It’s the eve of Pakistan’s general election. Political leaders and candidates are touring the country, running a punishing schedule of rallies, campaign appearances, and speeches; engineered rolling blackouts are sweeping across the country; the Pakistani Taliban have killed more than 70 people since the beginning of April, in a series of brutal bomb attacks against three of the main political parties. And yet, a group of journalists, activists, and members of civil society have got together for a day to discuss interfaith politics, the specific state of the Pakistani local, national, and international press, and texting.
This strange gathering was organised by Faith Matters, an international organisation working on religious coexistence and community cohesion in the UK, the Middle East, and in Pakistan. Part press conference, part seminar, part activist gathering, and part civil society get-together, this event was a great opportunity to gather together a wide range of journalists, activists, and members of religious organisations from across Pakistan to hear about the cause of religious harmony.
The main focus of the press event was a meeting to discuss the findings of Project Musawaat, a project launched by Faith Matters in Pakistan to promote interfaith equality. Project Musawaat is a project to support grassroots level interfaith dialogue and understanding between the Christian and Muslim communities in Pakistan. It aims to help develop, alongside its partner organisations, sustainable structures and processes to develop confidence and skills among young people to promote interfaith harmony, by bringing together members from a wide range of organisations and groups across a number of cities and towns in Punjab. Given that one of the main focuses of this project has been to encourage engagement and links with the media and civil society organisations, it was particularly appropriate and helpful to be able to present these findings to journalists.
The project is still ongoing, and, to date, has achieved the following significant milestones:
• Launched on 4th November 2012,
• Delivered four interfaith workshops in the cities of Gujranwala and Faisalabad, attended by 254 young people from a variety of faith backgrounds, and gathering together 45 youth organisations and educational institutions to participate in this training.
• Organised 3 youth-led mass SMS campaigns, resulting in Musawaat’s messages being spread to 9 million phone-owners across the target areas of Gujranwala, Faisalabad, and surrounding regions, with a fourth campaign currently ongoing. These received 36,271 responses.
Many of the journalists present at this press event had been present at the November 2012 launch, and so it was really helpful and encouraging to give them an update on how this project was going.
One of the most encouraging findings of Musawaat that was presented was how well received the project’s message of inter-religious tolerance and harmony was. A recurring theme throughout the workshops was the sense that the participants saw themselves as possessing an extremely strong sense of shared Pakistani citizenship and collective identity. While this sense of civic patriotism did not overwhelm their own religious values, it is nonetheless a powerful unifying force for developing an equal and shared Pakistani (or, in some cases, Punjabi) identity. As Saiqa Kaur, one of the delegates, remarked, ‘we believe that composite heritage is a powerful tool to promote diversity and peace … there is a lot in common among the people of Punjab and we focus on those commonalities to promote love and understanding between them.’ Through Musawaat, we helped to provide the young participants with the right tools, training, and support to promote equality and religious harmony in their own communities, but what was amazing was that - albeit in the self-selected group of attendees - young people were already incredibly receptive to the goals of interfaith coexistence, and were keen to pursue it in their own societies. The degree to which young people were interested in interfaith was really impressive, and it was great to convey this to the journalists and media figures who took part (many of whom, as we will see later, had a similar belief in the receptiveness of young people to these messages).
The response to the first three SMS campaigns was also striking. Of the 36,271 responses to the campaign, the significant majority were positive and enthusiastic about the program’s message, agreeing with the communiqués and responding with their own messages of peaceable interfaith harmony and tolerance. Even many of the ones that were more critical displayed a support for the ideals of interfaith work and religious coexistence. Rather than questioning these values in themselves, they expressed caution about interfaith projects’ impartiality, worrying that their perceived Western ties compromised their effectiveness. These were negative comments, but ultimately only underline the importance and value placed on good interfaith relations by many ordinary Pakistanis. Rather than rejecting them outright, they were worried that such projects were being subverted by external influences.
