Promotion of interfaith harmony imperative to avert Jaranwala like incident: Experts
PESHAWAR (APP): Leaders of different religions here Monday said that all prophets and founders of all religions had promoted peace, patience and tolerance through their universall teachings and underlined the need for promotion of interfaith harmony to avert Jaranwala like gory incident in future.
Haroon Sarbdayal, a representative of the Hindu community in Khyber Pakthunkhwa and a founding member of Pakistan Council of World Religions told APP that promotion of peace, forgiveness, patience, love, brotherhood and tolerance had been emphasized by all prophets through their universal teachings, actions and deeds.
“Without winning hearts and minds, we can’t come closer to each other and could not develop a society whose inhabitants enjoy equal rights and respect for each other’s belief,” he said, adding the overwhelming support of the Pakistanis have healed wounds of the victims families of Jarawanla incident.
Dewa Singh, a leader of Sikhs community at Peshawar said, “we need to promote ‘acceptance’ instead of ‘tolerance’ because the former is more effective in establishing durable peace, patience, tolerance and pluralism requires for a prosperous society.”
He said misperceptions among followers of different faiths could be removed by enhancing interaction and dialogues among all religious communities.
Dewa Singh said the visit of Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar to Jarawanla has passed a strong message and commitment of the Govt to protect religious freedom of all faiths.
He highly appreciated the Prime Minister’s assurance regarding protection of lives and properties of all minority communities in the country, and bringing the perpetrators of heinous attacks of Jarawanla to justice.
AH Hilali, former Chairman, Political Science Department, University of Peshawar said that Jarawanla’s gory incident was highly condemnable and was an attempt to disrupt interfaith harmony ahead of the general election.
He said intolerance was emerged as a serious challenge in Pakistan posing serious threat to social and cultural values, democracy, and the country’s vital interests.
Since its inception, he said Pakistan had been confronting various challenges including growing political, societal, and religious intolerance mainly due to the fractured governance structure built around many fault lines that often ignited political and economic crises owing to the derailment of the democratic system on several occasions in the past.
The recent surge in political and religious intolerance and wrangles between political parties and workers for powers were spoiling the country’s development and investment process besides hampering economic rehabilitation efforts.
Ejaz Khan, former Chairman International Relations Department, University of Peshawar said that Jaranwala incident has showed rising intolerance crept into the society after the brutal assassination of the first prime minister of Pakistan, Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan on October 16, 1951.
He said the assassination of twice-elected prime minister, Benazir Bhutto on December 27, 2007 and killing of Governor Punjab Salman Taseer on January 4, 2011 and others politicians and civil society members testified the growing political, societal intolerance and religious extremism.
The Afghan war had also given space to Kalashnikov and drug culture due to the migration of over four million Afghan refugees in the wake of the USSR invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 which led to disruption in the peaceful atmosphere, which cast negative effects on the society’s social fabric.
He said Islamophobia was emerged as a serious challenge in world and collective efforts at global level was required to address it before making life difficult for people in countries with low literacy rate.
The visit of caretaker Prime Minister Kakar, designate Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa, Punjab Caretaker Chief Minister, Pakistan Ulema Council Chairman Maulana Taghr Ashrafi and others to Jarawanla have showed that such gory incidents were not acceptable to people of Pakistan.
Maulana Tayyab Qureshi, Chief Khateeb of KP while condemning Jarawanla incident said the main reason for rising intolerance in Pakistani society is socio economic imbalances, unemployment, and delay in justice.
He said Hijjatul Wida was a complete charter of human rights in which the Holy Prophet (PBUH) emphasized upon justice, patience, tolerance, and equality besides interfaith harmony.
He said the Holy Prophet (PBUH) also declared killing and taking one’s property unjustly was Haram besides attaching the highest importance to the protection of life, honor, and wealth of all people.
Professor Dr Khalid Mufti, former principal Khyber Medical College Peshawar said that intolerance was mainly a psychological and cognitive behavior issue and mostly its victims were the unemployed youth.
He said intolerance, religious extremism, and hate-based actions were detrimental to interfaith harmony, democracy, economic sovereignty, and freedom of speech.
Dr Mufti underlined the need for starting of a grand dialogue among followers of all faiths after Jarawanla ransacking incident.
The speakers said that Prime Minister’s Anwaarul Haq Kakar visit to Jarawanla where he expressed solidarity with the victim families of Christian community showed that people and government of Pakistan were standing with the affected families.
