in Ireland, N.Ireland, Scotland and England in different branches of Surgery; he was offered a long-term job conditional to his permanent stay in N.Ireland, however, he preferred to go back to Pakistan and serve his own people.
.
Shaikh studied Journalism and attained a diploma in Journalism from Islamabad; he was active in intellectual, literary and social circles and he regularly attended the meetings of the Halqa Arbab i Zoaq in Lahore and later in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Shaikh attracted the attention of Islamic fundamentalists
because as protest against the extremist Islamic Mullahism and fundamentalists' atrocities on the name of Islam, he gave up Islam, and as a member of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, he wrote letters to President Musharraf and different newspapers about Islamic attacks on peace-loving Ahemedis-a minority group, a former Muslim sect expelled from Islam, as well as he campaigned about the human rights of women, of Hindus, Christians and liberal, secular Muslims. He also took part in the Pakistan-India Forum for Peace and Democracy, and was a member of the South Asian Fraternity, South Asian Union. He also expressed disquiet and exposed the horrors of the Pakistan Army atrocities in Bengal in 1971. He founded Enlightenment, an organization associated with the International Humanist and Ethical Union, in 1990.
Shaikh lives in Switzerland
. He is an Honorary Associate of Rationalist International
and an Honorary member of Mukto-mona, a secular organization for Bengali humanists and freethinkers.
did not become a Muslim
until the age of 40 (the age at which he apparently received the first message from God), and also that his's parents were non-Muslims because they died before Islam existed, and furthermore that he wed, at 25, without an Islamic marriage contract, and that he was unlikely to have been circumcised or to have shaved under his armpits or to have shaved his pubic hair, because those practices were unknown to his tribe.
Shaikh denied that this lecture even took place, and denied that he had said what was alleged. In a letter to Babu Gogineni of the IHEU, Shaikh offered an explanation of why a charge was made against him; he claimed (albeit without corroborating evidence against the people he accused):
According to press reports, eleven students, all the students in Shaikh's class, signed a letter attesting to Shaikh's blasphemy. The cleric who received the letter was a member of an organisation known to harass and to attack non-orthodox Muslims. The reports call the organisation Aalmi Majlis Tahaffuz Khatm-e-Nubuwwat, which the press translates as the Committee for the Protection of the Finality of the Prophethood, or the Movement for the Finality of the Prophet, or the Organisation of the Finality of the Prophet. Pakistan said that Shaikh's accuser was the head of Majlis-e-Khatam-e-Nabuwwat. That organisation dispatched a mob to the medical school and to the police station, and threatened to burn them down if action was not urgently taken against Shaikh. Capital Homeopathic College, without explanation, suspended Shaikh on 3 October 2000.
In August 2001, defended by a lawyer, Shaikh went to trial. The judgement was rendered at Adyala Jail, which was under vigil by armed Islamic zealots. On 18 August, the trial judge, Safdar Hussain, ordered the death penalty as well as a 100,000 rupee fine. The judge declared, “He deserves to be hanged for making derogatory remarks against the Prophet." Shaikh is the third Muslim to be sentenced to death under Pakistan's blasphemy laws.
IHEU, Amnesty International
, Mukto-Mona and Sea of Faith
launched a campaign to win Shaikh's release. Demonstrations on his behalf occurred outside the Pakistani Embassies in London, Washington, and several other western capitals.
Shaikh appealed to the High Court. There the two presiding judges differed on whether the judgement should stand. On 15 July 2002, the case went to a senior judge. On 9 October 2003, the senior judge announced that the original judgement was unsound. He ordered a retrial.
The retrial was held over three sessions in November 2003. Shaikh did not use a lawyer to defend him because of threats to his lawyers by the extremist Mullah and Pakistani Taliban; he defended himself on points of law as he had secretly studied law books during his 3 years incaceration in the Death cell. On 21 November 2003, the trial judge acquitted Shaikh on legal grounds, and ordered that he be released. Commenting on the judgement, Shaikh explained: “The judge accepted my legal arguments and found the charges against me to be baseless. My accusers, two Mullahs and some Islamist students, had lied while under the oath on the Holy Koran.” He described his ordeal as: “Islamic terrorism through the abuse of law and of the state apparatus”. Sheikh tried to sue his accusers, the mullahs and the Taliban. However, a fatwa was issued against him and he had to leave his family, friends and country.
Punjabi language
Punjabi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by inhabitants of the historical Punjab region . For Sikhs, the Punjabi language stands as the official language in which all ceremonies take place. In Pakistan, Punjabi is the most widely spoken language...
, , born 30 May 1952} is a Pakistani medical doctor, human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
activist and freethinker
Freethought
Freethought is a philosophical viewpoint that holds that opinions should be formed on the basis of science, logic, and reason, and should not be influenced by authority, tradition, or other dogmas...
.
When he was a teacher at a medical college in Islamabad
Islamabad
Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan and the tenth largest city in the country. Located within the Islamabad Capital Territory , the population of the city has grown from 100,000 in 1951 to 1.7 million in 2011...
