The intolerance in the 21st Century is different from the religious intolerance of the Dark Ages. Intolerance in the Dark Ages hated intellect, science and reason. Intolerance of the modern age can slap the face of anybody, anywhere, anytime without reason. It exists everywhere including democratic role models and tolerate societies of the West when it comes to the non democratic country of Burma. This is a complex and unpredictable phenomena of the human being. Tolerance can be seen only in shopping plazas, or markets when buying various brands, and dining on fast food or travelling by air. Managers, sales officers and other service providers are trained how to tolerate customers, when to smile during payments, and how to attract through smart and even beautiful staff. All other sectors of society around the world seem intolerant.
Irshad Ahmad Mughal, Humanist Movement, Pakistan.
Religious groups and extremists seem most highly intolerant of different societies anywhere. Without quoting any research statistics we can say Muslims, Hindus and Jews are number one in this malpractice. Even Buddhist monks, Jain vegetarians and Christian clergies are equal partners in this World Wide Wrestle-WWW arena. WWW arena shows clear examples of violence, intolerance, and modern co-operation where every hook and crook tactic or strategy is lawful. Only a win counts.
No doubt, intolerance has become a profitable business in Pakistan. To occupy a home or properties of someone who belongs to any minority group or who are poor and without any strong background needs only one such action of intolerance to displace or dislocate them. If parents insist on marrying a specific boy and girl duo and say the girl refuses, she can face any reaction from acid burning to killing on the name of ‘honour’ (though she dies to express her choice). If bonded labour (mostly Christian) refuse to work, they can be thrown into burning stoves – a painful death like Bruno (two Non Muslims were thrown by owner of Brick Kiln factory in Punjab). If you assert your rights, government can punish you with strict pealties. Even banks have become intolerant to customers.
On electronic and social media, politicians are shown quarreling and fighting with each other. Many experts says TV owners consciously encourage their anchors to ignite and add fuel to fire during discussion forums to enhance their ratings.
Different experts provide different twisted and distorted historical perspectives to justify the existence of intolerance in our society, specifically if we explain it in religious context. However, this is not just a plague originating from bites or scratches from infected wild rodents and cats, or contact with tissue from infected animals. But, it has become a profitable business to get sponsorship and funds from allies to kill others in the name of faith, in anarchistic and problematic law and order situations. Daily, securities agencies provide evidence, culprits, criminals and target killers to confess and who get funds for what, where and why?. Their patrons and guardians are preaching in the media, spreading various justifications to diffuse mob anger and resentment through religious interpretations and unreasonable argument. Intolerance just kills reason through suffocation. Even Islamic scholars realize the intensity of this disease and organize conferences to diffuse intolerance and provide remedy to citizens.
Due to intolerance ‘people with reason’ are flying abroad or being killed through target killings or being harassed to quit or face consequences. Intolerance is not a word that is written and beautified – it’s a reality and holds feelings of suffocation. Its like a rope around the neck being tightened slowly or even being hanged suddenly. It varies case to case. It is said when there is a ‘zero tolerance’ in any iron rod it breaks. When there is zero tolerance in a political system, political analyst predict it will collapse. Is Pakistani society reaching point zero tolerance, the answer may be “yes”. But will this political system break? Readers have to answer that.
Why intolerance is so harmful to citizens is because it doesn’t provide a space, opportunity or environment for anyone to argue. Intolerance wants a “dumb or silent society”. What, dumb or silent to be killed in the name of intolerance? The answer is “No”. Intolerance is rooted in speech, expression and communication. It kills expression or anybody who expresses his/her ideas. Therefore, it kills ideas. Ideas that are challenging faith, prejudice and fixed positions of hard liners. Intolerance never believes in reason and arguments. He/she believes in static beliefs. He/she is like standing in static water and prefer to be static and swim in static water of prejudice and blind faith.
In Pakistan, everywhere we face lack of arguments all the way from universities to village paths: anywhere someone can be hit by intolerance. While driving a car, if you peep the horn too much to get space to bypass, you may get answer, “this is not your father’s road.”
Intolerance without action is not intolerance. Intolerance with action is intolerance. It is rooted in distorted consciousness. A consciousness of prejudice and blind faith provokes intolerance as it directs actions of human mind. It blocks reason. This faith provide justification to the intolerant person to believe in non-reason and blocks reason with iron will. Anybody anywhere can be its victim. Intolerance also exists in communities and it can’t exist in loneliness. It can also exist when a state is weak. It can’t exist in the presence of mighty or powerful rulers. Force inflates its airs and arrogance. Copernicus, Galileo, Bruno were victims of intolerance. In Muslim Society, Ibne-haitem, Al Maverdi, Al Farabi all with reason were victims of intolerance. But current intolerance in our society has a different mechanism. It is fuelled by sponsorship and painted with sectarianism. It is based on contradictions. This intolerance gives direct financial benefits to concerned political and religious leaders. They have money, weapons, and street power with justification of Jihad. On the other hand, small bands of people with reason are weak, non-violent, without street power and lack of that spirit of Jihad. Power rules on this earth, therefore, intolerance rules and reason dies. There is a need to dare to be wise to resist against it.
This is not an intolerant phenomena like in the Dark Ages where enlightenment changed the scenario and intellectuals after dying for the cause were successful to bring reason to rule. This today is a more complex phenomena rooted throughout various dimensions. Society requires quality and ample vision based decisions to counter this malaise in order to function smoothly and gives sufficient space to reasonable people to ‘dare to think ideas’.
