According to sources familiar with the matter, the Karachi police in Pakistan have filed an FIR against Samsung employees under Section 298A of the Pakistan penal code. As per reports, Samsung Pakistan employees have been booked for allegedly creating a WiFi network name that was derogatory to Ummayad Dynasty Caliph Muavia.
Reports suggest that cops detained 27 other Samsung employees after an unruly mob staged violent protests all over Karachi suspecting blasphemy. According to a police official in Pakistan, they are working with the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) Cyber Crime Wing to trace the individual who installed the gadget.
In a statement, Samsung Pakistan stated that it remains neutral regarding religious views. Internal investigations into the matter had quickly commenced after the incident, said the corporation in its official statement.
What is the whole issue?
After news of alleged blasphemy by Samsung Pakistan spread, scores of Islamists from the radical Barelvi organisation Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) went on the rampage in the mobile market of Karachi, Pakistan. After discovering that the company had committed “blasphemy” against Islam, the demonstrators tore down Samsung’s billboards in the city’s mobile market and engaged in vandalism.
Initially rumours circulated that Samsung Pakistan used an ‘offensive’ QR code against Islam, and that led to mayhem on Karachi roads as TLP members took to the streets.
However, later it was revealed that the main issue was that a Samsung employee named their WiFi network after the Caliph of the Ummayad era, which was offensive to Pakistanis. The Umayyad Caliphate was the second caliphate established after the death of Prophet Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty based in Syria. The Umayyad Caliphate was founded by Muavia I who became acknowledged Caliph at the end of the First Islamic civil war in 661 AD.
Blasphemy in Pakistan
Over purported blasphemy against Prophet Muhammad and personalities in Islam, Pakistan has seen significant communal violence and rioting. An unfavourable allusion to Prophet Muhammad, or blasphemy, is commonly used as a rallying cry by Islamists to instigate murder and communal riots against ‘non-believers.’ There have been several accounts of non-Muslims being subjected to violence and barbarity in the name of blasphemy and disrespect to Prophet Muhammad or Islam.