Badam Zari – A Symbol of Local Resistance against the Taliban in FATA

Pakistan has been through a lot lately – civil violence, political disputes, religious and sectarian conflicts, and terrorism to name but a few of the issues. But despite all the controversies and governance issues that have plagued it in the last five years, there remains a ray of hope for the establishment of stability in Pakistan - the continuation of the democratic process in the country. The beauty of popular democracy is that it raises political awareness amongst ordinary citizens, and urges them to stand up for their own rights and the rights of those around them. That’s how societies grow, develop, and move onward to become safer, more tolerant, and more just. In a country like Pakistan, where the democratic process has repeatedly been distorted and subverted by a number of military interventions, the completion of a full electoral term by an elected government is certainly encouraging. The caretaker government has announced the general elections are to be held on 11 May 2013, and right now, electoral fear and anxiety is at its peak in the country.

Pakistan has always been an unpredictable country, in political terms. The country is normally considered to be a male dominated society, with huge support to for conservative, elderly extremists. Nonetheless in 1988, the world observed that the people of Pakistan elected Benazir Bhutto, a centre-left 35-year old as the first female (and, so far, only) Prime Minister of the country, when she returned back from exile in 1980s; today, there is a small but very much present female presence in government and the 2002 election returned 17% women MPs (the UK House of Commons currently has 22% women, while the US Congress has 18%). Similarly, whenever given a chance to elect their leaders, a vast majority of Pakistanis stood up against the ultraconservative political parties and they have never been able to form the government in Pakistan.

This isn’t to say that the political power of these ultraconservative groups has been broken though – or, at least, not everywhere. In the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, the political landscape has been somewhat different, with the being heavily influenced by the views and ideology of militant Taliban affiliated movements; these groups consider that the democracy is in contradiction to the Islamic principles of governance. They have targeted various political party workers and leaders, and threatened to unleash a further wave of violence for the coming elections in May, declaring that that they will attack anyone taking part in the general elections in their region. Again, though, we can see the green shoots of change even in this traditionally conservative tribal area – for the first time in the history of Pakistan, a FATA tribal woman, named Badam Zari, has announced that she will run in the general elections. She will contest her area as an independent candidate, against 27 men from all of the major political parties.

This news is astonishing for anyone who knows the socio-political dynamics of the tribal areas of Pakistan. Casting a vote can lead to one’s death (according the the New Statesman, pamphlets have been handed out warning that women who vote will face bombing or ‘severe punishment’) so the fact that a woman is contesting for a national assembly seat is particularly striking. Bajur Agency, the seat that Zari is contesting, is a small town in FATA connecting the region to the Kunar province of Afghanistan, and hence holds significant strategic importance. There have been numerous clashes between the militant Taliban and Pakistan Army in Bajur in the recent past, and the locals have suffered enormously because of this on-going conflict – it is a heavily contested area.

Whether or not Badam Zari is able to win the elections, her courage to participate in the democratic process is a symbol of local resistance against the tyranny of both the Taliban and broader repressive social norms, and a sign of the growing support for change that Pakistanis want to bring to their society at large, and the strengthening of norms of democracy and equality in Pakistan.

Rehman Anwer

Extremists cause yet another Human Rights crisis in Pakistan

So, finally the Tahreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) took control of the Tirah Valley!

Situated in the Northwest of the Khyber Agency of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), the Tirah Valley is known across the entire region for its immaculate and untouched beauty. The valley is a home of the Afridi and Orakzai tribes of Pashtuns, and holds particular political significance because it borders Afghanistan on the West. The valley is often described as a ‘No Man’s Land’, and is ruled by the indigenous natives who have been living their lives in accordance with the tribal culture for decades.ⁱ

On March 12, the TTP demanded centralised control of the region from a local group named Ansaar ul Islam (AI). Heavily armed conflict started between the both groups when AI refused to hand over the region to TTP. According to news reports, hundreds of fighters from both groups were killed in the fighting, but eventually the TTP took control of the majority of the region.

