An intolerant year

Sitting, watching the Christmas stage-show at the Dominican Convent Higher Secondary School in Bahawalpur, it was impossible to erase the thoughts of a darker time that crept in. The time when the church at the centre of the campus became a killing ground in October 2001, and the attack that left 18 dead and many others wounded. Little has changed in the years since and the extremist mindset has penetrated ever deeper into the national paradigm.

Extremism is the new normal, the default position for many millions, because it has become so ordinary, so commonplace and no, there never was a concerted effort to turn the tide. There never has been ‘a fight against extremism’ in Pakistan and those among you who believe there was are plain old deluded. Extremists in Pakistan have embraced the extremist mindset, welcomed extremist ideologues and extremist money, facilitated extremist organisations and prepared the ground for the seeds that will become the extremists of the next generation.

This might sound unduly pessimistic but the evidence is plain to see and all around us. The Hafeez shopping mall in Lahore is the latest venue for a leaking of pus. It is a popular place selling the mobile devices seemingly beloved of everybody, and some of the shopkeepers had taken to displaying prominent signs saying that members of the Ahmadi community were not welcome. The signs had been there for some time.

The trouble started when the local police on receipt of a complaint took down the signs. The shopkeepers protested, and then protested some more and held a street rally attended by many hundreds in support of their (constitutionally mandated) right to exclude Ahmadis. Was there any counterblast from civil society? Any organised procession with people waving banners in support of the Ahmadis? Of course not. There was the usual drizzle of comments on social media about how dreadful all this was and oh dear what is to become of us and look at the state of society… and that was about it.

Meanwhile, over there in Amreeka, extremism had got itself a new-ish lightning conductor — The Donald. His call to exclude Muslims from the US has developed into a rolling narrative of attacks on mosques, abuse of individuals and a licence to kill for the nut-jobs that inhabit the far right — and the not-so-far right — of American society. The inter-webs have been abuzz with trying to figure out just how many might embrace the extremist mindset, and the best guess seems to be about a third of Republicans (read ‘white’ and ‘Christian’ in this context) would fall happily into that camp. Millions certainly.

Poisonous Christians are no less toxic than poisonous Muslims and both are doing their respective faiths considerable disservice in these intolerant times.

So is there a solution? Probably not in terms of an out-of-the-box fix that will turn off the extremist tap of whatever faith. Humanity is passing through another of the cycles in which it appears bent on self-harm, hacking and slashing at itself in the same way as a person might if they are mentally ill. There is no desire to actually kill oneself, but the act of cutting is cathartic in itself, a release of an inner tension. And like many deviant behaviours can be powerfully addictive, a habit hard to kick.

Those of us with no inclination to take a razorblade to our collective forearms have little choice but to circle the wagons and hope that the blood-boltered crazies on the outside run out of steam before they breach our defences.

But back to the Dominican Christmas show, a tad long at three hours but no matter. There was a very interesting retelling of the story of Mary, the mother of Jesus around whom the whole tale revolves. It had a challenging freshness and modernity about it that spoke of a faith willing to take a critical look at itself, to be able to place ancient interpretations on the shelf of history and put in their place something more immediate and relevant to today’s world. And yes, within that a kernel of tolerance — so perhaps not all is lost after all. A merry Christmas and a happy New Year to one and all.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 24^th, 2015.

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