Religious Intolerance On The Rise
By Ali Ashraf Khan
30 August, 2012
The Eid holidays — as our media and the rulers wanted to make us believe-were spent in religious fervor by our population, but the number of dead bodies recovered during and after Eid can not divert our attention from the failure of government to protect the life and property of its people. The deterioration of law & order at the one hand and the rise of religious intolerance in Pakistan even during Ramazan at the other has been visible all over. The media has been reporting incidents of religiously motivated violence every day, because the government machinery appears to be oblivious of its basic responsibility to provide security and justice to its people without any discrimination on the basis of colour, cast and creed. And this not only true with regard to religious minorities like Hindus or Christians but regarding sectarian violence within the Muslim community as well.
Just during the recent month of Ramadan which should have been a month of peaceful fasting and contemplation media dinned in our ears the stories about abductions and forced conversions to Islam of Hindu girls though Islam is prohibiting any use of force in this matter.
We have heard about another accusation of blasphemy by an eleven year old Christian girl who was first reported to be mentally retarded but now reports are that a counter FIR has been registered against some 10 dozen people for instigating the simple villagers to take out protest rallies and attack on the alleged minor’s family, no arrest of these people has so far been made. Ahmadis have also been targets of violence and there is a growing killing spree against Shias going on in Balochistan where the Hazara community is living a life of persecution and in Gilgit Balitistan where last week another twenty two Shias were killed when a bus was intercepted and the Shias picked out and executed there and then who were returning home to celebrate Eid with their families. This has again enraged anger and people in Skardu and Gilgit did not celebrate Eid and are demonstrating for last few days against failure of government in protecting life and property of people.
These incidents are frightening. They disturb whatsoever peace and security is left in our country. The social fabric of our cities and towns, villages and neighborhoods is damaged. Here people of different religions and sects have been living side by side for centuries. Pakistan was created in order to give Muslims a state where they could be in a majority and arrange their lives according to the tenets of Islam. There is no fear now that Hindus would overpower Muslims or that Christianity would grow to outnumber Muslims. Muslims are the fastest growing community in Pakistan and worldwide.
So where does the violence come from? It can’t be fear, it has to be frustration due to economic disparity and intolerance, the inability to accept different opinions, religious believes, ideologies. Our Holy Book Quran teaches us to respect all the Prophets and divine religions prior to the finality of religion and Prophet hood. But the promotion of this attitude of intolerance and violence under the patronage of vested interest groups and state institutions in Pakistan is a dangerous development.
Intolerance is the trade mark of Taliban mindset and looking at the facts from this angle it seems that Taliban mindset is spreading fast because of the one sided propaganda and killing of innocent children, men and women by drones attacks and use of the fire arms through killing machines. One reason for this rising intolerance in Pakistan can easily be found in the ongoing war of terror in Afghanistan, in the porous border with our neighbor and in the creation of a Pakistani Taliban movement since.
Growing intolerance against the occupation forces can also be seen in Afghanistan itself where Afghan army is found involved in killing of US and NATO soldiers and vis-a-versa on which President Obama has expressed his anger. But the seeds of intolerance growing fast in Pakistan can be blamed also on the previous and the sitting government who joined the war on terror for their own reasons and under the pressure of US and NATO. The interpretation of Islam in our country has been used for political purposes and shaped according to the political needs and understanding of ruling political elite that was interested in clinging to power more than in the welfare of the people and the promotion of an Islamic society.
Source: http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=171472
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-tolerance/religious-intolerance-rise/d/8491