Religious intolerance in Pakistan

Students who are suppose to study are playing in hands of these organizations by wasting their time, money and carriers after being trapped by these people as a member of some religious student organization. 

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch |
Source/Credit: pakobserver
By Raja Fakhar Jalil & Qurat ul Ain Rehman | October 22, 2011

The two main types of threats which endanger the stability of any state are internal and external threats. Internal threats in a country are far more fatal and serious. Pakistan is also menaced by such internal threats in shape of religious intolerance and extremism, soon after its independence in 1947 Pakistan faced many problems. The first calamity that struck this country was the demise of its founder Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the vacuum which was created after Jinnah’s death could not be filled; it caused many problems for the new born state particularly about the future of Pakistan. Jinnah wanted Pakistan to be a state where people from all religion, cast or creed will be treated equally, and their religious beliefs will have nothing to do with the business of the state, which he cited in his illustrious presidential address to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on August 11, 1947.


However, not all the people were thinking similar to Jinnah, as they had their own aims. A majority in this category was the religious fanatic class, who at first opposed Pakistan movement but later after the creation of Pakistan they became part of it, but that was not all, the newly born state of Pakistan seemed like a good opportunity to these religious opportunists class to propagate and bolster their own agenda under the umbrella of religion because bulk of the masses of this country were unaware of the consequences of blind following these clerics, and these people of Pakistan were a bull’s-eye of religious blackmailing. With the passage of time Jinnah’s idea of a Muslim state was overshadowed by the pattern of the state propagated by clergyman. The onset of cold war and Soviet invasion of Afghanistan gave a threshold to Mullahism in Pakistan. That time military dictator General Zia ul Haq assured his full support to the extremist religious organizations inside Pakistan for the purpose of “Jihad” against Soviets in Afghanistan. During his tenure the recruitment of Jihadis from all over the Pakistan and their training through the platform of these religious organizations (in collaboration with CIA) gained peak, thus strengthening extremism roots in our society. However, after Zia the failure of other civilian governments to control these radical religious groups led to an atrocious situation.

As an aftermath of past governments unconditional support to these religious organizations today Pakistan is suffering from religious extremism and intolerance more than ever, the sectarian violence in this country is at its peak, killings of sectarian leaders for the purpose of gaining more influence over the other sect is a common practice these days. Pakistan has seen an unprecedented rise in religious intolerance since last five years, from the assassination of Governor Punjab alleged of blasphemy to the present day case of a 13 year old Christian school going girl, who was accused of blasphemy only because she misspelled the Urdu word “Naat” which looked like the word “Lanat” after being misspelled in her class test. The girl was expelled from the school by the principal on the complaint of her teacher, who should have known that a 13 year old young kid can make such types of mistakes unintentionally. Moreover, her prosecution was demanded by local Mullas and they waged protests to file a case against the young girl accusing her of blasphemy.

These events draw the horrible picture of our society which shows that how acutely the Mullaism and religious intolerance has settled itself in to Jinnah’s Pakistan. Islam is a religion of peace and love it preaches the respect and welfare of Humanity, rather than killings and prosecution of non-Muslims just because of the reason that they live in a Muslim state and they differ from us in their beliefs, so their any unintentional action is portrayed as blasphemy, which is considered as solid evidence to kill them.

The recent brutal killings of people from Shiite sect in Quetta is another horrifying example of religious intolerance. The rising negative role of religious extremists is acting as a pandemic in our society; these people have narrow minds, radical beliefs and sectarian agendas which are only in their own favour and are largely harmful to our society. The growing activism of such organizations are alarming which can be seen quite often in variety of fields particularly in educational institutions where religious and so called “student organizations” are actively working. In the public sector universities they have strong hold from where a large number of recruitments take place. Students who are suppose to study are playing in hands of these organizations by wasting their time, money and carriers after being trapped by these people as a member of some religious student organization. They are indoctrinated and then used for the implementation of their organizational agenda either through protests, strikes or even by use of violence all in the name of Islam.

Pakistan is a country where quality education is rare; people are used to of blind following and there is a great dearth of awareness among people about misuse of religion. It is the need of the hour that as an individual and as well as a society we shall raise awareness among people against such propagandas and for the welfare of our country by using all possible means, we need to claim back the Jinnah’s Pakistan which endorses tolerance, peace, love and equality rather than a country plagued by intolerance, hatred, sectarianism and fanatic mentality indoctrinated by those who have already hijacked the ideal state of Pakistan and camouflaged themselves as religious shepherd.


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