Daily Times

It is encouraging to know that the most popular television network in Pakistan has what it calls its internal “code of ethics”. However, merely posting an apology on its website acknowledging that a guest on its very popular morning show, Subah-e-Pakistan (Pakistani morning), hosted by the ‘legendary’ religious ‘scholar’ cum entertainer Dr (pun intended) Aamir Liaquat Hussain, had uttered inflammatory and derogatory remarks against a certain sect. Based on those remarks, a young member of that sect in Punjab was killed by a merciless killer, who had been inspired by such spiteful hate speech.

The very popular channel has used the defence that, at least in this scribe’s opinion, is quite lame. According to that channel, on a live programme it is quite impossible to control the speech of the participants or guests and that one of the so-called religious scholars, who unleashed his vendetta against a sect, was expressing his personal views. As repugnant or hateful as those views may have been, the poor channel was helpless. Anyone who may not have seen that clip can perhaps believe such nonsense. The facts are to the contrary.

Any reasonable person could have seen that two religious scholars were arguing about the situation in Iraq and who was responsible for its current state. One religious scholar expressed his views quite vehemently, levelling charges against one particular religious group. The other scholar passionately disagreed with that stance and offered to provide counter arguments. To that our resident scholar cum entertainer cum ‘executive director’ of something or the other on the channel quickly intervened and told the participants to focus on local issues and leave Iraq for another day. From there on he passed the baton to another mullah, who of course was charged with his hateful venom and unleashed it on that particular sect without a shred of any evidence.

I do not know if you have noticed or not but evidence is one ‘minor’ detail that is always missing when it comes to the idiot box. People come in, yak on about whatever they feel like, issue all kinds of sweeping statements, pass judgments, accusations, innuendos and sort of seal the argument. The suckers who are sitting in the audience — not to mention the ones in front of the tube — take that as gospel truth. No one stands up from the live audience, or for that matter, people who watch at home, and no one bothers to call and question the basis for such nonsense.

The fact that this state, at one point, decided to play the role of God and passed legislation declaring a sect of Muslims to be non-Muslims has been mentioned here repeatedly. Yours truly has opined here on that subject in the past as well. Some of my critics, without having any clue, accuse me of being one of the followers of that sect. Though it is not anyone’s business but I have very openly mentioned on this forum and on Twitter as well that I am not a follower of that particular sect; I am only an ordinary and very sinful human being. I disagree with some of its core values but, at the same time, respect their devotion and beliefs. Much like any other religion in the ‘land of the pure’, its followers have the right to practice their faith as they deem fit, without any fear of reprisal or persecution.

A very popular columnist and commentator, on a television programme, said something very apt about our country: Very sadly, our national flag represents our real dilemma. We have a strip of white reserved for our ‘minorities’. There lies the problem because, from the get go, we are telling our citizens that there are two groups of people here: the green or white. Whoever does not fit into the large and wide green area has a narrow white strip reserved for them. If you believe in subliminal messages, then this one is quite irrefutable.

Unfortunately, since our inception, deliberate confusion has been created when it comes to the business of the state. For a state, every citizen is and must be equal in every regard. The people should not be treated any differently at all just because they do not follow the exact same belief system that the state calls its official religion. While we are on the subject, I take partial exception to the preamble of our Objectives Resolution. Agreed, all sovereignty belongs to Almighty God but God has not handed that sovereignty to the people at the helm of affairs in this land. The elected representatives are the trustees of the people. The voters can be of any faith, any colour and any background.

Very regrettably, the folks who have made this country a laboratory of theological experimentation have injected the poison of hatred. Let us face this: all religions, all sects have something or are bound to have something that is uncommon between them. If all of us agreed on everything, why would a new religion or sect emerge with either an entirely different message or a different practice altogether?

The loudmouth politicos and the equally unbearable anchors on the idiot box have been using the phrase “same page” way too much in recent days. There needs to be a same page for religious tolerance and harmony as well. The idiot box should be completely free of hate mongers and bigots. No ifs and no buts. No matter who it is, once they cross that line, the people need to get that person off the air with their one voice. The state should have zero tolerance for such characters. Since when did religion become a game show that all and sundry have to enjoy sitting in front of the tube early in the morning while sipping their morning caffeine fix? You be the judge.

The writer is a Pakistani-US mortgage banker. He can be reached at dasghar@aol.com. He tweets at http://twitter.com/dasghar