This entire episode took place at a time when a dialogue process with Taliban was being enthusiastically considered at both domestic and international levels. Both the United States and Pakistan seemed to be on the same page, trying to initiate new efforts to negotiate with Taliban in order to bring peace and stability in the entire region. Cynics might suggest that they were using the now somewhat traditional approach of using the dialogue process as a breathing space to organise themselves, but the Taliban also seemed to show flexibility and receptiveness to the peace deal – at least in the beginning. These latest events, however – the seizing of a Tirah, a strategically important bridge between Waziristan on one side and Afghanistan on the other side – seem to give the lie to this early peaceable approach. It seems the cynics may have been correct - it can be inferred that the Taliban are only driven by their own vicious agenda, and are a difficult party to pin down and trust for peace negotiations.

This recent crisis has affected thousands of locals who were forced to flee their houses and possessions to save their lives. According to the reports of FATA Disaster Management Authority (FADM), 4,290 families have been displaced as a result of this recent conflict. The internally displaced people (IDPs) include 6,436 men, 10,872 women and 15,608 children.ⁱⁱ  In the absence of any adequate arrangement by the government to facilitate this large number of IDPs, the situation has led to a significant humanitarian disaster, with widespread human rights violations against those displaced. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (the HRCP) has also shown their concerns over the rehabilitation and well-being of the IDPs, and also over the fact that the armed militia has taken over a highly strategic region in FATA to sustain their barbaric and violent activities.

Rehman Anwer

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ⁱ http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Rapid%20Assessment%20Report_Tirah%20IDPs_Jamrud%20KA%20FATA_FINAL%20Draft%20(1).pdf

ⁱⁱ http://tribune.com.pk/story/525142/tirah-valley-displacement-unhcr-halts-registration-leaves-officials-in-quandary/

Narratives of Hatred

I visit Pakistan quite often as part of my work, but my last visit to Pakistan was something of a new, shocking experience, when I personally observed just how widespread extremist narratives of inter- and intra-religious hate have become in the country. I was there to organise an interfaith workshop, as part of our Musawaat Project, with the aim of fostering mutual understanding between various faith groups living in Pakistan - but here I was, surrounded by the folks committed to doing exactly opposite to what we are trying to achieve.

I had my first glimpse of this when I went to a local internet café in Lahore, to print out another sheaf of paperwork for the workshop. To my surprise, a gentleman sitting next to me was busy editing some material in Urdu, compiling some sort of lengthy document. He was so involved in his work that he seemed to have no idea about what going on in his surroundings. Truly, a studious man! By accident, though, I happened to glance at a few words on the screen of his monitor and, and then my spirits fell: I realized that he was busy trying to construct a comprehensive proof that the members of another faith community were absolute infidels. He was fully absorbed in his work, bending all his literary skill to make it more convincing for his audience, so that his campaign of hatred could be successful.

It would be easy to dismiss this as a single crank spewing out his beliefs into a digital void, who only represented himself and his own beliefs. In all honesty, though, I could not - the nature of my work involved visiting various places in Punjab and, wherever I went, I saw more spine-chilling evidence of this sort of widespread hate. In Punjab, I came across extensive wall chalking, the graffitist motivating people in the name of religion, to participate in ‘Jihad’. These messages usually include pictures of swords and other violent imagery – it is fairly clear that they do not recommend the Greater Jihad of resisting temptation and fighting social injustice – and even include a phone number and contact details for anyone wishing to sign up.

An auto-rickshaw in Lahore promoting a ‘Jihad’ campaign.

Elsewhere, I saw the same message repeated over and over. Posters carried by a number of auto-rickshaws were also carrying the same message, inciting people to prepare themselves for a very violent ‘Jihad’, and reiterating the sentiments of hatred against some faith groups within Pakistan. Some campaigns looked outward, also focusing on spreading hate sentiments against the neighbouring India.

