Encyclopedia of Islam

Black Muslims

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had verbally insulted sacred Islamic beliefs or val-

ues. Insulting Muhammad or asserting that there 

will be no physical resurrection are but two of 

the many verbal actions considered blasphemous. 

Muslims and non-Muslims alike could be held 

liable on blasphemy charges, which, if proven and 

not retracted, could result in punishments ranging 

from public censure, to disinheritance, to manda-

tory divorce, to death.

Muslim jurists have enforced blasphemy laws 

only occasionally in the past. There were sev-

eral significant instances during the Middle Ages 

involving Muslim philosophers and Sufis. The 

most famous of these involved the mystic m

ansUr

al

-h

allaJ

 (d. 922), who was accused of saying, “I 

am the truth,” (i.e., God). In more recent times, 

blasphemy charges have been made against follow-

ers of the b

ahai

 F

aith

 and of the a

hmadiyya

 branch 

of Islam in p

akistan

. There was also the famous 

case of s

alman

 r

Ushdie

 (b. 1937), who was con-

demned by Muslims around the world in 1988–89 

for his imaginative novel Satanic Verses. Rushdie’s 

opponents, led by the ayatollah r

Uhollah

  k

ho

-

meini

 in Iran, said it slandered Muhammad and his 

wives, and Khomeini issued a 

FatWa

 (an advisory 

ruling based on the 

sharia

) calling for his death. 

Today, as governments in recently independent 

Muslim nation-states increasingly try to centralize 

their power and as Islamic activism escalates, some 

states and radical Islamic groups are using the 

charge of blasphemy to gain legitimacy and popu-

lar support at the expense of intellectuals, Muslim 

liberals, and non-Muslim minorities. This has 

given new life to the idea of blasphemy in Islam, 

while at the same time more and more Muslims are 

embracing the ideals of liberalism, pluralism, and 

individual freedom of belief and expression.

See also  a

bU

  z

ayd

,  n

asr

  h

amid

; 

crime

 

and

pUnishment

.