Killing People in the Name of the Quran

The Quran is such a book whose fanatic supporters can beat an innocent person to death and burn them alive!

Do you remember? On October 29, 2020, at the Burimari Land Port Central Jame Mosque in Patgram Upazila of Lalmonirhat, a man named Shahidunnabi Jewel (50) was beaten and burned to death by thousands of fanatical Tawhidi mobs over an extreme rumor of Quran desecration. Do you know how his Quran was disrespected? He was actually a devout Muslim. After performing his prayers, he took the Quran in his hands to recite it. His hand slipped and the Quran fell to the ground – that was considered his act of disrespect toward the Quran!

In various Islamic countries around the world, many people have been sentenced to death in courts over allegations of blasphemy against the Quran and religion. Even in 2023, two people were executed in Iran over allegations of Quran desecration on social media. Currently, more than 40 people in Pakistan are on death row for charges related to blasphemy against the Quran and religion. The number of people killed extrajudicially or by mob lynching over allegations of Quran desecration or blasphemy is even higher than those executed officially. According to human rights organizations, in Pakistan alone, since 1987, more than 90 people have been killed through mob lynching or personal attacks over blasphemy accusations. Similar incidents of mob violence and burning people alive over rumors or allegations of Quran desecration have occurred in Bangladesh, Nigeria, and several other countries. Last year, in 2025, here in Bangladesh, Dipu Chandra Das was brutally beaten and burned to death.

What kind of book is this, where placing it somewhere inappropriately is considered desecration, dust settling on it is desecration, touching it without ablution is desecration, placing a cup of tea on it is desecration? Even making humor about some parts of it becomes desecration. And for that, a person can be killed! Asif Mohiuddin and Taslima Nasrin once (probably in London) placed a cup of tea on the Quran during a discussion. And then what happened! The devout Muslim society of Bangladesh flooded social media with insults, threats, and abuse—had they been within reach, they would have killed them. Again, stepping on this book is considered desecration, flushing it in a toilet is also considered desecration! A book full of mythical, inhuman, unscientific stories—someone can buy it with money and do whatever they want with it. Why even buy this book? Just a waste of money.

For the sake of argument, even if you assume the Quran and Hadith were somewhat relevant 1400 years ago, today they have nothing worth considering by any standard of civilization. Reading the Quran and Hadith is simply a waste of valuable time. In developed countries, ordinary students in schools and colleges do not think about these religious texts at all; many do not even know the names of religious scriptures. We have to read the Quran and Hadith because we speak Bangla and were born in Bangladesh, where a large number of people believe these to be the greatest source of knowledge in the world. People in this region, influenced by these beliefs and ideologies, carry out violent acts, kill people, vandalize places of worship of other religions, and burn down homes. We have no choice but to examine these books to expose their emptiness and highlight their dark aspects. Even to respond to the irrational, illogical, fallacy-filled questions of the Tawhidi masses, we have to read them.

If you question the Quran and its author, extremist followers of Islam in Bangladesh become ready to slit your throat. What is there in such a book that can create millions of fanatics worldwide? To know this, one has to read the Quran and Hadith. But this time is simply wasted. These are stagnant knowledge or misinformation. Knowledge is something that must flow, must lead to new knowledge. Even if Newton’s laws are considered accurate for now, if someone proves them wrong, people would accept that conclusion. But you cannot correct any errors in the Quran, even if you want to—there is no such option in Islam. Their belief is that no error can exist in it.

You do not even need to read everything to prove Islam and the Quran wrong. The claim is that it is a divine book, its messenger is the greatest human, a model for all times, with no wrongdoing—if even one mistake is shown against that claim, the bubble of superiority should burst. Yet there are hundreds of mistakes, unscientific, absurd, inhumane, harmful, superstitious, and cruel elements in the Quran and Hadith. How can this book, this religion, and its prophet be divine? Even without reading them, with simple common sense, one can understand whether modern science, modern law, welfare economics, public welfare state systems, universal healthcare, and the concept of human rights and human dignity are better—or the Quran and Hadith with their mythical tales. You do not need to be a rocket scientist to solve this simple equation. The problem is that the inflated balloon of Islam forcefully embedded in minds from childhood makes it hard for the Tawhidi masses to come out of it.

The picture of the fire is not AI-generated; it is a real photograph from that 2020 incident where the innocent man was burned to death by Tawhidi mobs.