A tale of religious intolerance

With comparative religion studies banned in schools, blasphemy cases and intolerance follows

On Saturday, I came across the news clipping about comparative religious studies being banned in Punjab. Moreover, the state government ordered that all material related to this course be ‘seized and eliminated’ as if the material were some deadly weapon of mass destruction. Under such conditions, one is compelled to think how ‘offensive’ that material could have been. As I read through that news story I found a statement by Mrs Nasreen Shah, the principal of LGS- 55 Main Gulberg, “…‘Comparative religion’ is essentially a ‘history of religion’. It is not merely comparing religions; we aim to educate about Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, and Hinduism – and their fundamental teachings. Doing so, we believe, will enlighten our students about the importance of peaceful coexistence.”

Ironically, if the purpose of the course was to present a biased, ethnocentric view (like our most history textbooks) then I am sure it would not have received such a response. However, because the focus of the course was to disseminate fundamental knowledge about the different religions and how peaceful coexistence could be achieved, it received a rather cold response.

This incident forced me to think of the underlying reasons why ‘comparative religions’ would be so greatly discouraged. As I scrolled down to read the comments I was further taken aback because some people were pleased with this decision claiming that comparative religions is of little relevance because a majority of students are Muslims anyways. The underlying message was that the minority barely matters and therefore should not be considered. This bigoted statement reveals the ingroup/outgroup dichotomy where one sees their religious group as ‘us’ while other religious groups as ‘them’.

In doing so we are using the three stepped process that the British social psychologist Henri Tajfel proposed. As per Tajfel, first individuals create categories in their minds (in this case those would be of Muslim, Hindu, Christian, Buddhist etc…). He calls this step social categorization. Secondly, we identify with one of the categories in a process called social identification (I am a Muslim, would be one such example) and lastly, we compare ‘our’ category to the ‘others’ by using social comparison. In so doing, we almost always unconsciously place our category at a higher pedestal than the others. So in essence, we are actually always comparing our religion to others.

Why then is there a need for formally studying comparative religions? Here I would quote A. Bartlett Giamatti, who was the president of Yale University and had an interesting comment about education, “A liberal education is at the heart of a civil society, and at the heart of a liberal education is the act of teaching.” Then the main focus becomes ‘how’ religion is being taught. The need for a course on comparative religions exists so that it provides a platform for young minds to see how all religions in the world promote peace. It helps the growing minds to spot the similarities and the unifying point between religions. Since early childhood several of us have been taught how ‘we’ are different from ‘them’, but have we ever been told about how we all are similar?

The tale of religious intolerance exists because of this lack of exposure. Our younger lot is prohibited from asking questions within their own religion. They are much reprimanded if they express a desire to study the other religion. They are raised in a bigoted manner so as to view themselves as ‘right’ and everyone else as ‘wrong’. The result of this dichotomous thinking is right in front of our eyes. Deny children the access to real education and they become barbarians. Several fake blasphemy cases have cropped up in the past years where the pretext is mostly to let ‘them’ know ‘our’ power and the cost of messing with ‘us’. Shantinagar, Gojra, Badami Bagh were the incidents of mass murder but several others keep occurring every now and then. The same newspaper that carried this news on banning comparative religions also carried the news of a blasphemy charge by the same writer the very same day. I wonder if this was a mere coincidence or a clear indication of what happens when we restrict knowledge outpour.

It is about time we understand that despite our differences we do have one thing is common: we are human! If we are all human then we should think of each other as ‘us’. The need of the hour is to educate the young ones about how all religions unify in promoting peace. Only then will our country finally narrate a tale of religious tolerance.

The writer is a faculty member in the Department of Psychology at Forman Christian College and tweets @anitasaleem