Let there be peace: ‘Religion is loving humanity’

Speakers at Youth Peace Conference stress need to understand tenets of all faiths

LAHORE:

“It is at home where we are taught that if our neighbour is shia or sunni, we should not interact with them,” Abdul Rehman, a student of Quaid-i-Azam Law College, said at the second day of the 6th National Youth Peace Conference at Ali Auditorium on Wednesday.

Youth should look beyond the lessons learnt at home, he said.

“We are educated and should try to understand things differently.”

Several participants at the conference had a similar opinion. They were speaking at an interactive session on Interfaith Harmony and Countering Hate Speech with prominent figures representing various religious communities.

Most of participants said they had been taught at school and at home to be cautious of other religions and to limit their interaction with them.

They said that there was a need to raise awareness on religious diversity.

“Sikhism is a monotheistic religion. Its followers believe that they would be judged on their deeds,” Taranjeet Singh, a singer and journalist, said in a discussion on some of the basic tenets of Sikhism.

He said in the Sikh faith, a Gurdwara was a place of worship for all.

“A Muslim pray in a Gurdwara and no one will stop him,” he said.

Singh said he had often been criticised when he had spoken up on problems in the country. “My loyalty to Pakistan has been questioned because I spoke on these issues,” he said.

He said minorities were marginalised in the country and kept away from important portfolios such as the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

He said in the Punjab Civil Service, only seven people from religious minority groups were employed in scales above grade 14.

Pandat Bhagat Lal, a representative of the Hindu community, spoke on the concept of God in Hinduism.

He said that their first prayer was Hari Om which talked about Om creating peace for all on earth.

He said the story of Ram and Lakshman from the Ramayan gave was a lesson on humanitarianism.

“Loving humanity is religion,” he said.

“Christianity teaches one to do treat your neighbour as you would do yourself,” Esther Tahir, a representative for Christians on the panel, said.

She said that the concept of neighbour extended to all people, “even the person sitting next to you is your neighbour”.

Tahir stressed the importance of studying and understanding religions.

She said ethics, as a subject, was rarely taught but it provided a good opportunity to understand teachings of other religions.

Pir Maulana Muhammad Zubair said that Islam’s battle was with those who worked against peace. He said that it was these people who worked against Islam and brought a bad name to the religion. Often people who sport beards are stopped at airports in other countries, he said. “They are asked to disembark airplanes,” he said.

Zubair said that the beard had become a symbol of discrimination because of people who disguised themselves as Muslims but carried out terrorist activities.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 17^th, 2015.