, Shaikh was an active member of the South Asia Peace Movement and of the International Humanist and Ethical Union
International Humanist and Ethical Union
The International Humanist and Ethical Union is an umbrella organisation embracing humanist, atheist, rationalist, secular, skeptic, freethought and Ethical Culture organisations worldwide. Founded in Amsterdam in 1952, the IHEU is a democratic union of more than 100 member organizations in 40...
(IHEU). He took part in the Pakistan-India Forum for Peace and Democracy, and was a member of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. A free-thinker, he founded Enlightenment, an organization associated with the IHEU.
In October 2000, Pakistani authorities charged Shaikh with blasphemy
Blasphemy
Blasphemy is irreverence towards religious or holy persons or things. Some countries have laws to punish blasphemy, while others have laws to give recourse to those who are offended by blasphemy...
. A judge ordered that he pay a fine of 100,000 rupees, and sentenced him to death by hanging
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
. On 20 November 2003, a court acquitted Shaikh, who fled Pakistan for Europe soon thereafter.
Early life and education
Younus Shaikh was born, as one of a pair of twins, to a European mother and an Asian father and adopted by a family in Punjab, Pakistan. He was given a Muslim name and identity, and raised in a rather strict and repressive Islamic way by his Pakistani Islamic foster parents. (He did not know that they were his foster parents till the age of 35 years when he met his mirror-image, his twin and became conscious of the reality, however he maintained the sacredness of family relation with his parents, brothers and sisters as well as other relatives). He studied Koran in Islamic madrassas along with secular education in schools and college. At school he wanted to take part in scouting and school band but as these were found to be rather un-Islamic so his parents refused permission, therefore he engaged himself in reading children's literature and fiction of writers like Manto, Bedi and Krishan Chandar. During his college studies, he kept himself busy in reading different translations and tafseers-exegesis- of the Islamic holy book Koran; as an Islamic religious civil war of words was going on in the city so he read different books written by proponents and opponents of different Islamic sects like Deobandi, Brelvi, Wahabi, Shia and Sunni. He also found time to read books on Islamic history, history of the independence of the subcontinent Indo-Pak, particularly books by Abwl Kalam Azad, different works of historical and social fiction, and rebellious poetry of poets like Sahir Ludhianvi and Faiz Ahemd Faiz, as well as Iqbal and Ghalib, along with playing hockey, Badminton and card games.After getting through the pre-Medical exams, he went to the Nishtar medical College Multan and earned a M.B.B.S. degree. In October 1979 he went to Ireland for postgraduate training in Surgery; he passed FRCS (Part I) from Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and started working in a hospital in summer of 1980. He worked in different hospitals in Ireland, N.Ireland, Scotland and England in different branches of Surgery; he was offered a long-term job conditional to his permanent stay in N.Ireland, however, he preferred to go back to Pakistan and serve his own people.
Background
On his return to Pakistan, he worked at Aga Khan University Hospital Karachi, practised as a general medical practiioner, then taught at Capital Medical College, G/9 Markaz IslamabadIslamabad
Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan and the tenth largest city in the country. Located within the Islamabad Capital Territory , the population of the city has grown from 100,000 in 1951 to 1.7 million in 2011...
.
Shaikh studied Journalism and attained a diploma in Journalism from Islamabad; he was active in intellectual, literary and social circles and he regularly attended the meetings of the Halqa Arbab i Zoaq in Lahore and later in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Shaikh attracted the attention of Islamic fundamentalists
Islamic fundamentalism
Islamic fundamentalism is a term used to describe religious ideologies seen as advocating a return to the "fundamentals" of Islam: the Quran and the Sunnah. Definitions of the term vary. According to Christine L...
because as protest against the extremist Islamic Mullahism and fundamentalists' atrocities on the name of Islam, he gave up Islam, and as a member of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, he wrote letters to President Musharraf and different newspapers about Islamic attacks on peace-loving Ahemedis-a minority group, a former Muslim sect expelled from Islam, as well as he campaigned about the human rights of women, of Hindus, Christians and liberal, secular Muslims. He also took part in the Pakistan-India Forum for Peace and Democracy, and was a member of the South Asian Fraternity, South Asian Union. He also expressed disquiet and exposed the horrors of the Pakistan Army atrocities in Bengal in 1971. He founded Enlightenment, an organization associated with the International Humanist and Ethical Union, in 1990.
Shaikh lives in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. He is an Honorary Associate of Rationalist International
Rationalist International
Rationalist International is an organization with the stated aim to represent a rational view of the world, making the voice of reason heard and considered where public opinion is formed and decisions are made.- Rationalism :...
and an Honorary member of Mukto-mona, a secular organization for Bengali humanists and freethinkers.
Alleged blasphemy
Shaikh's blasphemy was alleged to have occurred at a lecture he allegedly gave on 2 October 2000 at Capital Medical College. The accusation was that, during the lecture, Shaikh said that MuhammadMuhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
did not become a Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
until the age of 40 (the age at which he apparently received the first message from God), and also that his's parents were non-Muslims because they died before Islam existed, and furthermore that he wed, at 25, without an Islamic marriage contract, and that he was unlikely to have been circumcised or to have shaved under his armpits or to have shaved his pubic hair, because those practices were unknown to his tribe.
