Creating more divisions

Hate speech is one of the most divisive factors keeping the country from becoming united. It is not only that generations continue to transform into adulthood carrying the biases of their forefathers, but that they are freely allowed to promote their ideologies of hatred. When it comes to bigoted speech, many Pakistanis have no filter because there is no consequence for their poison – except that others become influenced and propagate that prejudice. It is a need of the hour to place a check on hate speech, mobilise officials to enforce this aspect of the National Action Plan, and work towards building tolerance.

A good starting point in terms of mitigating hate speech is Section 505 of the Pakistan Penal Code. Punishments outlined in the PPC for hate speech violations include fines and imprisonment. However, a more effective course of action would perhaps be to sentence the offender to spend time with the group he or she maligns. The best way to change mindsets is to expose people to other groups, pushing them out of their comfort zones, and allowing them opportunity to see the human side of people, promoting inter-faith and inter-racial harmony. Fines and imprisonment work for more concrete offenses, but when entire mentalities need to be affected over generations, a humanistic approach should be considered to build empathy. Another way to bring change is to monitor teachers, judges, religious leaders and other persons in roles that can influence entire populations to ensure they are not spreading hate ideologies.

Rather than focusing only on one’s religious and ritualistic obligations, the masses must also be educated about what treatment should be dealt to fellow humans. Education is the magical key to an environment of inclusion. It is one of the biggest tragedies of Pakistan that its people have not learned to live in harmony as their ancestors did centuries ago.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 25^th, 2017.

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