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The last few weeks saw a despairing display of cruelty driven by religion and fanned by fanaticism. The brutal murder of a Christian couple, Shama and Shehzad, along with their unborn child, killing of an alleged blasphemer by a policeman using an axe, attempted rape and murder of seven-year-old Hazara girl and many other similar events show how the extent to which the society has been brutalised.
These events also point to the role of the state in institutionalising and perpetuating religious and sectarian divides that are both causes and effects of religious extremism and the violence it has led to.
While it is crucial to protest against these incidents as violent infringements of the basic right to life, it is also important to ask why the frequency of incidents involving religion-centric violence has increased in the recent years and what are factors that perpetuate this phenomenon?
Most importantly, what role does the state have in this regard?
The Herald has invited experts from the fields of law, human rights, politics and journalism to discuss these questions.
Panelists
Ali Usman Qasmi — Professor of History at LUMS and author of Ahmadis and the Politics of Religious Exclusion in Pakistan.
Asad Jamal — a human rights advocate and a legal researcher who has written extensively on religion-driven violence. He is also a lawyer and practices at the Lahore High Court.
Ayesha Khan — a senior researcher at Collective for Social Science Research. She has worked on issues relating to conflict and civil society.
Babar Ayaz — a former journalist who now writes regular columns in various newspapers. He is the author of the book What's Wrong with Pakistan?
Syed Jaffar Ahmed — Director Pakistan Study Centre at the University of Karachi.
Moderator
Javed Jabbar — Writer, analyst and expert on media affairs, he has also served as a member of the Senate and has also been the federal information minister at one point.
