Gross Violation of Indian Fundamental Rights
India is a secular nation through its constitutional framework. The founding members and our lawmakers had drafted, reviewed and enacted the Constitution as the guiding principle of our democracy in 1950 and it remains sacrosanct today, with more than a hundred amendments during the period though. The Supreme Court (SC) of India is supposed to be the apex body as the ultimate interpreter and saviour of constitutional provisions. Numerous people have knocked at the SC doors in the middle of the nights when they felt that their fundamental rights were under threat. There have been occasions when the SC has taken suo moto cognisance of the happenings in the nation but only randomly, maybe with a partisan approach. For whatever reasons, they fail to observe that Quranic religious teaching has been violating the Indian Fundamental Rights of believers of other faiths but chose to remain mum.
It is no secret that some of the Quranic verses violate Indian Fundamental Rights. Earlier PIL and Writ Petition had been filed in Kolkata HC and the Supreme Court on a different connotation of those verses to be inflammatory and encouraging terrorism. The WP was dismissed. None have challenged Quranic Verses as violating Fundamental Rights. However, there are several technical and other catches in filing any such cases as below: -
- Quran is no law that SC can review. However, Muslim Law as part of the Indian Constitution permits Muslims to follow Quran and on that pretext, any verse that violates any provision of the Constitution qualifies to be reviewed by the SC.
- SC reviews only those constitutional provisions (incl those of fundamental rights) that are brought before them through a review petition, Constitutional review or a PIL.
- SC interprets and decides the provisions only within a narrow and constricted cone of vision shown by the advocates; and there lay the problems…that the visibility provided to the SC is highly dependent on the merit, intellect, expertise and motive of the advocates presenting the case. As a result, the SC verdicts have lacked the vision needed to see the problems.
- As humans are prone to making errors, all works of humans in any sphere of life are prone to errors; be that the provisions of the Constitution or its saviour, the SC judges.
Is Quran Violating Fundamental Rights?
Article 25(i) of the Constitution of India stipulates the Fundamental Rights to Religion “Subject to public order, morality and health and to the other provisions of this Part, all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practice and propagate religion”. The other clauses of this article are left untouched at this juncture as they only add some other provisions that may dilute the first clause.
It is felt that the Indian State and our politicians have long been short-sighted in ignoring the fact that certain practices of religion have been long violating these fundamental rights. If any religion discriminates between the followers of various religions and faiths, it is violating the fundamental rights of equality (articles 15, prohibition from discrimination ). If any religion professes to demean the followers of another faith/religion like Quran does against the believer of other faiths & religions, it too violates ones’ fundamental rights of freedom (articles 19, freedom of belief). The worst is the case if a religion professes to punish the followers of other faiths/religions with death/burning in the fire as stipulated in some verses of Quran; it violates article 21 (right to life & liberty). Besides, some of the customs and practices of Islamic religious books like loud Azan, offering namaz on public places do create or potentiate a situation of public disorder and morality thus violating Article 25 of Fundamental Rights.
The Ambiguity of Interpretation of Quranic Verses
It is acknowledged that many of the verses quoted below are in isolation but inferred in continuity with preceding or succeeding verses many of which have perceptional ambiguity. If a cleric wants to play down the offensive contents of these verses, he would try to mellow it down with other verses quoted elsewhere. It is also emphasised that most of the Quranic verses are for instilling the faith of Muslims in their Allah and doing good for fellow Muslims (referred as 'believers'). However, lot many verses are highly critical of the non-Muslims who follow faith in Gods other than Allah. They are termed disbelievers. Disbelievers in Quran are looked down in varying grades of simple discrimination, to hateful & intolerant expressions often of bigotry when it awards punishments like death, burning in fire and so on...only because they believe in God other than Islamic Allah that any person in secular, non-Islamic states have the freedom to do. Yet, there is a separate chapter 109 of a single verse on ‘Disbeliever’ that is silent of all prior expressions mentioned in the preceding chapters. ”
The readers are cautioned not to go by the simple and moderated English translations having deliberately mellowed the tone and tenor of ‘hate and incitement’ to avoid catching eyes of the laws. However, the Arabic verses are extremely divisive although some having dual meanings too; eg hateful if explained by the ultra-radical Imams and mild if explained to prove it non-intolerant.
