‘No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate.’
These oft-quoted words of Nelson Mandela have proven all too true in far too many contexts throughout human history, as indeed they do in a very literal sense in Pakistan today.
While hatred can be ‘learned’ in many ways – from one’s family, or cultural background, or even from negative experiences with the object of said hatred – in Pakistan the teaching of hatred, specifically religious intolerance, is embedded in various forms into the very fibre of the country’s education system.
A hidden agenda
Perhaps at its most subtle it takes the form of the inclusion of religious content in subjects where it is not contextually relevant. Students of English and Urdu may find that their textbooks contain stories and essays with religious themes that reinforce Islamic viewpoints, for example, while chapters on citizenship, ethics and moral values in social studies textbooks are predominantly framed on Islamic teachings.
In an Islamic republic where the majority of the population follows Sunni Islam, one may be inclined to question where the harm in this lies, but particularly concerning is the fact that all of these are compulsory at least up to the end of secondary education, and in some cases even continuing to the tertiary (i.e. university) level.
In essence this denies members of Pakistan’s religious minority communities their fundamental human rights under Article 22(1) of the country’s own constitution, which guarantees that no student ‘shall be required to receive religious instruction, or take part in any religious ceremony, or attend religious worship, if such instruction, ceremony or worship relates to a religion other than his own.’
This article has been invoked to give religious minority children the right to opt out of Islamic Studies (though in practice this has been poorly enforced), however the presence of such content in subjects which all Pakistani students are expected to study is far more problematic – especially as the government’s response when challenged on this has been to suggest that all non-Muslim students can simply leave the class during the ostensibly compulsory lessons in question.
History denied
Even more brazen however is the curriculum’s continued deliberate omission of the contributions of religious minorities to the development of Pakistan, including in the fields of education, science, politics and military service.
There is no mention, for example, of the three non-Muslim members of Pakistan’s first constitutional body at any level of the syllabus. Nor is there any acknowledgement of the country’s first Foreign Minister Muhammad Zafrullah Khan, a member of the severely persecuted Ahmadiyya community who went on to serve as President of the UN General Assembly and the International Court of Justice, or Christian human rights activist and military hero Cecil Chaudhry Sr.
Elsewhere, religious minorities are outright demonised, with Christians and Hindus frequently depicted as enemies of Islam in the history of the subcontinent, and some textbooks even containing derogatory language that denigrate non-Muslims as evil and heretical.
In some cases such discrimination is reinforced further still by teachers themselves, with CSW having received multiple reports of teachers both directly and indirectly attempting to convince non-Muslims that their faith is illogical, subjecting non-Muslim students to physical and psychological abuse, and encouraging or permitting other Muslim students to do the same.
Lasting consequences
This has significant and lasting consequences for the social fabric of Pakistan. It is by teaching Muslim students that their non-Muslim counterparts are somehow lesser that some grow up to mete out extremist violence against religious minorities, perhaps upon an accusation of ‘blasphemy’ or even simply for discovering that they belong to a community they have been taught to view as heathens.
It is by granting Muslim students who memorise the Qur’an an 20 extra marks towards admission applications for higher education, employment and professional studies that religious minority students are placed at an economic and social disadvantage before they have even graduated.
And ultimately it is by reinforcing stereotypes and promoting exclusion that the Islamist nationalist voices who have tightened their grip on a once proudly pluralistic nation will ensure that they maintain dangerous influence over generation after generation to come.
Education is the answer
Of course, there is a second part to the aforementioned Mandela quote: ‘And if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.’
If Pakistan is to truly honour the principles of peaceful coexistence and inclusivity on which it was founded, perhaps it should begin with education, with the empowerment of every child to see themselves – and all of their classmates – as valued and equal participants in Pakistani society and the nation’s future.
Reforms so far, such as the Single National Curriculum introduced in 2020 – now called the National Curriculum of Pakistan (NCP) – have proven unsuccessful, largely because the authorities continue to do all they can to maintain the support of the country’s more conservative Islamist elements.
This must end. The government must review the NCP to ensure that it respects and recognises the rights and contributions of religious minority communities in Pakistan. It must heed the instructions of the Supreme Court’s One-Man Commission to remove religious content from compulsory non-religious subjects. And it must invest significant resources in educating teachers on teaching topics related to religion and culture in an unbiased and respectful manner, ensuring that any teacher that remains intent on perpetuating divisive and discriminatory narratives faces appropriate professional consequences.
By CSW’s Press & Public Affairs Officer Ellis Heasley