Religious intolerance new form of racism?
ARTICLE (July 11 2010): Religious intolerance is "the new form of racism," and one of the main causes of persecution of minorities in the world, London-based Minorities Rights Group International has said in its annual report. In an overview of government policies and global trends, the group has argued that counter-terrorism efforts and economic marginalization have come to be increasingly associated with religion, not ethnicity.
According to group's director Mark Lattimar, many communities that have faced racial discrimination for decades are now being targeted for their religion. The report notes that Muslims have been increasingly targeted by authorities in Europe and United States as a part of the larger counter-terrorism strategy.
In Iraq and Pakistan attacks against minorities have escalated in recent years. Further, religious groups in Iraq such as Christians, Mandaeans, Bahais and Yazidis have become targets of violence since the 2003 US-led invasion of the country. It has been made mandatory in Egypt to list one's religious affiliation for purposes of registration, but the choice is restricted to Islam, Christianity and Judaism, which means that members of the Bhai community cannot get ID papers, which, in effect, will deprive them of their inalienable right to seek work or access to healthcare facilities. Such disenfranchisement on religious grounds is not only violative of the UN Charter; it is also against all canons of morality and fairplay. There is a strong perception that such religious groups could become focus of nationalist campaigns, such as in Switzerland where the voters had recently chosen in a referendum to ban construction of new minarets after a campaign by a far-right political party.
Since 9/11, religious and cultural intolerance, which had remained dormant, has come out in the open. The Bush doctrine of "unilateralism" had found a match in an equally hardline ideology of al Qaeda, determined to dominate, and shape, the world in its own image.
Tariq Ali's counter-thesis of "Clash of Fundamentalisms" captures the spirit that has since driven the world to the precipice where it stands today. Some independent analysts maintain that Bush Administration Necons, driven by their insatiable hunger for energy, had meticulously planned the whole military campaign.
The New World Order, ordained by Senior Bush, in the wake of dismantling of the Berlin Wall, and the shift in the US threat perception from the Cold War enemy ie USSR, to Islam, (though hotly denied by the West), according to some analysts, was basically oil-oriented, although also tinged with the ideology.
However, the recent auctioning of Iraqi oil wells and the imposition of US sanctions against Iran to ensure compliance with the demand for rollback of its nuclear programme, which Iran claims is purely energy-oriented, seems to have set the stage for another intervention.
The US-led war in Afghanistan and Iraq (both the countries largely remain unstable) has already drawn parallels with the disastrous Vietnam war, while the US pullout plan from Afghanistan by next year is reminiscent of its earlier departure from the Afghan quagmire, when Pakistan was left "dutifully" holding the baby.
Rising sectarian intolerance in Pakistan since then, fuelled by Zia era policies have played havoc with social peace and harmony, aided by rapid spread of Klashnikov culture. We are still paying the price for Zia policies. The recent suicide bombing of the Mazar of great Sufi-Saint Hazrat Data Sahib in Lahore, with horrible loss of life, has demonstrated, yet again, the strong undercurrent of intolerance and bigotry that lies just below the surface.
Unfortunately, we have always allowed ourselves to become pawns in proxy ideological and geopolitical wars of others for (let us face it) hard currency, essentially, whether it is "peanuts" or something more. Although the rising tide of religious intolerance is a global phenomenon, yet here in Pakistan it has assumed frightening proportions.
Persecution of, and discrimination against, minority communities in the countries mentioned in the report should be a cause of serious concern to governments of those countries, which should immediately initiate measures to protect the minorities' rights.
It seems that the forces of divisiveness and bigotry have gained an upper hand, thanks largely to the power of indoctrination. The fire-spitting ideologues need to be controlled, be they in the West, or here in Pakistan, in the larger interest of regional and global peace. Secondly, a determined effort needs to be mounted to help marginalized communities join the mainstream. Ensuring distributive justice and peaceful co-existence among diverse cultural and ethnic groups holds the key. Let these forces not hold peace or human well-being hostage.
Pakistan needs to disengage itself from such wasteful and depleting entanglements. Compulsions of the 21st century demand that we all move ahead together, leaving behind our historical hangovers, in the larger interest of progress and prosperity of Pakistan.
Business Recorder [Pakistan's First Financial Daily]
Religious intolerance new form of racism?
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