Religious intolerance tarnishes Pakistan’s image: minister

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister of Religious Affairs Sardar Muhammad Yousaf has said the image of Pakistan was being tarnished due to religious intolerance, misuse of the blasphemy law, discrimination, incitement to violence and violence against persons based on religion or belief.

He was addressing a seminar on, ‘Connecting the world through interfaith harmony’ held on Tuesday at a hotel which was attended by ambassadors, parliamentarians and civil society activists.



The aim behind the conference was to have a dialogue over the importance of interfaith harmony in order to remove misunderstandings, and accept difference among countries along with an objective of generating a climate of peaceful coexistence and harmonious society.

“Some of the recent incidents of misuse of the blasphemy law in the country have portrayed a negative image and sent a wrong message that intolerance prevails in Pakistan,” he said.

“Generally, the issues of Christian community are being highlighted on national and international media,” he added.

“The government is, therefore, compelled to respond to this negative propaganda by cooperation and interaction with religious minorities and with world religious leaders,” he said.

Yousaf said: “It is true that our society is suffering from intolerance and extremism, and there is a certain group which is trying to take advantage of this situation to create further disturbance in society.”



“Our mission is to have peaceful Pakistan which is only possible through educating the masses and teaching them the correct meaning of peace and national harmony.

“Currently our enemies are misusing our youth and trying to use them for terror activities through brainwashing. We have to tell our youth about what is right and what is wrong,” he said.

Ambassadors of different countries participating in the conference agreed upon forging unity against intolerance to improve the image of Islam across the globe.