The Reality
Religious hatred takes many forms — from mob violence triggered by a whispered accusation to laws that carry the death penalty for leaving a faith or questioning a text. Pakistan's blasphemy laws (Sections 295-B and 295-C) have been used to imprison and sentence to death Christians, Ahmadis, Hindus, Shia Muslims, and Sufis — often on fabricated charges, often followed by extrajudicial mob killings before any trial. Asia Bibi spent eight years on death row for allegedly insulting the Prophet in a dispute over a cup of water. Across the world, atheists and agnostics face imprisonment, torture, and execution for the crime of non-belief. In several countries, apostasy — leaving Islam — is legally punishable by death. In India, the rise of Hindu nationalist politics under BJP-aligned movements has brought a surge of violence against Muslims — cow vigilante lynchings, mosque demolitions, anti-Muslim hate speech from elected officials, the Citizenship Amendment Act that excluded Muslims from its protections, and the systematic erasure of Muslim history from school curricula. The 2020 Delhi riots killed dozens. Entire Muslim neighborhoods have been bulldozed as collective punishment. A country that was born from Gandhi's vision of pluralism is watching that vision be dismantled brick by brick. Religious hatred is not only a phenomenon of the East. In the United States, including Texas, Christian nationalist movements have directed open hostility toward Muslims and Hindus — treating them as foreign threats to a 'Christian nation' rather than as neighbors and fellow citizens. Mosques and Hindu temples have been vandalized. Politicians have used anti-Muslim and anti-Hindu rhetoric as electoral strategy. The logic is identical to every other form of religious hatred: our God is the real God, and your presence here is a problem. Underneath all of it is the same ancient lie: that God needs human beings to punish other human beings for their beliefs. The Sufi tradition has always known this is a lie.
The Sufi Response
Bulleh Shah was expelled from his own Muslim community for choosing a spiritual teacher of a lower caste. He was called a heretic, a kafir, an apostate. He was refused burial in his hometown. He knew exactly what religious hatred felt like — from the inside of the tradition doing the hating. And his response was not bitterness. It was one of the most radical acts in the history of religion: he kept loving. He wrote: 'Tear down the mosque, tear down the temple, tear down everything in sight — but do not break a human heart, for that is where God resides.' Blasphemy laws do not protect God. God does not need protection. They protect the powerful from being questioned. Bulleh Shah spent his entire life questioning them. He is still questioning them.
Learn more about Bulleh Shah →What We Can Do
- →Oppose blasphemy laws in Pakistan and everywhere they exist — they are instruments of persecution, not faith
- →Defend the rights of atheists, agnostics, and non-believers to exist without fear
- →Protect religious minorities — Ahmadis, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs — against mob violence and legal discrimination
- →Reject the idea that God requires human beings to punish other human beings for their beliefs
- →Support organizations defending freedom of conscience globally