Shaikh denied that this lecture even took place, and denied that he had said what was alleged. In a letter to Babu Gogineni of the IHEU, Shaikh offered an explanation of why a charge was made against him; he claimed (albeit without corroborating evidence against the people he accused):
- 1. On 1 October 2000 I attended a meeting of South Asian Union addressed by an (alleged) ISI (Inter Services Intelligence) Brig. Shaukat QadirShaukat QadirShaukat Qadir is an independent Risk and Security Analyst on South Asia in general and Pakistan and Afghanistan in particular. He started his career as a pilot in the Pakistan Air Force and then moved to the Pakistan Army retiring in 1998 as a Brigadier...
(retd.) also (allegedly) running a religious-political association of Jamait – I – Islami. I asked a couple of questions about South Asian peace and Kashmir which offended him and he returned a threat ("Rebuttal"). There were foreign office policy makers and newsmen sitting there.
- 2. Within 48 hours, a foreign office employee who was also my student at the medical college where I used to lecture at the morning time, prepared an application against me, alleging blasphemous remarks in their class and gave it to a cleric, who improving upon the complaint, accused me of a specific instance of 2-10-2000 in the class of IInd year male students and registered the case with the Police.
According to press reports, eleven students, all the students in Shaikh's class, signed a letter attesting to Shaikh's blasphemy. The cleric who received the letter was a member of an organisation known to harass and to attack non-orthodox Muslims. The reports call the organisation Aalmi Majlis Tahaffuz Khatm-e-Nubuwwat, which the press translates as the Committee for the Protection of the Finality of the Prophethood, or the Movement for the Finality of the Prophet, or the Organisation of the Finality of the Prophet. Pakistan said that Shaikh's accuser was the head of Majlis-e-Khatam-e-Nabuwwat. That organisation dispatched a mob to the medical school and to the police station, and threatened to burn them down if action was not urgently taken against Shaikh. Capital Homeopathic College, without explanation, suspended Shaikh on 3 October 2000.
Trial
Section 295C of Pakistan's Penal Code says "whoever by the words, either spoken or written, or by visible representation, or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly, defiles the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad shall be punished with the death sentence or imprisonment for life and shall be liable to fine." A charge under Section 295C requires that the accused be kept in custody. Pursuant to Section 295C, the police arrested Shaikh on 4 October 2000. He was held in Adyala Gaol, Rawalpindi.In August 2001, defended by a lawyer, Shaikh went to trial. The judgement was rendered at Adyala Jail, which was under vigil by armed Islamic zealots. On 18 August, the trial judge, Safdar Hussain, ordered the death penalty as well as a 100,000 rupee fine. The judge declared, “He deserves to be hanged for making derogatory remarks against the Prophet." Shaikh is the third Muslim to be sentenced to death under Pakistan's blasphemy laws.
IHEU, Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
, Mukto-Mona and Sea of Faith
Sea of Faith
The Sea of Faith Network aims to explore and promote religious faith as a human creation.-History:The SoF movement started in 1984 as a response to Don Cupitt's book and television series, both titled Sea of Faith...
launched a campaign to win Shaikh's release. Demonstrations on his behalf occurred outside the Pakistani Embassies in London, Washington, and several other western capitals.
Shaikh appealed to the High Court. There the two presiding judges differed on whether the judgement should stand. On 15 July 2002, the case went to a senior judge. On 9 October 2003, the senior judge announced that the original judgement was unsound. He ordered a retrial.
The retrial was held over three sessions in November 2003. Shaikh did not use a lawyer to defend him because of threats to his lawyers by the extremist Mullah and Pakistani Taliban; he defended himself on points of law as he had secretly studied law books during his 3 years incaceration in the Death cell. On 21 November 2003, the trial judge acquitted Shaikh on legal grounds, and ordered that he be released. Commenting on the judgement, Shaikh explained: “The judge accepted my legal arguments and found the charges against me to be baseless. My accusers, two Mullahs and some Islamist students, had lied while under the oath on the Holy Koran.” He described his ordeal as: “Islamic terrorism through the abuse of law and of the state apparatus”. Sheikh tried to sue his accusers, the mullahs and the Taliban. However, a fatwa was issued against him and he had to leave his family, friends and country.
See also
- Apostasy in IslamApostasy in IslamApostasy in Islam is commonly defined in Islam as the rejection in word or deed of one's former religion by a person who was previously a follower of Islam...
- BlasphemyBlasphemyBlasphemy is irreverence towards religious or holy persons or things. Some countries have laws to punish blasphemy, while others have laws to give recourse to those who are offended by blasphemy...
- Blasphemy law in PakistanBlasphemy law in PakistanThe Pakistan Penal Code prohibits blasphemy against any recognized religion, providing penalties ranging from a fine to death. However, in practice, it is only applied to Islam. An accusation of blasphemy commonly subjects the accused, police, lawyers, and judges to harassment, threats, and attacks...
- List of former Muslims