In the wake of murder of Salman Taseer, I have read countless articles, bringing into light different aspects of the rootcause of this murder, “the blasphemy law”. There is no doubt now, that Salman Taseer was mudered because he openly criticized the blasphemy law, but did not blaspheme himself. The murderer wrongfully assumed that criticizing this law, is equally punishable by death, as is breaking the law. As I mentioned earlier, I read a number of articles like these on this topic..
http://teabreak.pk/having-the-wrong-debate/49918/
http://teabreak.pk/blaspehming-blasphemies/47345/
and the comments from their readers, I have come to conclude that most people in Pakistan have found peace with one of the two extremes. They are either for Salman Taseer, or they are for Mumtaz Qadri. There seems to be no middle ground. Although the writers of these articles and most of their readers have pointed out the problem with this whole picture correctly, that neither side is ready to hear out the other, none have come up with a real world solution. I believe there is a solution. A practical solution.
The solution is “tolerance through education”.
Every now and then, you are watching CNN or BBC, or you are reading a newspaper, you come across a story about a little child, probably only a few years old, saved his or her parent’s life by calling 911. Here is a link to elaborate my point. I am sure you can find many examples like this one everywhere.
Did you ever wonder, how on earth did that child learn, what to do in a situation like that. The answer is simple. He or she was taught in school to call 911 in situations like those. Here in Pakistan, we have other problems that need to be addressed right from the grassroot level. Tolerance is the foremost in these desperate times. Just like children learn ABC and everything else by going to school, or they learn how to recite Holy Quran in their madrassas, if we were to make sure they learn how to tolerate other people’s opinions, which they may not necessarily agree with, I am sure we can make this world a better place. It is not impossible. All that is needed, is some concrete steps by the Government to ensure that every school and every madrassa must have some kind of Government regulated syllabus or material that teaches tolerance towards everyone, every faith, every race. Don’t take me wrong. I am not suggesting to turn the other cheek, if someone slaps you on one. If and when, someone slaps you, it is a physical abuse and punishable by law. But, having a discussion about a law, or having a point of view about a law, is far from breaking a law. I believe, if the school or the madrassa that Mumtaz Qadri attended, had taught him tolerance, to respect other people’s points of view, and refrain from violence in every situation, the murder of Salman Taseer could have been avoided.
Implementing something like this in reality is not impossible. Our Governments take countless actions every other day, which are less than pleasant for the public. People protest such unpopular decisions like new taxes, fuel price hikes, electricity and gas rate hikes, but the Governments get away every time with doing as they wish, sometimes sticking to their decision all the way, and some other times, retreating for a short time and then acting on their plans later, quietly. Everyone is familiar with Governments tactics. So, you can’t use “opposition of such material in schools from religious groups” as an excuse not to implement something as useful as this. It all boils down to sincerity of Governments, if they are interested in flourishing tolerance in our soceity through education or not. That is also, where people like us, need to push our Governments through our articles, tv programmes, comments and whatever else means necessary to make ideas like this a reality. I hope, through tolerance, Pakistanis can find middle ground between the two extremes.
hushyarbaash 