This emerging trend of extremist discourse is not new to Pakistani society. It is not very long ago that, in 2007/8, a Taliban cleric by the name of Maulana Fazalullah (famously nicknamed ‘Mulla Radio’) persuaded the people of Sawat Valley to take part in similarly violent religious armed conflict under the banner of Jihad, through his programmes aired on several FM transmitters that he installed around the valley in order to spread his message. The impact of his sermons was huge and he prepared a large number of people to stand up against the state of Pakistan. The misuse of mosque loudspeakers to spread hatred has also been observed at various occasions like in 2009, in the Gojra riots, where announcements were made in the local mosques urging people to attack the Christian community members. This sort of aggressive use of religious rhetoric to encourage and legitimise extremist violence is depressingly common.

This tapestry of extremist narratives and shared hatreds is very much widespread, and resonates throughout Pakistani society on an emotional and nationalistic level. Extremists use domestic and international events to justify the promotion of their hatred towards various vulnerable groups in the society, justifying hatred against vulnerable minorities as part of a broader international struggle. Recent campaigns of attacks against the Shia and Christian communities in Pakistan suggest that such rhetoric has an audience; extremists are quite successful in their objectives to widespread violent prejudice and murderous hatred.

One of the most alarming things that I saw in Punjab was the general absence of any counter-narratives, or a serious strategy to deal with the challenges posed by the extremists’ views and ideas. Even if they are marginal – a man in an internet café in Lahore, a poster on an auto-rickshaw, some chalk graffiti on a wall – there are simply no challenges or alternative messages to them, allowing them to spread and draw people into the extremist fold.  What’s necessary is the creation of a positive discourse in Pakistan that emphasises the fact that these hate-based narratives can never bring peace in the country, and are in fact self-destructive and harmful. We need to create harmony between the country’s diverse faith groups, collectively counter the narratives targeting any group based on their religious ideologies, language or ethnicity, and encourage ways of thinking and resolving problems that do not resort to violence.

One such effort was done by Faith Matters, a UK based countering extremism, conflict resolution and interfaith organization, through their Pegham (the Message) project, that involved sending out approximately 50 million SMS messages into the areas of FATA and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). In the hundred and sixty characters of an SMS text, the message had to challenge the extremists’ actions, making them think about the context of the violence and offering them new perspectives and viewpoints on religion, Pakistani society, and violence. Some of the messages used are given below:

• The Prophet (PBUH) said:"Attainment of knowledge is a must for every Muslim”. Terrorists destroy boys school in SWAT. How is this Islamic?
• “You shall resort to pardon, advocate tolerance, and disregard the ignorant - Al Araf v.199. What will you do to challenge false preaching?”

The Pegham project engaged a number of Pakistanis, trying to counter the hate based ideologies of the extremists by giving them new narratives of conflict, and ways to think about extremist violence. Faith Matters received a considerable number of enthusiastic responses received from the people living in those regions, and the project left a positive impact on the communities.

Pegham was only a single project though, and more such initiatives are needed in Pakistan to stand against the growing tides of extremist thought and ideology.  It’s particularly important for this work to protect Pakistan’s extremely large young population, who are particularly vulnerable today, as they are the prime target of these extremists. They are preyed upon by people seeking to promote their own vicious ideologies, ones cloaked in seemingly religious language but actually driven by their own agendas. We need to offer an alternative.
 

Rehman Anwer

New Attacks – Old Reasons (A perspective on the recent attack on Joseph Colony, Lahore)

Just this Saturday we saw another mob attack on one of the densely populated Christian areas, Joseph colony in Badaami Bagh, Lahore that burnt more than 150 houses and affected more than 250 poor families.

