The Issue of Religious Tolerance in Islam

Pakistan is a land of great beauty and greater sacrifice. Of courage, unity, love and much more but nothing less. A homeland created on the basis of Islam. A homeland that welcomed everyone. It is a country whose foundation is freedom: of choice, of speech and, most importantly, freedom of religion.This is a country that had risen from the ashes to its most liberal form.A state represents our faith, a state that represents hope and stature of democracy. Pakistan was created simply because the Muslim minority in the subcontinent wanted to have the freedom to practice their religion freely and yet ironically, in this very country the freedom of religion is slowly being suffocated to death.

The Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a Muslim majority country whose foundation is Islam. Our religion is that of love, acceptance and unity. Yet, the fragility of our belief and the eagerness of our knowledge of true Islamic teachings has led to a twisted hatred and unacceptance of other religions, the minorities. Here some extremist segments of society are trying to make the life of minorities difficult.

Religious intolerance is a tightening knot in the social fibre of our society. Not only is it the cause of disharmony, injustice and discrimination, it is brewing hate in the heart of people. Aside from causing unrest and turmoil in the country, this illiberality portrays a very stained image of Pakistan to the world. I believe that now, more than ever, we need to change our ways, change our thinking, and change our society. We need to develop religious acceptance and tolerance in our country for this is only way to attain peace and become a true Islamic state. As long as this issue is not taken seriously, we cannot hope to bring a change. Therefore, I believe National level initiative should be launched to install religious tolerance in the matrix of our society. The root cause of all this hate is the incorrect interpretation of religion and lack of religious knowledge. As a nation, we have segregated religious teachings as something only for the scholars and the ‘moulvis’ and, unfortunately, their biased views and constricted mind-set has morphed our religion into a weapon for personal agenda causing nationwide liberality. To fight the backwash caused by all this, we need to be swiftly moving towards redemption.

For this initiative to work, we need to start from grass root level. First of all, we need to start awareness campaigns using all available platforms. Starting from the mainstream electronic and print media to local papers, channels and social media platforms. The schools, madrassas, mosques and other community organizations need to be incorporated. We need to incorporate this message in our educational curriculum at all levels. Activities that promote religious harmony and respect for other religions can be started at school level. Counselling of teachers needs to be done as they play a major role in anchoring biased views in the immature minds of the youth.

Furthermore, we must be careful in pointing out the pseudo religionists that exploit our beliefs, emotions and feelings in the name of religion for propaganda. A proper and legalised check should be kept on madrassas and religious centres so it can be ensured that true Islamic teachings are being preached. NGOs can play an important role in education the people through programs directed towards tackling this issue. Most importantly, the youth needs to be made aware of the issues through national-level seminars so they can contribute to change that will result in a generational movement towards a better Pakistan. Strict check on media should be kept so that it does not incubate any wrong and harmful ideas in the minds of the people. Liberal religious Scholars should be supported that can help change society’s viewand acceptance of other religions. Thus, media should be used to brood love and tolerance of different believes. Laws protecting religious freedom should be regulated and enforced.

This specific theme of policy making is something I want to be implemented in our country not only because of the catastrophic effects this intolerance of religion has on our country. Furthermore, I and the people around me have been directly exposed to the consequences of such bigotry. My non-muslim class fellow faces discrimination not only from her peers but also from the teachers due to an iconoclast mindset. We've witnessed people attack churches, temples and even mosques. To quote figures, South Asia partnership Pakistan has stated that every year at least 1000 girls, mostly belonging to the Hindu community are forcibly converted to Islam. According to Wikipedia in July 2010, Hindus were attacked,and ethnically cleansed within a rural area in Karachi simply because a Hindu youth drank water from a water tap near in Islamic Mosque. This is the highest level of intolerance humanscan achieve. Not only this but even being from different Islamic sect in our society only means hate. I can easily remember all the times we heard of Sunni Muslims killing Shia Muslims and Shia Muslims burning mosques, holy place of their own religion simply because it belonged to a different sect. Evidently, this hate against other religions has seeped into our hearts and mankind has evolved into its ugliest form.

I, as a Muslim, have been subjected to hate even by a different sect, so I can only imagine what it feels like to be a non-Muslim in such a society. Having to be constantly afraid, being denied chances of livelihood simply because of your choice of faith and constantly being hated. The recent violent protests by extremists in society on the acquittal of a Christian lady from baseless charges of blasphemy, caused so much damage, made a mother of new born lose her life, caused a man to die of heart attack, had a kid cost him his livelihood and had people suffer so much all because a person of a different faith, after 8 years of suffering, finally received justice in Pakistan. We cannot go on like this. We need to change our thinking, actions and understanding so we can move forward as a society and make a better Pakistan for the generations to come. This is how this Pakistan can finally become a Pakistan of Quaid-i-Azam.