Prejudice and lack of tolerance have led us towards fighting. In the past few years, we have lost many valuable human lives because of intolerance in our society, but we are not ready to change our attitude. The violent groups of students cannot bring positive changes to society, and departure from fanaticism towards acceptance and tolerance would help make a better Pakistani society.
These were expressed by prominent scholars in a seminar, entitled ‘Promoting Tolerance in Youth’, organised by the Ziauddin University under a dialogue programme on Tuesday. The speakers included Barrister Shahida Jamil, former federal minister of law, justice, parliamentary affairs and human rights, Dr Tayyeba Kiran, psychologist and assistant director of the Pakistan Institute of Learning and Living, Rizwan Jaffar, founder chairman of Youth Parliament, and Dr Pirzada Qasim Raza Siddiqui, vice chancellor of the Ziauddin University.
Addressing the audience, Dr Siddiqui said active participation of all factions of society, including the students, was important for reducing the level of intolerance, anxiety and frustration. It was also a responsibility of the religious scholars to educate the people about tolerance and acceptance on a daily basis, he remarked.
“It is appalling that in our country, more than 20 million children do not attend school due to which the rate of illiteracy is extremely high, which is leading to intolerance and deprivation in society.”
Dr Siddiqui advised the students to actively participate in creating awareness in their social circles and families to focus on education and learning at every stage. He also pointed out one of the worst examples of intolerance in the Charsadda district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where a student recently killed the principal of his college, saying the horrific incident happened because of intolerance over religious matters.
Barrister Shahida Jamil said education was the only way through which a tolerant society could be formed. She was of the view that it is the need of the hour to inculcate in society all such teachings of Islam that propagate tolerance, respect, freedom of expression and equality without any kind of discrimination as it is an undeniable fact that the outcome of prejudice is nothing but huge destruction.
“For the last 70 years we have suffered a lot on account of intolerance. Whether it was the break-up of Pakistan in 1971 or any other grave incident, all happened due to non-acceptance of each other’s rights.”
Dr Tayyeba Kiran said the role of parents was pivotal in educating children. From the very initial stage of infancy, parents should teach their children how to control anger and they must also refrain from comparing the abilities and skills of their children with those of other children, as this would certainly create frustration or lack of enthusiasm in them. “So it is better to instill optimism in adolescents at every stage.”
Apart from this, she said, teachers should also try to develop a healthy environment where students could become well aware of stress management and its consequences. Rizwan Jaffar said that for promoting an adequate level of tolerance in society, it was important that individuals should develop the capacity to readily accept each other’s values, perceptions and beliefs.
He said the role of the government was of utmost importance to implement the rule of law so as to ensure that the people did not become intolerant and frustrated on account of social injustices and discriminations.
It is the dire responsibility of the government as well as of the leaders to ensure transparent compliance procedure at every place and provide all basic amenities to the people, and that will play a vital role in reducing the existing level of anxiety in society, he added.
