PESHAWAR: Political activists and civil society members on Thursday demanded that the government remove hate material against religions from textbooks to promote love and peace in the province.

The demand was made during a conference on ‘uprooting religious intolerance through formal education system in Pakistan’ at a local hotel.

The event was jointly organised by National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) and South Asia Partnership of Pakistan (SAP-Pk).

Take a look: Islamisation of school books in KP sparks debate

Noted among those in attendance were National Party provincial president Mukhtar Bacha, former Awami National Party MNA Jamila Gilani, provincial minister for minorities Sardar Suran Singh, SAP regional head Sikandar Zaman, Father John William, Professor Shafiqur Rehman, lawyer Hashim Raza and Shahab Khattak.

The speakers said hatred had been created against non-Muslims for three decades through lessons in textbooks but none of the successive governments didn’t bother to remove such material.

They feared if hate material continued to be part of textbooks, the society would ultimately bear its negative impact.

Professor Shafiq said religious extremism had nothing to do with education as the people, especially youths, were influenced by media.

Hashim Raza said laws were made to ensure provision of justice and equal rights to religious minorities but such things won’t happen until majority changed its behaviour and attitude towards minorities.

He said religious minorities led their lives as a very marginalised community as sense of deprivation among them was fast growing.

Sardar Suran Singh said not long ago, literacy rate in society was low but there was love, brotherhood and harmony among Muslims, Sikh, Hindus and Christians, who won’t hurt religious sentiments of each other or discriminate against them on the basis of faith.

He called for reforms in curriculum and people’s behaviour to promote peace, religious harmony and brotherhood.

The minister said though none of the previous governments had taken tangible steps to provide non-Muslims with all legal and constitutional rights, the current government led by PTI was making every effort to protect lives and properties of religious minorities.

He said the government had already tabled the Minority Property Protection Bill in the provincial assembly.

Other speakers said religious harmony among the people was necessary to create a just, peaceful and harmonious society.

They said the growing cases of rights violation and religious extremism had its roots embedded in textbooks, where discrimination and intolerance on basis of religion, sect and gender could be easily seen.

The speakers demanded effective measures for checking religious extremism and intolerance through educational reforms.

Also during the event, NCJP programme manager Kashif Aslam and Aneela Gul presented a booklet analysing books taught in schools.

Published in Dawn, July 3rd, 2015

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