Pakistan's right-wing media vs Habib University
What do right-wing news media outlets in Pakistan and their counterparts in India have in common? They are intolerant of progressive voices, and will go as far as doctoring videos and images to spread hate and fear.
A recent seminar on religion and culture at Habib University in Karachi earned the ire of certain sections of the local press that doctored images to present a false account of the event. This resulted in a social media campaign against Habib University, accusing it of mustering support for Israel.
The doctored image and false reporting in Pakistan are no different from the doctored videos aired by BJP-aligned news outlets in India earlier in February that tried to accuse the left-leaning student leaders at the Jawaharlal Nehru University of sedition.
Take a look: Jawaharlal Nehru University row: Freedom of speech now Modi-fied in New Delhi
On April 14, Habib University hosted a learned American scholar of Islamic studies, Professor Marcia Hermansen, who presented a seminar titled, ‘Cultural Worlds/Cultural Wars: Contemporary American Muslim Perspectives on the Role of Culture’ — on how American Muslims are confronting religious intolerance and Islamophobia in the United States.
The flyer for the event depicted two Muslims standing in front of an inflammatory advertisement in a subway station in New York. The image (below) provides a true depiction of the Islamophobia that American Muslims and intellectuals, such as Professor Hermansen, are confronting.