IN a month that is meant to reinforce the virtues of forbearance and compassion among Muslims, it is all the more reprehensible when the actions of some in this country demonstrate a distinct lack thereof.
On Friday, a Hindu octogenarian named Gokal Das was set upon by a police constable and his brother in a village in Sindh’s Ghotki district, and viciously beaten for allegedly eating in public during Ramazan. Then on Sunday, a head constable in Lahore reportedly abused and slapped a pastor in church over the ‘misuse’ of loudspeakers during the service despite the cleric saying that only the internal loudspeaker was being used.
Both incidents are a stark illustration of much that has gone wrong with our society ever since the state, for its own ends, began to pander to the extreme right and allowed it — in fact, encouraged it — to peddle a dogmatic interpretation of religion in the country.
The triumphalist narrative that was the inevitable outcome has bred an atmosphere of intolerance and moral vigilantism.
So, while the Ehteram-i-Ramazan Ordinance 1981 — when it spells out the penalty for eating, drinking or smoking in public during this month — specifically refers to those “who, according to the tenets of Islam, [are] under an obligation to fast…”, minorities risk incurring public wrath if they do not comply as well.
And it is not only good sense that is missing in society: given that the victim in the first instance was also an elderly gentleman, so is the quality of compassion.
Meanwhile, the incident in Lahore also highlights how the constitutional right to freedom of religion in Pakistan can be violated on frivolous pretexts and the contempt shown towards figures representing minority faiths even by those who should be cognisant of the law.
When those belonging to minority communities are forced to order their lives in a manner so as to give least ‘offence’ to the majority, the latter must question how well they represent the values that their faith enjoins upon them.
http://www.dawn.com/news/1264580/an-intolerant-society
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