Countering hate speech

Reports that a court in Kasur district has jailed an imam for five years for making hate speeches are much to be welcomed. Firstly, for the display of independence and upholding the rule of law by the judiciary; and secondly, this in turn was responding to the police who brought the case in the first place. Hitherto neither the judiciary nor the police were noted for their willingness or tenacity when it came to prosecuting hate speech. There will be few of us that have not at some time heard speeches made over mosque loudspeakers and at some public rallies that incite sectarian hatred as well as hatred against minority communities, going as far as calling for them to be killed, sometimes with catastrophic fatal consequences. The sentencing of this man will also give a glimmer of hope to those civil liberties bodies who for years have been calling for such prosecutions largely to little avail.

A turning point may have been reached with the formulation of the National Action Plan in the wake of the Army Public School massacre in December 2014, and there has reportedly been an upswing in the numbers of people prosecuted for making hate speech or the inappropriate use of loudspeakers. The people of Pakistan have a distressing tendency towards volatility, rarely more so than in matters pertaining to faith. Crowds are quickly and easily assembled and equally quickly sparked into fire. The embedding of sectarian hatreds lies at the heart of much of the bloodshed seen in our towns and cities today, and the constant reinforcement of negative stereotypes via hate-filled sermons stokes the fires. We would be more than happy to see more prosecutions such as this because they begin to roll back the tide that puts bloodied water around the ankles of all of us. The police and the judiciary deserve the support of the wider populace, and moves such as this will go some way to countering the negative perceptions currently attached to both. Hatred may never be eliminated, but it can be robustly fought.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 23^rd,  2015.

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