Sectarian Woes of Pakistan

Muhammad Fahad Amin

Our beloved country is going through difficult times and one of the biggest challenges being faced by it is sectarianism. It is like a volcano whose eruption will cost us irreparable damages. Here are the few of the major reasons which stoked this fire and are the strategies through which we can counter it. Our policy makers and leaders ignored the importance of independent policies in the larger interest of the nation, they allowed the regional players to play their sectarian games in this country without considering its repercussions. Particularly Saudi Arabia and Iran used their respective sectarian population as their proxies. Secondly the authorities stayed in slumber when the religious leaders of different sects were spewing hate in front of people against other sects which now have contaminated the whole society. Thirdly we have forgotten the essence of the teachings of Islam and are suffering due to our stubbornness as a whole society because no one is willing to change. Strategies to counter these issues are; We should formulate our policies independently and out of the influence of all the regional players. We should keep in the mind the larger interest of the nation while formulating our policies. Authorities should come out of their slumber and stop the hate mongering sectarian leaders before the chasm in the society become irreparable. As the whole society we need to do introspection and start a social campaign to understand and propagate the great message of peace given by our religion. If we look at the Islamic history and the way Muslims lived with people of other religions then we come to know that Islam advises to respect the worshipping places of other religions and emancipate the minorities living under Muslim rulers. Can we not behave in the same way with our fellow Muslim brothers even? We will have to take this responsibility as a society on the whole if we don’t want this time bomb to blast and leave our country in a disarray because every person can not be protected individually as we have seen in the recent killings of Hazara community. Every person has the right to move freely and enjoy his life which is not possible in such a divided society on such lines.