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DEBATE: Think of others too!
“It’s a strike tomorrow.”
“What for?”
“Well the usual, one of the political parties has called a strike to protest against their leader’s death.”
“Oh, I have an exam tomorrow and I’m fully prepared too. Now I don’t know when it will be held again.”
This was the conversation between two students.
I would like to discuss the rapidly growing trend of calling strikes without caring for the students of schools, colleges and universities and the way these irregular and unnecessary holidays affect their studies. Not only that but also the protests held everyday and the way people are getting more and more violent to get their demands fulfilled and thoughts and opinions across and thinking that this medium will get their demands met. It is only spoiling Pakistan’s image and is making Muslims look like ruffians and troublemakers. People who fight with one another and spread violence in their own country are a source of disgrace and shame.
Have we ever thought about the people living on daily wages and what becomes of them when there is a strike? Many students have exams and these unscheduled holidays disturb their study routine and frustrate them. They then have to wait for another date on which their exams would be held and sometimes even the paper is leaked out which causes a lot of havoc. And then they are told to attend school, etc. on a holiday such as Saturday to compensate for the loss of study hours or to finish the course.
Other than that people nowadays have resorted to severe acts of violence and aggression. They do not stop to think before they break into buildings. They do not realise that doing this will only adversely affect their own country and the ones they are protesting against will not be the slight bit affected or bothered. Muslims abroad are now blamed for every bomb blast and incident of terrorism because the world has proof of Muslims spreading terrorism and violence in their own country and damaging their own properties and killing one another for petty issues thus ruining their image and presenting themselves as ruffians and troublemakers. Protecting ones religious identity is necessary but violating ones religious rules and laws to achieve that is not a wise thing to do. When will the people realise this and start acting sensibly and try to think before they act?
What do people achieve after burning tires and creating havoc on the streets, breaking and damaging public property such as restaurants and hotels, etc, calling on strikes and bringing a standstill to transport, educational activities, etc, bringing out rallies in the scorching sun and making children and people who don’t have any idea of what they’re doing displaying placards and chanting slogans?
Just think damaging restaurants and offices won’t affect the owners living far away in any way but will cause problems to our own people and bring financial crisis on us and also be a waste of precious time and money. Different party leaders also encourage such acts and idiotic measures and people who are angry and humiliated dance to their tune.
When will our people realise that this is not taking us anywhere but spoiling not only ours but the image of Muslims throughout the world? We seem to be blind to all of this.
When will they act and think prudently and make an effort to promote peace as our religion teaches us?
When will we try to practice what we preach? We say that Muslims are peacemakers and do just the opposite? When will we try to work out our differences peacefully without creating a mess out of everything and doubling our troubles? When will we try to think about others before thinking of our own good and wishes only?
When will these questions be answered and when will people try to use their brains instead of taking out their swords every time some incident takes place?
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