Thursday, May 28, 2015

Pakistan: Tolerating The Intolerant | Editorial - The Nation


This monitoring of religious sermons will have the purpose of avoiding religious and sectarian conflicts. It can also be looked at criticallay as a way of ‘systematizing’ religion.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: The Nation Pakistan
By Editorial | May 28, 2015

The Milli Yakjehti Council (MYC) has decided to monitor Friday sermons in mosques, in order to limit clerics or prayer leaders to deliver speeches on the subject of morality and humanity alone, as explained in the religion of Islam. An alliance of various religious-political parties, including Jamaat-i-Islami, this decision was taken by the council in order to promote sectarian and religious harmony, through giving ‘purposeful’ messages to Friday prayers gatherings on ‘morality, humanity, civilization, family system, culture and public rights.’

This monitoring of religious sermons will have the purpose of avoiding religious and sectarian conflicts. It can also be looked at criticallay as a way of ‘systematizing’ religion. This has been one of the approaches that has led to a religious divide in the country, based on sects or any other religious affiliation.
The members of MYC state, that they would brief the prayer leaders about some selected subjects that are required to be discussed in sermons. Here, what one should find problematic, and actually question is the lack of involvement by any other religious parties that are not dominant, but equally present in Pakistan. This sidelining of their views, one that has become an unfortunate norm, can be feared to actually promote a dichotomization of certain views being more superior to others. What sort of prejudice this will breed, is not something impossible to imagine in our country.

In a country, where authorities continue to enforce blasphemy laws, regulations designed to marginalize the Ahmadiyya and Shia community and on various occasions restrict religious freedom, one can see that even if this monitoring of religious sermons might be done with a ‘noble’ intention, it still does not tackle the root cause of intolerance in Pakistan. Religious freedom should be seen as a right for all sects, not just the dominant one.


Read original post here: Pakistan: Tolerating The Intolerant | Editorial - The Nation


This content-post is archived for backup and to keep archived records of any news Islam Ahmadiyya. The views expressed by the author and source of this news archive do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of Ahmadiyya Times. Ahmadiyya Times is not an organ of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, nor in any way associated with any of the community's official websites.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thank you for your comments. Any comments irrelevant to the post's subject matter, containing abuses, and/or vulgar language will not be approved.

Top read stories during last 7 days

Disclaimer!

THE TIMES OF AHMAD is NOT an organ of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, nor in any way associated with any of the community's official websites. Times of Ahmad is an independently run and privately managed news / contents archival website; and does not claim to speak for or represent the official views of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. The Times of Ahmad assumes full responsibility for the contents of its web pages. The views expressed by the authors and sources of the news archives do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Times of Ahmad. All rights associated with any contents archived / stored on this website remain the property of the original owners.