Think-tank meet: Involving community termed must for interfaith harmony

Speakers say society is suspicious of people promoting harmony

People promoting inter-faith harmony are generally looked upon with suspicion, said speakers at a workshop organised by Pak Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS) titled Engaging on Freedom of Faith and Interfaith Harmony on Thursday.

They said that many people lament how interfaith harmony is fizzling out. Yet, those who strive to foster such harmony are rejected and viewed with suspicion. This, do nothing and sit around, attitude should be discarded if people want to live in a tolerant society, was the general consensus among the 20 experts, faith leaders, and development professionals who have worked in the domain of interfaith harmony.

The purpose of the discussion was to know how to undertake different activities aimed at enhancing interfaith harmony.



Participants were told about the centrality of society in creating a peaceful environment. Unless people embrace each other, expecting state authorities to do is illogical. To this end, faith leaders can play critical role too.

Discussing that role, religious scholar Amanat Rasool discussed that faith leaders can bring about reforms in the society through their position in the community.

Youth activist Zeeshan Zafar stressed that the country’s youth population seems to going in the wrong direction, largely because of the environment they are brought up in. He stressed upon prioritizing reforms in educational curriculum.

It was also suggested that religious tourism in the country can also help in melting people’s opinion about each other.



Development expert Rashad Bokhari commended the work of people and organizations striving for a tolerant and peaceful free society but lamented that such change agents are wrongly linked to external forces. This, he said, is the biggest hindrance in attempting to undertake any such activity, calling for discarding this attitude.

Senior journalist Sabookh Syed agreed that media have been reporting mostly on political and security happenings, at the cost of issues pertaining to interfaith harmony. But he reminded that media itself are influenced by viewers’ choices. While we tend to talk a lot, blaming media for everything, we rarely take action to our betterment, he said, summarizing, “Vote and remote are in your hands.”

Published in The Express Tribune, April 13^th, 2018.