Daily Times

The recent Sialkot incident has brought the topic of religious intolerance to the fore once more. Another one of the Ahmadi community’s places of worship has been attacked. Later videos of the people who had led the mob attack emerged online, in which they proudly proclaimed that they had done what they did in the name of Prophet Muhammad PBUH. A Prophet I was taught was all love and affection for everyone around him, regardless of religious affiliation.

The growing religious bigotry has slowly poisoned our society with intolerant attitudes. What’s more tragic is that it is not only the uneducated who have been effected. The Ahmadi worship place that was just destroyed was 100 years old. It was a heritage site. The incident reminds one of the Bamyan incident, when a historical Buddha statue was destroyed in the name of religion without a single thought for the sentiments of Buddhist people around the world. I was in Sri Lanka at the time and could feel their sorrow.

The deep-rooted intolerance of members of other faiths, and not just Ahmadis, has not taken hold in one day. As far as Ahmadis are concerned, they have been declared non-Muslims under the 1973 Constitution. Since then bias against them has been growing.

This is despite the fact that the life of Prophet Muhammad PBUH is full of incidents where non-Muslims were dealt with kind-heartedly, and given the religious freedom they needed. One example is the Charter of Medina, which clearly gave full religious freedom to Christians and Jews. Furthermore, non-Muslim community also have a right to observe their religious rituals. Muhammad PBUH stopped his followers from disturbing Christian clergymen, and forbade any assault on non-Muslims’ places of worship.

The life of Prophet Muhammad PBUH is full of incidents in which non-Muslims were dealt with kindly and given the religious freedom they needed

But if such noble examples exist, why are attacks like the one that occurred in Sialkot perpetrated in the Prophet’s PBUH name? And why has the Islamic Republic of Pakistan failed to set the basic principles of tolerance and humanity that is an integral part of Islam?

The answer is that it is a failure of our education system. Pakistan has not only failed to provide most of its citizens with education, it has failed to provide those who are getting educated with an education of quality.

We have been formulating education policies since the day this country came into being, but none of them could change the citizenry’s mindset for the better. The National Education Policy 2017 may be a ray of hope here because of its comprehensive nature and clear guidelines for Vision 2025. The areas that are addressed here include Islamic education, early childhood care, primary education, secondary, education, higher education, information technology and other fields.

The goals set in the policy are Taleem (seek use and evaluate knowledge) Tarbiyat (social, moral and ethical training) and Tazkiya (purification of the soul)and character building based on Islamic values integrated with relevant ethical values. Other faiths have been excluded completely. Point 25 on page 17 may talk about interfaith harmony, but words come cheap.

Stopping the religious intolerance from gaining more ground has emerged as the biggest challenge this country has faced in decades. Yet documents of national importance pay heed to it in just a few words. This is why the problem continues to get worse. The strife is not limited to intolerance between different religions, but also different sects within Islam. A recent example is one from a TV talk show, when religious scholars from different Muslim faith got into a heated argument on live TV, creating significant controversy.

This intolerance has also affected our political arena. As the general elections draw nearer, every issue is being approached in a completely binary manner, leaving no space for a middle ground anywhere.

The education policy’s third chapter starts off with the keynotes from the Objectives Resolution. Point two states that the principles of democracy, freedom, equality, tolerance and social justice as enunciated by Islam will be fully observed. There is hardly any mention of non-Muslim students and their needs here, as if they are not as Pakistani as the country’s Muslim citizens. However, ethics has been introduced in lieu of Islamiyat for non-Muslim pupils.

As said before, the priority of any education system in the current scenario must be to address the intolerance in Pakistani society. As such, it is necessary to refer to this problem in documents of national consequence on a larger scale. Secondly, introducing ethics to Muslim students as a subject would be a good move. The Ethics 2007 curriculum is very comprehensive, and can help Muslims better understand the world around them, including members of other religious communities. Thirdly, if Islamiyat is a compulsory subject for Muslim students, more emphasis must be placed on examples of kindness and tolerance from the Prophet’s PBUH life.

The writer has experience in the field of education and is currently working as a resource person in the development sector

Published in Daily Times, May 30^th 2018.