Having developed and outlined some of the findings of Musawaat so far, we then took the opportunity to present some of the future plans of the project to the interested crowd of journalists and activists present. One of the obvious goals is simply to scale up the project, presenting it to more towns, cities, and villages in Punjab, and presenting the same demonstrably effective message to a wider audience. On top of this, we also presented a few of the developments and changes that have come out of our evaluations of the project. One of our key findings was that many media and civil society organisations - especially schools and educational establishments - were eager to get involved, but often lacked the initial capacity or informational resources to begin promoting interfaith work in their own communities. As such, in future, we intend to increase our collaboration with these sorts of groups, and devise a mutually beneficial and coordinated strategy with them to promote interfaith harmony, learning, and education. In particular, we expressed an interest in reaching out to schools, colleges, and universities to raise youth awareness about conceptions of interfaith dialogue, equality, tolerance, and conflict resolution. Young people are, after all, the next generation, and have not become jaded about the possibilities for positive social change; as such, they can play a key role in opposing sectarianism and anti-minority violence.
We also took the opportunity to talk to members of the media about the potential role that they can play in promoting interfaith dialogue. Project Musawaat has often found how it is the hate-filled, scandalous local media that has spurred on and led to sectarian violence; both local and national media can play a huge role in opposing and undermining these narratives. Clear-eyed, thorough, and accurate reporting of local issues, especially around interfaith issues, can play an enormous role in remedying these problems; by making sure that malicious voices do not go unopposed, and by dispelling the misinformation and hostile myths that often surround interfaith issues of Pakistan, popular media can play an enormous role in combating sectarian extremism, and helping to build a safer and more united country. As such, media outlets should work to communicate the cause of mutual respect and tolerance in society, allocating resources (we discussed everything from individual journalistic beats to an entire interfaith harmony channel) to the fair reporting of interfaith relations, and developing close working relationships with faith communities and grassroots activists. Not only would this promote peace, moderation, and tolerance within Pakistan’s diverse society, but it would also be interesting and newsworthy material! We benefited a great deal from the presence of journalists from a wide range of media outlets at this event, who offered excellent advice and support in discussing and planning on these issues.
Having introduced Musawaat and Faith Matters’ work, we also invited a number of key speakers to give their own thoughts and ideas about interfaith work in Pakistan. They came from a variety of religious, civil society, and media backgrounds, and so could offer their own opinions on these issues to supplement, expand, or critique the findings of Project Musawaat.
First up was Samson Salamat, the director of the Centre for Human Rights Education, an NGO bringing together a range of human rights educators and defenders in order to collectively press for minority rights, make people aware of human rights abuses, and improve the human rights situation in Pakistan. Mr Salamat’s fiery oration moved the entire conference, as he described the way that faith communities (especially religious minorities) were afraid to stand up and speak about their beliefs and concerns, and the complicity of the state in allowing them to be intimidated into silence. Delivering striking and compelling arguments, he suggested that the key to resolving these issues was education; instilling young people across Pakistan with a sense of respect for the diversity of religious belief, and not taking advantage of these divisions for political advantage. He also criticised what he saw as an unhelpful focus on the superficialities of interfaith conflicts, and warned against defaulting to easy solutions to the problems in Pakistan. Rather than solely pursuing short-term benefits, he suggested that Pakistani society should look at the basic, underlying causes of interfaith conflicts, such as the asymmetry of a country that has controversial blasphemy laws (that have been criticised both domestically and internationally) but no effective laws against hate speech.
Later, we also heard from Shehar Bano Khan, a Muslim feminist researcher, journalist, and activist working extensively with Dawn. Khan was similarly critical of the status quo, talking extensively about the ways in which commercial and political interests distorted media reporting on human rights and political issues. Important issues that people needed to hear about were squashed, with news agendas being reshuffled to reflect the interests of editors and patrons. These sorts of subtle threats to a free and fair press are common in any country, but are particularly problematic in Pakistan, where the voices of minorities need to be heard in order to ensure that the country is free from interfaith conflicts. One specific problem that she saw as contributing to this was the lack of training and expertise among many of Pakistan’s media personnel; fresh-faced, keen, and eager journalists emerge into Pakistan’s growing media world (especially electronic media), but their lack of training on how to report on complex political issues means that not all voices get heard. In addition, journalists are at particular risk of being subject to violence, meaning that they need to be particularly careful and circumspect in reporting on and investigating political issues. It was particularly interesting to hear how these issues fit into broader interfaith work, and served as a fascinating window onto the complex issues faced in this field by journalists. This incisive critique, was, however, rounded off with a message of hope and positive future change - as a journalist, activist, and researcher, she argued that changes in media reporting could have a significant impact on people’s lives in Pakistan, and, if handled properly and fairly, could undermine narratives of hatred and division while encouraging and reinforcing messages of fair and equal coexistence.
