Looking
at the young Christian and Muslim students singing ‘Dil Dil Pakistan’ (My heart
is Pakistan) together just before the end of our first Christian-Muslim
interfaith dialogue session in Lahore, one could never imagine the complexity
of the relationship between both communities in Pakistan, predominantly in
Punjab.
We,
at Faith Matters, took the initiative
to organise a country-wide interfaith dialogue programme in Pakistan last year following
a series of killings that started after a debate on the controversial blasphemy
law in the country. A sheer initiative to review the law, which was being
abused by powerful segments of society against the vulnerable and poor masses,
including Muslims, led to the brutal killing of Governor Punjab, Salman Taseer
and Minorities Minister, Shahbaz Bhatti. The storm of extremism was not going
to stop until the government announced that it would never touch the current
status of this law.
Similarly,
it is also not an ancient past when in August 2009, a violent mob had torched
nearly 50 houses in Christian Colony, an almost exclusively Christian
neighbourhood in the village of Gojra, not more than 100 miles away from
Lahore. Eight Christians had been killed as a result of those attacks. The
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan stated that the attack was “not a
spontaneous reaction to the allegation of blasphemy but were planned in
advance”. “Announcements through mosques in Gojra on July 31 urged the
Muslims to gather and ‘make mincemeat of Christians’.” “The following day, Aug 1, around 1,000
people gathered in the town and marched towards Christian Colony”.
The conception and creation of Pakistan
was essentially based on the fundamental rights for Indian Muslims, who were in
the minority. Keeping this perspective into account, protecting the rights of
vulnerable and minority communities in Pakistan become obligatory to the state
of Pakistan. That was the reason why the founder of Pakistan, Quad-e-Azam Muhammad
Ali Jinnah announced it publicly that religion was to be a private matter in
the state of Pakistan.
‘...You are free; you are free to go to
your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of
worship in the State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or
creed – that has nothing to do with the business of the State...We are starting
with this fundamental principle: that we are all citizens and equal citizens
for one State. Now, I think we should keep that in front of us our ideal and
you will find that in course of time Hindus would cease to be Hindus and
Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not so in the religious sense because that
is the personal faith of each individual , but in the political sense as
citizens of the state.’ (Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah)
Unfortunately
the underlying philosophy of the creation of Pakistan and the vision of its
founder were badly damaged right after the death of Quaid-e-Azam, with the passage
of Objective Resolution in 1949. The Objective Resolution reflected the mind
set of extremists who posed a number of challenges to the minority communities
in Pakistan by drawing a distinction between religious majorities and
minorities. Also according to the Objective Resolution, the sovereignty of the
state of Pakistan belonged to God and not to the people, which was in clear
contradiction to the vision of Quaid-e-Azam.
The
Objective Resolution was the first step towards a long journey of institutionalised
discrimination against minority communities in Pakistan, especially the
Christian community. It is estimated that there are about 3 million Christians
living in Pakistan, mostly in Punjab. A vast majority of the Christian
population belong to the economically downtrodden class, working majorly as
sweepers and domestic workers. A Separate
Electorate for Muslims and Non-Muslims and compulsory Islamic education in
schools to all faith communities are the factors that take away the freedom of
choice for people and in no way reflect Islam or the founding principles of
Pakistan.
The
acceptance of non-Muslims in a Muslim dominated country like Pakistan requires
persistent and collective efforts by civil society, the international community
and the government of Pakistan. Pakistan has established a ministry for
interfaith harmony but to make a remarkable change to eliminate societal
barriers between the members of Christian and Muslim communities still needs a
strategic plan. Pakistan is a country of 180 million people of whom 67.1% are young people bellow the age
of 29. This segment of society is always proactive in bringing positive social
change in Pakistan and on this basis, we at Faith
Matters have initiated a dialogue process that is led and run by young
Pakistanis belonging to Christian and Muslim communities.
The
present environment of radicalization and extremism in Pakistan suggests a
mutual struggle by all segments of society against the fundamentalist
theological base that is not only damaging the peaceful teachings of Islam, but
is weakening Pakistan on economic, social and moral fronts. The democratic
fabric of Pakistan can only be strengthened by promoting a dialogue between
faith communities, acknowledging the minority communities for their role in the
development of Pakistan, providing them a free space to practice their
religion, protecting their places of worship and most of all giving them a
sense of belonging to Pakistan.
Listening
to ‘Dil Dil Pakistan’ sung by Muslim and Christian young participants at the
end of our interfaith session in Lahore was not only revitalizing for our
commitment to promote interfaith harmony between Christian and Muslim
communities in Pakistan, but it also provided a sense of optimism that the youth
of Pakistan can really be a driving force to bring peace and stability to all
Pakistanis irrespective of their religious thoughts and beliefs.
Rehman Anwer
