‘Automation moving society towards isolationism’

LAHORE
A plenary session on “Respecting Life Beyond Religion” was held on the second day of Punjab University’s Institute of Communication Studies’ international conference on “Freedom of Expression: Global Politics of Emotions” on Tuesday.
According to a press release, the session was moderated by noted journalist and analyst Talat Hussain.
Dr Muhammad Hafeez, Dr. Ayesha Leghari, Dr. Zahid Muneer Amir and Dr Fernando Resende from Brazil were the keynote speakers. Dr. Christian Clifford from USA, Dr. Elizabeth Eide from Norway, Dr. M A Siddiqui from US, Dr. Bushra Rahman, Dr. Abida Eijaz, Dr. Noshina Saleem and a large number of media academicians and students were also present.
It was observed that though all the religions spread peace yet a large number of people were killed due to the use and abuse of religions in the world.
Dr. Fernando Resende’s threw light on the topic of “Power, space, language and experience: political tools in the geopolitics of affections.”
Dr Zahid Muneer Amir argued in his paper that the message of love should come from human society and human respect was the basis of knowledge. He said respect for other religions was the main requirement of humanity.
Dr. Ayesha Leghari said traditional Islamic theory provided profound arguments for developing deep respect for the truth founded in the different religious traditions. She added respecting life beyond religion becomes essential for Muslims because they have been asked by their Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) to contemplate the beautiful names of God and see it through His mercy that all human beings are given guidance in their hearts even if they have rejected all forms of organised religions.
Sociologist Dr Muhammad Hafeez raised the question as to how freedom of expression affected society and the societal aspects in the light sociology. He said the society was moving towards isolationism due to increased automation and robotics and the dependency on humans had decreased.
About 16 research papers were presented on the second day. The conference will continue until Wednesday (Nov 4).
There were three parallel sessions. The third session was chaired by Prof Dr Aman Ullah on the theme “Blasphemy: Legal perspective and remedies” in which five research papers were read. The fourth session was on the theme “Cartoon Communication and Ethical Dilemma” chaired by Dr Shoukat Mehmood in which four research papers were presented. The last session of the day was on the theme “Blasphemy: Religions in the Contemporary World” was chaired by religious scholar and researcher Dr Hammad Lakhvi in which three research papers were presented including the paper of Umar Jibrilu from Nigeria.
Later, Punjab University Vice-Chancellor Dr Mujahid Kamran hosted a dinner for conference researcher and management team.