The other speakers took a similar approach; critical of the flaws and imbalances rife within the current Pakistani system, but cautiously optimistic and enthusiastic about the possibility for change. Cecil Chaudhry Jr. (the son of Cecil S. Chaudhry Sr., the famed Pakistani fighter pilot, educationalist, and human rights activist, Cecil is a well-spoken human rights activist himself), for example, stressed the importance of youth mobilisation for education, highlighting the many problems faced by schoolchildren and university students (particularly ones from minorities) in the current climate of intolerance and hostility. Like Khan, Chaudhry was particularly concerned about the ways in which powerful political interests in Pakistan were erasing and ignoring the significant roles played in Pakistan’s independence and history by non-Muslim military and political heroes, noting that their names were even being removed from textbooks! He did, however, suggest that youth mobilisation could play a significant role in bringing about a better and more peaceful Pakistan, however - by educating them about the real and diverse history of Pakistan, Chaudhry convincingly argued that the country’s young people and next generation could be a powerful force in bringing about peace in the country.
Finally, we also heard from Taranjeet Singh, an anchor with Pakistan Television and presenter of the popular TV program ‘Voice of Youth’, and organiser for the Hindu-Sikh Youth Forum. As an effective and established organiser in this field, it was particularly interesting to hear Singh’s perspectives on the issue of interfaith work, and his thoughts on the matter. He highlighted the importance of people from different groups simply meeting with each other, and having the opportunity to interact and talk - as well as more sophisticated interfaith and community cohesion activities, he suggested that this simple activity was a vital part of breaking down the barriers between different faith communities in Pakistan. As well as this, he also emphasised the role of the media in promoting interfaith harmony and reconciliation, and the way that positive media messages could have a huge role in promoting goodwill - even citing this very event as an important part of this process!
In short, the media event was a great success in terms of gathering together a range of different speakers with different interests and perspectives on the issue of religious harmony and conflict. We heard from a wide range of activists, journalists, and members of civil society, many of whom were from a range of faith backgrounds themselves, and got a range of perspectives on the issues of the role and importance of interfaith dialogue in contemporary Pakistan, and presented our own findings from Musawaat as well. What was particularly striking across many of the accounts we heard was the combination of criticism of the status quo, together with a cautious optimism that the interfaith movement might - just might - be able to succeed. A number of common elements were identified - the role that established and official bodies played in silencing and erasing the voices and histories of often-oppressed minority groups, the ways that positive media messages, face-to-face dialogue, and youth solidarity could counteract that, and the fact that there is a great untapped potential and enthusiasm for interfaith dialogue and coexistence, especially among the young people of Pakistan. There are a great number of obstacles to this, this is true, and it is important not to be too optimistic about the possibility for short-term (or maybe even medium-term) change, but what we certainly did hear at this event was the message that coexistence and inter-religious harmony are possible, and that - little by little - it’s possible for people all over the country to change it.