Islam fulfils Allah’s wishes through the believer's (Muslim's) hands (Quran chapter 9 verse 14) for which 7th tenet of ‘Jihad’ has been created in Islam that acts in accordance of the wishes of their Allah. Wherever Quranic verses mention “Allah will judge/see” it means that the Jihad wing implements those wishes of their Allah. Similarly, wherever Quran mentions of “painful torment/subjecting to raging fire of hell/abode or dwelling of fire/creating terror/killing polytheist/find death etc etc”, these wishes of their Allah is understood to be met through Jihad wing of Islam. Islamic Jihad and terrorism are born out of these Quranic verses.
Some Objectionable/Abusive Verses of Quran
Let us consider some examples of the verses distinctly indulgent in discrimination, hate, intolerance and bigotry preached in Quran against non-Muslim faiths/religions. Quran is highly hateful against polytheists and worshippers of idols (like Hindus) termed as idolators. There are several verses that violate dignity, often prescribing punishments to the disbelievers, polytheists and worshippers of idols. A few such Quranic verses are reproduced, repeat Reproduced below:-
Chapter 2 (Heifer), Verse 191 incites to kill the believers of other faiths/religions thus violating the right to life.
Chapter 3 (Family of Imran), Verse 151 is discriminatory, hateful, bigoted and also threatens the right to life.
Chapter 4 (The Woman) Verse 56 is also hateful, intolerant, bigoted and threatens life with the worst forms of violence.
Chapter 6 ‘Livestock’ verse 106 lays down the Islamic concept that there is no other god (what polytheists believe) except Allah. This is discriminatory as Quran cannot discredit or deny the presence of various Gods that believers of other religions/faiths worship. This verse deserves to be amended.
Chapter 9 ‘Repentance’ verses 2, 3, 5, 17, 28, 68 & 73 make many discriminatory, hateful and offensively bigoted statements against believers of religions/faiths other than Islam, polytheists and worshippers of Gods through idols. In verse 2 Quran threatens that Allah will disgrace the believers of other religions which is a hateful offensively bigoted statement. Worse, verse 5 threatens the polytheists to kill them because of their religion. : -
Chapter 10 ‘Jonah’, verse 105 again demeans and discredits the religion of polytheism. How can this verse of Quran be preached in nations where polytheism is preached and practised? Claiming that monotheism is true religion, Quran discredits Hinduism..
Chapter 14 ‘Abraham’ verse 2 is highly discriminatory that wishes the believers of other religions the woes and torments because of their belief in other Gods..
Chapter 18 ‘The Cave’, verse 100 is discriminatory, and hateful towards the believers of Gods other than Allah. All such verses that announce hell, fire, torments etc to the non-Muslims only because of their faith don't deserve to be preached in nations where all religions are regarded as equals.
Chapter 22 ‘The Pilgrimage’, verse 17
Chapter 33 ‘The Confederates’ verses 8, 64, 73.
Chapter 41 (Detailed), Verses 27, 28.
Chapter 48 “The Victory” verses 6, 13
Chapter 66 (Prohibition), Verse 9
The above are only a few examples. Quran has numerous such verses that are indulgent of varying degrees of insults. Their hate & intolerance are often specifically directed against Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians. They even go to the extent of calling Abraham a Muslim; something that infuriates the Jews (read Quran, Chapter ‘Family of Imran’ verse 67, chapter ‘The Pilgrimage’ verse 78, ). No wonder Jews and Christians often get infuriated and often burn Quran for such demeaning verses like the one given below:-
Impacts of above verses on Non-Muslims
Believers of religions and faiths other than Islam would have given a damn to Quran if it had not shown discrimination, disrespect, hate, intolerance and even bigotry against them. It is highly condemnable as the quoted verses will be absolutely unacceptable to those specially named such as Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, Polytheists (faiths other than Islam & Christian) and Idol Worshippers (Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Taoism etc). As explained above, hate and intolerance contained in Quran has given rise to the present forms of Islamic Terrorism with which entire world is engulfed in. Many have the opinion that Quran should either be amended or banned in all non-Islamic nations. It is incompatible with secularism, multi-ethnicity and democracies. It violates many the Human Rights that was why Cairo Declaration by mainly the Islamic Countries had taken a different recourse.
