• Source:JND
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Elon Musk is facing criticism online after reposting an old news story about a brutal “revenge rape” case in Pakistan while framing it as evidence of Sharia law. The incident, however, dates back to 2017 and was widely condemned both inside and outside the country.

According to reports at the time, the case occurred in the village of Muzaffarabad when a man raped a 12-year-old girl. Instead of pursuing legal action against the perpetrator, a local village council ordered the victim’s brother to rape the offender’s 16-year-old sister. The teenage girl was reportedly assaulted in front of 40 people in what was described as a “revenge rape.”

Musk’s repost of the story on X quickly sparked outrage. Netizens accused the billionaire of spreading hate against Islam by portraying the atrocity as part of Sharia law, when in fact it was carried out by a tribal council with no legal or religious authority.

Musk’s own AI chatbot, Grok, fact-checked him. In response to a query about the post, Grok stated: “The incident described is real but from 2017, not recent. A tribal council in Pakistan ordered a ‘revenge rape’ as a custom, not under Sharia law. Police arrested 25 people involved, and it’s widely condemned. The post misrepresents it as current Sharia practice. Sources: BBC, Reuters, NPR (2017 reports).”

Netizens Push Back

Social media users were quick to challenge Musk’s framing. One X user wrote: “What happened in Pakistan isn’t ‘Sharia’, it’s corruption and tribal backwardness hiding behind religion. No real faith, not Christianity, not Islam, would ever condone punishing an innocent girl for the crime of another.”

Quoting scripture, the user compared Ezekiel 18:20 from the Bible, “The soul who sins shall die”, to Qur’an 6:164, “No bearer of burdens shall bear the burden of another.” Both, the user argued, uphold the principle that only the guilty should be held accountable.

Another user pointed out that Pakistan’s Supreme Court has declared jirgas and panchayats (village councils) unlawful, citing a 2019 ruling that explicitly stated such bodies have no authority to order punishments. Police in the 2017 case arrested members of the council, and First Information Reports (FIRs) were registered.

While many condemned Musk for promoting what they saw as Islamophobic misinformation, some users defended his post, arguing that Islam itself promotes harmful practices. One wrote: “Islam forces Muslims to accept insane beliefs... The Qur’an is a demonically brilliant book that inverts the biblical narrative.”