But we and most notably our leaders, should also keep in mind that greetings alone are not enough. We need to do much more to draw our minority communities back into the mainstream from which they have now been completely sidelined. Forced marriages and conversion of Hindu girls in Sindh has become a regular feature in the life of that community; complaints of places of worship being taken over by land mafias made repeatedly by Hindu community leaders have been ignored; the kidnapping of Hindu traders continues in both Sindh and Balochistan and thousands have left for India or other destinations, sensing they have no place in a society that has rapidly become less and less narrow in its vision and thinking.
The same problems hold true for other minority communities in the country: Christians, Sikhs and perhaps most of all the Ahmadis. Systematic discrimination, in certain cases protected by law, has made life more and more arduous for non-Muslim citizens, in some cases depriving them of jobs or even access to education. The situation has grown rapidly worse over the years. We have seen intolerance and blind hatred grow before our eyes, with no real effort to stem this tide, which has created so much suffering in many places.
What we need desperately is a change in the direction from which the wind blows, bringing with it the worst kind of communalism. A gentle breeze of change must be wafted across the country. Mere greetings on special occasions can only do so much. A far bigger change is required if anything substantial is to be achieved and a real change brought in the lives of people who, regardless of religious beliefs, need to be treated as equal citizens.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 29th, 2011.
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