Mounting Religious Intolerance in Our Youth
By: Uzair Salman
You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place or worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed — that has nothing to do with the business of the State” were the words the founder of this country of ours – Quaid e Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah – mouthed on the 11th of August, just days before we broke the shackles and won ourselves independence. To walk the talk, he nominated to his cabinet a Hindu, an Ahmadi and some Shias. One doesn’t find in this anything pertaining to Pakistan having been founded with a staunch religious end in mind.Although the start of the film was promising, what followed it has been disturbingly horrifying.
Pakistan’s history can be found replete with crimes committed in the name of religion. People ever so effortlessly make each other fall prey to the bullets in their guns and subject to their fatwas because of very minor and oftentimes, futile differences.
A judicial inquiry commission – headed by Supreme Court Justice Mohammed Munir and Punjab High Court Justice Muhammad Rustam Kayani – produced a report wherein it was put into words that“No two learned divines are agreed on this fundamental. If we attempt our own definition as each learned divine has done and that definition differs from that given by all others, we unanimously go out of the fold of Islam. And if we adopt the definition given by any one of the ulema, we remain Muslims according to the view of that alim [scholar] but kafirs according to the definition of everyone else”. This report was brought forth on account of the differences of opinion the scholars of different sects had had as to what should the constitution look like, and how Islamic should it be. The seeds of extremism and intolerance were sown long before this country of ours became a teenager.
In 2012 and 2013 alone, Shias during their religious observances, Ahmadis, Christians, Hindus and Sikhs were subject to 67, 54, 37, 16 and 3 dreadful attacks respectively while the perpetrators were left to breathe freely in open air.
In their quest for making Pakistan “pure”, these extremists have never shied away from going to all lengths humanly possible for them. Anybody who dares to opine against injustices of this kind are made to meet the same fate as those who they raise their voices for.
Deplorably, this doesn’t seem to be decreasing, and each time an effort is done to cut such intolerant acts back, they regrow more strongly than before like a lizard’s tail regenerates no matter how many times you cut it.
The questions one needs to address are; what makes an individual be hypnotized to an extent that he finds no harm in killing others and ruining their families’ lives in a moment shorter than the blink of an eye? Could it be that the ruling elite has been using and manipulating religious sensitivities to their advantage? Or is it because of the lack of knowledge inthese culprits?Whatever the answers to the aforesaid queries, the future seems frightening.
What this article aims at is how the youth – a lion’s share of this country’s population – has regrettably been involved in carrying through such intolerant acts lately.
Mashal Khan – a student at the Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan – was put to death rather brutally on 13th April 2017 by an angry mob comprising of young students over allegations that he had blasphemed against the Prophet (P.B.U.H) and had given tongue to sacrilegious remarks as regards Islam and God. The fact that his murder was cherished brings tears to eyes.
Back in 2010, a Christian woman christened Asia Bibi was attacked by young men in order to set her and her home ablaze owing to alleged accusations against her insulting the Prophet (P.B.U.H) during a heated debate with Muslim women in her village.
Islamic International University Islamabad in September this yeardespite earlier permission laid off students from holding a cultural event owing to the pressure exerted by IslamiJamiat e Talaba – Jamaat e Islami’s student wing– that is known for its extremism and radical ideologies.
It is allegedly said that the latter believed that the cultural event was un-Islamic in nature in that it was supposed to be accompanied by a showcase of cultural music and dance. What this portrays is that it has become as evident as the sun on a blazing hot day that the Muslims – religious in particular – have forgotten the advantages fine arts can render. No wonder we are driven by emotions so easily.
A few months ago, a rabble had gathered outside the homes of Ahmadis in Chak 368 village, Layyah, Punjab, and intended to beat them and burn their houses down. The police didn’t help either,and in lieu of dissipating or arresting the wrongdoers, it arrested the local president of the Ahmadiya community owing to (false) complaints of blasphemy.Our religion certainly doesn’t sanction and greenlight such inhumane acts.
One form of intolerance is being negligent towards criticisms expressed against your leader, or for that matter, against anybody you espouse. It depicts the lack of tolerance and know-how.
A few months ago, Imran Khan went with his wife to Baba Farid’s shrine allegedly to pray that his party comes in the majority in the general elections held in July this year. The internet was taken by storm owing to this act of his. I refrained to the best of my patience from giving tongue to anything apropos this matter, and waited for him to speak up against the accusations he had been labelled with and justify his action, but after watching his interview, and also rather over-solicitously the video wherein he could manifestly be seen prostrating to the shrine, I was forced to say with utter disappointment that this act was the result of his sheer ignorance of his position as a national politician and as someone who wished to become the Prime Minister of a people the majority of whom consider such an act impermissible no matter who does it, and why it’s done.
What is more, I accentuated ever so vehemently that his followers should stop bringing forth naïve justifications as to what he “actually” did, and why he did so. They weren’t ready to face accusations – however imputable – voiced against their leader.
What needs to be done? Educational institutions no matter of which kind should look into this matter seriously and should countenance their students to become proponents of pluralism and tolerance, and not their adversaries. Students need to be trained and taught advantages of being able to stand differences, and that doing so will help them learn, and unlearn. The Prophet (P.B.U.H) of mercy and tolerance – who didn’t utter a word when a non-Muslim woman threw her garbage on Him for three uninterrupted days and when on the fourth day the Prophet didn’t find her do so, He inquired about her and when He was told that she was sick, He went to her home – needs to be taught and not the one to whose name violence and intolerance have been ascribed by those that either fail to understand why He did what He did, or intentionally try to badmouth His image.
Reading should also be kicked upstairs, and workshops and seminars need to be conducted to help in the portrayal of a positive image of our Prophet (P.B.U.H) so as to enable the youth to know what the Former accentuated.
Because tolerance can seldom be very patronising, the virtues of ‘acceptance’ also need to be taught. Tolerance could sometimes only mean magnanimously indulging someone in their right to be wrong; whereas acceptance would mean accepting each other’s truth and not belittling.
From our Print Edition