This is hardly a new or unfamiliar turn of events; the root cause of this savagery was not very different from the previous other attacks against the Christian communities in Pakistan. A Muslim man accused a Christian neighbour of committing blasphemy (which is a serious crime in Pakistan - under section 295-C of the Pakistani Penal Code, it can be punished with the death penalty). The man was duly arrested, but this was not enough for the mob, whose blazing fury was stoked until his entire colony had to pay the price for it. Almost the entire colony – houses, possessions, and furnishings alike - of Christian residents was burnt to the ground.

The victims reveal that the police themselves warned them to leave their houses one night before the attack, and that they showed their inability to deal with the angry perpetrators. Again, the behaviour of the local administrative authority and police has not been very different from past events.

It was not very long ago - the 1st of August, 2009, to be precise - that a violent mob had torched nearly 50 houses in a Christian Colony in Gojra (a small village located 30 miles from the city of Faisalabad). Eight Christians were 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 w[as] planned in advance” – in short, it reflected a deep-seated antipathy towards this vulnerable minority group. Announcements made from mosques throughout Gojra 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. A police contingent present in the neighbourhood did not try to stop the mob.

Similarly, on November 12, 2005, some 500 Christians had to leave Sangla Hill, a small town in Nankana Sahib district of Pakistan. They had noticed the increasing vitriol against Christians being spouted from mosque loudspeakers, after a Christian man named Yousaf Masih had been accused of burning copies of the Holy Quran, and had fled before the riots to save their lives. The angry mob burnt down three churches, a convent, a missionary school, a girls’ hostel and a pastor’s house.

Looking at the latest anti-Christian attack on the Joseph Colony, a number of important questions come to mind:

• Based on a clear and proven record of religiously motivated attacks in the past, what has been done to control the mob violence against minorities?
• Did religious/community leaders develop and implement any mechanism for conflict resolution or dialogue?
• Has there been any improvement in the laws which allow certain malicious individuals to target Christians and other minorities, putting the most vulnerable individuals in society in danger?

Today, this barbaric attack is widely condemned by the government, civil society organisations and the general public. However, the fact of the matter is that unless the administrative authorities, religious and political leadership play their part to address the root cause of such incidents, they will keep on happening in one form or another, making these condemnations seem somewhat hollow. For members of minority faith groups in Pakistan - who are already living under enormous fear from the extremist groups operating in the country – the situation just keeps getting worse.

One thing can be said for sure at this stage is that radicalisation in Pakistan is rising to an alarming level. It will take serious collective efforts by every segment from every segment of Pakistani society to deal with the grave challenges of extremism and community violence.

Rehman Anwer

Killing of Shia in Pakistan and State Responsibility

                                  

Looking at the news of another devastating attack in a Shia-dominated area of Abbas Town in Karachi, that killed 48 innocent people and left 160 injured, one can’t deny that the political environment for religious minorities in Pakistan is becoming more difficult with every passing day. More than 200 members of the Shia community have been killed since January 2013, with the predicted death toll for 2013 seeming likely to be several times that of. The perpetrators are targeting mosques, residential districts and any gathering of the Shia community in order to carry out their campaign of terror. 

Yesterday’s attack, though, is unique in its nature because it took place in Karachi – the most populated and diverse city of Pakistan. Karachi is the commercial hub of Pakistan, and is  home to approximately 21 million Pakistanis belonging to various faith groups and ethnic backgrounds. Worse, unrest in Karachi means chaos throughout Pakistan, because what happens there affects the entire country in one way or another.  This recent sort of attack by terrorists - in a populated residential area, destroying homes, cafes and banks - poses an extreme threat to ordinary Pakistanis, particularly if they belong to minority faith groups, which have been particularly targeted. The attack also raises a number of questions that the elected government of Pakistan needs to answer, since it is their responsibility to protect all of their citizens. Some of those questions that come to mind include:

-          What concrete steps has the government taken so far to ensure security for its citizens, especially religious minorities? Has it taken into account the direct threats from militant organizations like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) that they would continue their atrocities against the Shia community?

