Daily Times

It is a story as old as time. One swish of Chinese whisper and the entire nation becomes embroiled in a bitter conflict, punctuated with a smack of a holier-than-thou attitude. Despite the glaring absence of any source of information or evidence whatsoever, social media became awash with widespread speculations regarding the supposed marriage of a leading Pakistani singer to another Pakistani artist.

This editorial is no attempt to make a case for homosexuality or same-sex marriages. Every country has the right to set behavioural guidelines for itself but what does this moral order say about the menace of character-assasination? All those who did not hesitate before casting stones should have been better-off in ascertaining the veracity of their accusations. The same holy book whose verses were used to slander every member of the singer’s family declared false accusation a serious crime. At least five well-known hadiths condemned slandering as even worse than engaging in sins. Now that a clarification has been issued on social media, would the vicious trolls and those who profited off memes step forward with a public apology?

This obsession with finding fault with others and putting every decision of well-known personalities under the microscope has resulted in nothing but sheer chaos that perpetuates violence in the form of media trials and public lynchings. Just one carelessly worded sentence is enough to give vigilantes the license to deliver justice however they like. Repeated instances of incensed mobs becoming a law unto themselves to mercilessly hand death sentences are the reason we need to introspect and foster a culture of thinking before we speak and looking before we leap. Considering the civic society’s crippling shortcoming in dealing with Frankestein’s monster, the state too could play its due part. Effective implementation of laws against hate speech would force people to reconsider the implications of their vile trends. *