JARANWALA, a small town near Lahore, has shot into prominence, but for the wrong reasons. What happened there on Aug 16, 2023 represents another low in our history of communal intolerance, with local community leaders and law-enforcement authorities appearing totally helpless in preventing the mob from targeting dozens of Christian families, their houses and churches. For a country whose teeming majority adheres to the faith of Islam — the religion of peace — the incident has put all Pakistanis to shame.

Sadly, this was not an isolated occurrence, nor was it the first time that Christians were targeted in our country. In July 2009, a mob attacked houses belonging to Christians in Kasur, and a month later in Gojra. In 2010, Aasia Bibi was sentenced to death for blasphemy and remained in prison for eight years before her acquittal, and in 2012, the trial of another Christian, Rimsha Masih, made headlines. In 2013, a suicide bombing at a church in Peshawar killed more than 100 people, while at least 75 Christians were killed in 2016 when they were celebrating Easter at a park in Lahore. Extremists have targeted other non-Muslims as well.

This gross intolerance and vigilantism in the name of religion is most reprehensible. The persecution of minority communities is against the spirit of Islam and the teachings of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Any Muslim knows that one’s faith is not complete if he or she does not believe in Allah’s Prophets or His books, including Hazrat Essa (Jesus) and the scripture revealed on him, the Gospel or Bible.

These actions are also a violation of the Constitution, which provides for freedom of religion to every citizen under articles 20 and 36. The founder of Pakistan also provided clear guidance that all citizens of Pakistan should be free to go to their places of worship.

The persecution of Christians is noted around the world.

Such blatant display of violent extremism causes immense damage to Pakistan’s reputation. The persecution of Christians is noted around the world because the majority of the world’s Christians (nearly 63 per cent) live in the Americas and Europe, where parliaments, international human rights organisations and civil society are quick to call out Pakistan every time such persecution of Christians occurs.

Such incidents also weaken the moral high stand that Pakistan has taken to speak for the rights of Muslims and other non-Hindu citizens of India.

The only silver lining in this situation is that this time, the people of Pakistan from every walk of life have expressed deep anguish and concern about the growing incidents of mob violence against non-Muslims living in Pakistan. However, condemnation of such incidents is not enough. We need concerted action to prevent such incidents in future.

A first step would be to ensure that the perpetrators of the latest violence are brought to justice. If they manage to escape accountability on one ground or the other, then sadly the Jaranwala incident might not be the last one.

Secondly, we need to revive the culture of tolerance that used to be the hallmark of our society. Textbooks would need to be amended to include the virtues of tolerance. In a recent article published in this paper, Amir Rana reported that Saudi Ara­bia was updating its textbooks, removing anti-Semitic and anti-Christian references, and modernising negative depictions of non-believers. Pakistan could consider taking a leaf or two from the Saudi book. In this regard, it would help if the study of all major religions is mainstreamed in academic disciplines at all levels of education.

Thirdly, we need to complete the task of madrassah refor­­ms that was star­ted under the Nat­ional Action Plan. These reforms should also ensure that masjid imams would be allowed to lead prayers only if they have the requisite academic certification issued by the government. This has been adopted as a standard practice in many Muslim countries. Fourthly, the threshold of evidence regarding blasphemy accusations needs to be raised in order to prevent the misuse of the law. Our legislators have an onerous responsibility in this regard. Finally, and most importantly, extremist organisations should not have any political patronage, nor should they be used as a tool for political manoeuvring.

British philosopher Bertrand Russell, when asked to outline his advice to future generations, identified the values of truth and tolerance as ‘vital’ for the continuation of human life. In Jaranwala, both these values were trampled upon with impunity. If we want to prevent such incidents from happening in future, the state must act firmly to uphold the values of truth and tolerance. Let the intolerance displayed in Jaranwala be the endpoint of the cycle of faith-based violence in our country.

The writer is a former foreign secretary of Pakistan and author of Diplomatic Footprints.

Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2023