-          Why do banned militia groups, including LeJ and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), still operate freely in the Pakistan?

-          Are CCTV cameras operating in the specific minority residential areas and worship places, to facilitate the investigative process of the terrorist attacks?

-          In case of an emergency, is there a robust mechanism to help the victims and to save the precious human lives, regardless of religious affiliation?

The deadly attack yesterday was made possible, in large part, because of the complete failure of security in the area, and highlights problems with counter-terrorism operations across Pakistan. Eyewitnesses to the incident claimed that huge amounts of explosive material were brought into the area, and that the complete absence of law enforcement presence made it significantly easier for the terrorists to accomplish their task. Another element that increased the public criticism government was that a large number of security officials were providing security to government officials and politicians at the engagement ceremony of a famous politician of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in the same city, diverting attention away from communities like Abbas Town. Following are some of the comments that manifest the anger and frustration of the Pakistani public after the Abbas Town’s blast:

Imaan Sheikh ‏@SheikhImaan Firing in #AbbasTown again. It is undeniable now that this is happening without the authorities' help. Sidra Mansoor ‏@sidra_mansoor If it happend in Abbas Town, it can happen anywhere, in any residential area and in any building. So technically, we should all get ready. Anjum Kiani ‏@AnjumKiani Sharmilla Faruqi's party will continue into the early hours of the morning, whilst we pick up the body parts of our Bro/Sis : Abbas Town Gharidah Farooqi ‏@GFarooqi . Police guarding road to Mohatta whereas thousands in Abbas Town yearn for a single police official #PalaceVSTown Shireen Mazari ‏@ShireenMazari1 MQM exploits Abbas Town tragedy 2 suggest "self help" security or vigilantiism MQM style!But Ebad back as gov so MQM part of failed govt!

Today, the whole nation is in mourning, and religious and political groups are offering their own condemnations of the attacks. For the grief-stricken parents, siblings, and children of the victims, however – many of whom face daily hostility and suspicion in their own country – words alone are not enough.

In the run-up to the upcoming general elections, the government of Pakistan is no longer in a position to get away with such a disastrous security lapse. The biggest challenge for the government now is not only to deal with the problems of terrorism, but also to restore the trust of ordinary Pakistanis (especially those from minority faith backgrounds) in the state apparatus of security and law enforcement. This can only happen, if once and for all, the government takes the problems of terrorism and sectarian violence seriously, and puts every effort into finding answers to the questions raised by their failure to intercept and prevent the recent bomb blast in Karachi.

Rehman Anwer

LeJ - A growing menace to Pakistan

The world was shocked when mourning families refused to bury the bodies of their loved ones as a protest against the brutal attack on their community, Hazara in Baluchistan, Pakistan on Saturday, the 16th of February which led to the killing of 89 people. But this was not the first time when the members of the poor Hazara community (the majority of whom belong to the Shia sect of the Muslim faith), have had to deal with violence and strife – they have been facing these sectarian attacks for a long time. Less than two months ago, on the 10th of January, 2013, 117 people were killed, with more than 200 injured, when a suicide bomber blew himself up near the two Shia prayer halls in Hazara.

There has been a steep rise in the number of targeted attacks against the Shia community in Pakistan over the last few years, with the majority of those killings taking place in the Hazara region of Baluchistan. According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), 396 members of the Shia community were killed in 2012 in 113 various targeted attacks. Of those 396 people, 152 were killed in Baluchistan alone, in 54 different incidents of violence. The year 2013 so far has proved to be similarly, or even more fatal. More than 200 members of the Shia community from Baluchistan (Hazara) have been killed so far since the beginning of the New Year.

