Islamabad - Renaissance by Social Innovation, an NGO, has
launched a series of events under the title “Mashal-e-Rah” to engage and
present youth with an alternative narrative to extremist ideology .
The first of these events was held in collaboration with
NUST Bazme-e-Pakistan at Islamabad where Dr Khalid Zaheer, a renowned Islamic
scholar, was the guest speaker.
The Mashal-e-Rah series of events aim to expand individual
strengths and virtues to benefit all citizens of Pakistan, as our society is
divided along sectarian lines, and the growing extremism in the name of
religion, politics and ethnic divides are by far the main causes of social
disorder; the organization feels that it is time to end out our differences and
save our coming generations from this strife.
The NUST “Mashal-e-Rah Conference” tailored dialogue was
moderated by Sidra Rafique (scholar in religious philosophy and vice president
Renaissance by Social Innovation), as a question answer session to challenge
the orthodox and ultra-orthodox mind sets. Dr. Zaheer emphasized on the need of
the state machinery to take control of religious institutions for the elimination
of the menace of sectarian violence and radicalization. He further said that
sectarianism had several causes, some of the more prominent of which are
mentioned in the Quran. The main reason seems to be extreme attachment to
religious personalities. Such individuals are revered to such an extent that
whatever they believed in, whatever they said or did, is often considered to be
the last word, as in our society asking questions of an elder who professes to
be a religious person may be considered sacrilege. When people follow their own
religious leaders to such extremes, they do not listen to any other point of
view, and their perspective is likely to be clouded by emotions.
Another major reason for sectarianism to flourish is
exaggeration. People exaggerate the virtues of their beliefs and practices, and
downplay and even badmouth other beliefs to the extent that strong prejudices
for and against are created and no one is ready to listen to and reflect on an
alternative point of view.
This article was published in The Nation on 3rd dec 2015
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