This message wasn’t going unheard, either - we weren’t presenting to an empty room. Present at the press event were journalists from a wide range of newspapers across Pakistan - from local papers like the Daily Awaz, to national ones like the Pakistan Today, to international ones like the Daily Ausaf and The Nation; from English-language media like Dawn to Urdu-language ones like The Daily Pakistan. It was really encouraging to see such a wide range of Pakistani media organisations taking part, and we really valued the level of engagement shown. It was a great demonstration of the level of interest in interfaith harmony in Pakistan, and was an excellent opportunity to talk about the work of Faith Matters and its partner organisations in the country. Many of the aforementioned guest speakers were also active in media and activism, too -
We also saw participation from a range of other media and journalistic groups (several of whom we’ve already mentioned), including Taranjeet Singh from the Pakistan Television Network - it was really helpful to see representatives from such a wide range of media outlets. We were also honoured by the presence of a wide range of civil society activists and groups. We saw everyone from young participants and delegates like Nabeel Mustaq, of the interfaith harmony group ‘The Reformers’, to Muslim feminist researchers and activists like Shehar Bano Khan, as well as a number of established hands in the field of religious harmony and coexistence, like Samson Salamat of the Centre for Human Rights Education and Cecil Chaudhry Jr. of The Cecil & Iris Chaudhry Foundation. Such a broad participation by activists and different sorts of media figures is really encouraging, as it demonstrates the breadth of interest there is in inter-religious cohesion and harmony. It can be easy to dismiss interfaith work as a marginal force, or a Western import that ordinary Pakistani people have no interest in hearing or even hearing about, but the number of media figures present shows that there is, at least, a significant interested audience for this sort of message.
As well as this, the presentation also saw a number of e-Papers - specialised online newspapers - represented, with journalists and other figures including The News on Sunday and the Weekly Family. As digital versions of ordinary papers, these might not seem to be a particularly significant development, but in a country where electronic media is booming, and internet access has exceeded newspaper circulations and expanded by 250% in the last five years, the participation of journalists using new media is extremely welcome. One of Musawaat’s great strengths has been its investigation of the role that the media, especially these new forms of media, can play in opposing political, sectarian, and community violence, and so this is extremely welcome. Between Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo and the internet in general, people from all over Pakistan have been developing new ways to communicate, discuss their lives and politics, and build branches between different geographical, social, and faith communities. Indeed, as we saw earlier, this sort of technological/new media approach (via both SMS campaigns and media training) has been at the heart of Project Musawaat and its predecessor, Project Peghaam, by allowing the dissemination of messages of interfaith harmony and coexistence to a much wider audience than possible before. Phones, Facebook, web connections - these new approaches to media not only allow people much greater access to a wide range of new perspectives and ideas about life in Pakistan, but also can potentially give people their own voice to discuss these issues themselves. As such, it’s particularly heartening to see new media sources like these e-Papers get involved in the conference - they are signs of the growing strength of a vibrant Pakistani civil society, that allows people from all over Pakistan to hear a range of views and become better engaged in their societies. This represents a potent force for increasing access to news and information for many Pakistanis, and can help to strengthen Pakistani political processes and local communities.
It’s something of a cliché to remark that an issue, event, or cause is more important than ever, with an attempt to draw some tenuous link between one’s own platform and some contemporary event or issue. In this case, however - right now, on the cusp of a fiercely contested election, between larger-than-life personalities with their own vision for Pakistan, with sectarian violence and terrorist attacks ravaging the nation, and minority groups and women preparing to go to the polls and assert their growing confidence in opposing oppressive and reactionary social norms - we would suggest that interfaith and inter-community work is, indeed, more important than ever in Pakistan. Religious and sectarian violence is higher than ever before, with the predicted death toll for the persecuted Shia community alone well on its way to being several times the equivalent figure for 2012, attacks against Christian communities (like the recent mob attack on Joseph Colony in Lahore), and the continuing growth of sectarian terrorist groups like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi all contributing to a more insecure and more dangerous Pakistan. This sort of activity is a serious problem for all Pakistanis, as it fosters mutual mistrust, hostility, and suspicion, and legitimises violent and aggressive politics that harms everybody. Musawaat, and other similar projects, have done a great deal of work in opposing sectarian and religious strife, trying to help young people to develop a Pakistan that transcends these divisions, and that all people can peacefully participate in without having to surrender their own religious identities. Faith Matters’ work towards this goal can only ever a small part of this greater project, and one that only affects a small area of Pakistan - but such a project can only be carried out through a multitude of small steps and small actions, by media, politicians, religious leaders, teachers, civil society groups, working together. As such, we were really glad to see such a wide range of media group, journalists, and activists at this press event, and we welcome their participation in it - it gives us all hope for the future!