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), a violent anti-Shia militant organisation has proudly taken responsibility for these deadly instances of extremist sectarian violence. Their stated mission is to establish an orthodox ‘Deobandi’ (Sunni revivalist) state, and they have a history of attacking other faith groups, including Ahmedis, Berelvis, Christians and, most of all, Shia. After having been officially banned in Pakistan in 2001, LeJ adopted an aggressive stance against the state of Pakistan, and developed links through its terror network with other extremist organisations, including Al-Qaeda and Tahreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Today, LeJ is believed to be one of the deadliest terrorist organizations in Pakistan, which is not only targeting Shias, but anyone who stands in the way of promoting their interpretation of Islam.

Historically, LeJ was formed in 1995 by a group of extremists, the majority of whom took part in the early 1980s anti-Soviet Jihad in Afghanistan, and then moved back to Pakistan. They were accompanied by a number of their fellow jihadists, who were looking for new reasons to continue their extremist activities. It would not be unreasonable to say that groups like LeJ are the result of disastrous 1980s foreign policy of Pakistan, when the government (with the assistance of US) recruited, armed and trained local and international jihadis to fight against the Russians. After achieving their goals, the US abandoned Pakistan to sort out the postwar mess - the poor people of Pakistan are still paying the price of it, having to deal with a slew of well-trained terrorist organisations operating across the country. Presently, Pakistan has uncountable militant groups like LeJ who are gradually overtaking Pakistani society – devastating the country in every possible way.

Today, LeJ has initiated a campaign of violence against one faith community in particular – the Shia community, especially those in the Hazara region of Baluchistan. However, looking at the history of their terrorist activities in Pakistan, one cannot deny that their brutal activities are not limited to the Shia community. They are aiming to impose their religious beliefs on the people of Pakistan as a whole, and this fundamentalist approach spells trouble for anyone opposing their religious beliefs.

Some of the key incidents (collated by Standford University and SATP) are mentioned below, demonstrating a wide range of targeted attacks by LeJ against various faith communities and the state of Pakistan as a whole.

1999: LeJ attempted to assassinate Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Lahore 2002: LeJ members attacked the International Protestant Church in Islamabad. (5 killed, 46 wounded) 2002: LeJ detonated a car bomb outside the U.S. Consulate in Karachi. (11 killed, 26 wounded) 2002: LeJ operatives detonated a car bomb outside the Sheraton Hotel in Karachi, targeting a shuttle bus of French civilians working on a submarine project for Pakistan's government. (14 killed, 20+ wounded) 2006: LeJ is implicated in the massive suicide bombing of a Barelvi congregation at Nishtar Park in Karachi. (57 killed, 100+ wounded) 2008: A massive truck bomb nearly destroyed the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, in an attack timed to coincide with a dinner at the president’s nearby residence. (56 killed, 266+ wounded) 2009: Fighters from LeJ (with support from JeM and TTP) are implicated in an attack on the headquarters of the Pakistani Army in Rawalpindi 2012: A powerful blast near an IT University located in Jinnah Town of Quetta killed at least five students and one professor, injuring at least 30 people.

The CREATE Research Archive suggests that the terrorist groups survive longer if they diversify their attacks and rely more heavily on domestic terrorism. Perhaps the diversification of the attacks carried out by the LeJ and the focus on domestic terrorism is the prime reason for their survival, and the enduring threat that they pose. The most important causes, however, are the economic and political factors supporting LeJ. No terrorist group can last if they don’t find local support, and there is a unanimous political will to stop their activities.

It is high time that the entire political and religious leadership of Pakistan sends out a unified message of condemnation against the LeJ, since their existence is not only a threat to the diverse faith communities in Pakistan, but also to the state of Pakistan itself.

Rehman Anwer

Reaffirming our commitment to "Freedom of Religion and Belief" in Pakistan

Faith Matters, a conflict resolution and interfaith organization, has developed a unique programme to promote harmonious relationships between the Muslim and Christian communities based in Pakistan through the training and development of young people from both faith communities. 