It must be acknowledged that Hindus have immense tolerance not to take up arms when a Muslim cleric publicly demeaned the supreme Hindu God as Muslim (read “असहिष्णु अल्लाह की तुलना सनातनी ॐकार से क्यों ?” https://thecounterviews.com/articles/comparing-om-with-allah/). Imagine if someone calls Mohamed (whom Muslims consider a prophet) a Jew or Christian. The entire Muslim world will be in arms. Further, it is highly condemnable of Quranic Chapter 6 ‘Livestock’ verse 106 (the first verse quoted above in this article) where it says there is no God other than Allah. All these only confirm Quran is highly offensive to the gods of other faiths. Whether framed by Mohamed or the other contemporary Caliphs; Abu Bakr, Umar and Usman. Islam is also vengenceful and violent in its response to incite all Muslims of the world to go into arms if anyone says anything about Quran or its main author, Mohamed (whom they refer as Nabi, a prophet). Hate chants like "Sar Tan se Juda" etc are such expressions. The world is witness to the many violent Islamic protests/acts in France, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh or elsewhere (read “New Islamo-Fascism in World”, https://thecounterviews.com/articles/islamo-fascism-paris-jihadi-attack-macron-pakistan-turkey-malaysia-mahathir-muslims-islam-radical/).
Pseudo-secularism Affecting Court Verdicts
Just like the pseudo-secularist Congress party of India treats Muslims and Quran as holy cow, Indian Supreme Courts and High Courts too have had knee-jerk reactions in their many verdicts on this matter. Long back, Calcutta High Court had rejected a plea in this regard in 1985 essentially because the advocate arguing the case could not lay stress on the discriminatory, hateful, intolerant and bigoted verses of Quran that impinged on fundamental rights. The High Court mentioned that it was not within the jurisdiction of the court to decide on banning the Quran or holy books of other religions; unable to visualize that it clearly impinged on the fundamental rights of non-Muslim citizens.
The latest among these was the verdict on Md Waseem Rizvi's PIL in the SC (WP 401/2021) for the removal of 26 hateful verses of Quran that the SC of India dismissed the application calling it “absolutely frivolous” owing to the technicalities in the petition because he didn’t have a highly skilled or renowned advocate arguing the case. Otherwise, how on Earth can the SC overlook those verses of Quran as violating fundamental rights?
Irrelevance of Some Verses in Current Times
A lot many Muslims also feel that many of the verses applied to Mohamed’s initial efforts in overcoming the resistance while He was trying to enforce Islam on to the Arabian Tribes during the 7th century. They feel many verses are no longer applicable; esp in secular and democratic nations. However, they don’t speak against Quran for the fear of reprisals by radicals and jihadists as happened in Rizvi’s case too. Supreme Court was also possibly wrong in suggesting the case be put up before Islamic scholars because those verses are hateful to all non-Muslims. Actually, the SC is the right platform for the hateful Quranic Verses to be reviewed.
Conversion Game of Quran
There is another dimension to the Indians' (esp Hindu) concerns and unease that pertains to religious conversion. In numerous verses of Quran, the disbelievers are compelled to turn 'believers' by converting. Mohamed and other Caliphs of Islam did it with a mandate of "Convert, Flee or Die" that denies the Fundamental rights of non-Muslims to live and practice their own religion; something that we see happening in Islamic nations and even in J&K (read"“Looking Back at Ralive, Tsalive ya Galive : January 1990 Genocide of Kashmiri Pandits”. https://thecounterviews.com/articles/ralive-tsalive-ya-galive-january-1990-genocide-kashmiri-pandits/). Such practices of conversions changing religious demography cannot be permitted in India. It violates article 25 (i) giving freedom to preach religion but it doesn’t give freedom to change the religious demography of India at the cost of the Hindus. It is a foregone conclusion that if Muslims become majority in India, Hindus will vanish; something that is bound to cause genocide of Hindus/Sikhs/Christians, prevalent in Islamic nations.
Concluding Thoughts
The author of this article is no advocate or practitioner of laws; he is only a student and learner of Human Rights. From the Human rights point of view, the above verses in Quran are undoubtedly discriminatory, hateful, intolerant and even bigoted against non-Muslims of India violating their fundamental Rights of Equality, Freedom and Religion. There are many other verses too that could be considered offensive for Hindus who are polytheists and worshippers of idols. Hence, it may be appropriate for the Supreme Court of India to constitute a committee of religious experts from all those religions and faiths abused/demeaned in Quran (like Christianity, Jew, Zoroastrian, Polytheist & Idol-worshipper of India) so as to go in details and assess if any or many of the verses of Quran are offensive to them and submit the report. Thereafter, the SC may form an opinion on whether those need to be removed from Quran or not.