In my opinion, in the last few decades, Pakistan has witnessed rampant increase in extremism, religious and otherwise.
JUBAIL, SAUDI ARABIA: It is quite depressing to receive one piece of sad news after the other from Pakistan in the span of a few days. A couple was arrested for dousing their 15-year-old daughter with acid, with the unfortunate soul later dying in hospital; a husband has been arrested for defacing and badly injuring his wife with a blade; a jirga ordered the public beating of a boy and a girl with shoes — all these atrocities are being carried out in the name of family honour. Then, another sad piece of news came from Lahore where a charged mob attacked a girls’ school and put it on fire, with the school principal and several teachers having been arrested. They are still in police custody as their bail applications have been rejected by a local court. Their crime: a teacher got few pages of homework mixed up by mistake, changing somewhat the context of whatever was stated, which was taken by local religious leaders as an act of blasphemy. When students and teachers later visited their burned down school, they started crying at the destruction of a place that had been imparting knowledge to a large number of people for the last several years.
I fail to understand why people resort to violence over such issues. In my opinion, in the last few decades, Pakistan has witnessed a rampant increase in extremism, religious and otherwise. Religious extremism feeds on hatred. Falsely accusing people of blasphemy and making a huge issue out of family honour are the two outlets that fan this hatred. Whether it is the influence of a semi-literate clergy or something else, we need to analyse what leads to the incitement of such blind hatred and violence towards vulnerable segments of society. Perhaps, educationists and sociologists should come forward and analyse the reasons for such crimes before it is too late.
Masood Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, November 7th, 2012.