Based in London, with operations in the Middle East and Pakistan, Faith Matters is a not-for-profit organisation that aims to tackle extremism in its many forms, from far-right groups like the English Defence League to groups within the Muslim community involved in violence and hate crime. In November 2012, it launched a new programme called “Musawaat" ("Equality”), aimed at promoting interfaith harmony and the fundamental right of the freedom of religion and belief in Pakistan. As part of this, the organization is carrying out a series of awareness raising workshops to train young people on basic ideas of conflict resolution, interfaith dialogue, identity and fundamental human rights. The organization’s strategy is to work with grass roots civil society organizations to arrange training workshops in areas with sizeable Christian communities, and areas where tensions and violent conflict have been observed in the past. These areas include Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Multan and their surrounding regions. The project also involves sending mass SMS messages - written by young people on the workshops - promoting unity, peace and interfaith harmony to popularize the ideas of pluralism and peaceful coexistence in Pakistan. Their target is to send 30 million SMS messages. The project's end goal is to promote peace and to counter extremist narratives that promote sectarianism and religious strife.

Issues of freedom of religion, tolerance, and mutual understanding have a long history, not only in religious traditions but also in international treaties and declarations of rights. The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights - both of which Pakistan has signed and ratified - uphold freedom of belief, and protect both freedom of thought on all matters, and the freedom to manifest religion and belief individually or with others, in public or in private.

In a country like Pakistan, where religious convictions are deeply and intensely held and belief have a significant impact on the lives of communities, it is important to create awareness about freedom of religion and the underlying philosophy of tolerance, interfaith harmony, and equality.

Owing to the contemporary climate of extremism in Pakistan, the key is to bring various faith communities together and make collective efforts to foster peace and stability. Numerous efforts are being made by civil society organizations in Pakistan to achieve this objective, but there also needs to be a consistent campaign across the country to promote a change in perceptions toward other religious groups. This change is necessary in order to remove societal barriers for religious diversity and national harmony, and to work against the sources of violence and strife in society.

Interfaith workshop in Faisalabad

The multi-faceted approach of the Musawaat project - working with youth groups, community radio stations, and schools situated in far-off underdeveloped areas of Punjab including Gojra and Sangla Hill - is actually trying to deal with these challenges at a grass-roots level. Some of the these areas have unfortunately faced violent extremism in the recent past, purely based on inter-religious conflicts In Faisalabad, pastor Rashid Emmanuel and his brother Sajjad were murdered while leaving a court hearing in 2010, shot dead by an unidentified young gunman. They had been charged and arrested for distributing 'blasphemous anti-Islamic material, charges their supporters had suggested were 'trumped up' and faked. In 2009 in the village of Gojra, a violent mob torched nearly fifty houses in the predominantly Christian neighbourhood, leading to the deaths of eight Christians. In 2005, some 500 Christian families were forced to leave Sangla Hill (a small town near Faisalabad), noticing violent vitriolic rhetoric from the local mosque's loudspeakers after a young Christian man had been accused of burning copies of the Holy Quran. They were right to do so - the angry mob burnt down three churches, a convent, a missionary school, a girl's hostel, and a pastor's house. These conflicts represent a small fraction of the violence, sectarianism, and religious strife suffered by many members of religious communities throughout Pakistan, driven by suspicion, hostility, and misunderstanding.

Interfaith Workshop in Gujranwala

Faith Matters believes that this conflict is avoidable, and that, in order to avoid interreligious tensions and to reduce the communication and societal barriers between the members of Muslim and Christian communities in Pakistan, it is extremely important that concepts of human rights, conflict resolution and interfaith harmony should be promoted. By working with young people from Muslim and Christian communities, and alongside other civil society organizations in Pakistan, the Musawaat initiative is trying to promote fundamental human rights like freedom of religion and belief in Pakistan, for every citizen in the country, and to encourage peace. In doing so, it is helping Pakistani civil society organisations, and Pakistani young people, to build for themselves a stable, prosperous, tolerant, and peaceful Pakistan.

Rehman Anwer