29 Jul Political, religious parties should openly discourage hate speech: chairman CII
Islamabad—Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) Chairman Allama Raghib Hussain Naeemi has said that political, and religious parties should necessarily act to end ongoing polarization in the society by discouraging hate speech and promoting tolerance and inclusivity.
He was speaking at the ‘Policy Dialogue on Youth and Hate Speech’, organized by the Islamabad-based Pak Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS).
Representatives from academia, civil society, media and government took part in the discussion that revolved around faith-based persecution and hate speech targeting religious minorities. The dialogue focused on root-causes and remedial measures including political, legal, constitutional and educational.
CII Chairman Naeemi said policial, and religious parties had their own following and they should openly promote tolerance among their supporters, noting that they had absolved themselves of this responsibility. “There is a need to change the thinking of our teachers, through better training, to make them accommodative of opposite views,” he said.
Dr Salma Malik, associate professor at the Quaid-i-Azam University, said the teacher should be trained in a way to make him free of all biases related to colour, ethnicity and religion. “There should be no coding of colour, ethnicity or religion from a teacher,” she said. She underlined that they must acknowledge and respect every identity as diversity was the key to an inclusive society.
Dr Ishtiaq Ahmad, former member of the Planning Commission of Pakistan, said states had their own perspectives on civil liberties while people demanded more freedoms, but the problem couldn’t be addressed by excluding the state. He called on the government to revive student unions in educational institutions, arguing that “all challenges to the state would fizzle out with this decision”.
Lawyer and political activist Dileep Doshi warned that although fault lines in the state narrative appeared to have died down, they still existed and could be exploited in the future.
Dr Nadeem Abbas, member of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony’s Apex Committee on Social Media, said they had received few complaints in the last couple of years about spreading blasphemous content against members of Christian and Ahmadiyya communities. He added that the committee received most complaints against Muslims.