Something Good From Accross The Border.

Pakistaniat.com has an article about desecration of a Hindu temple.

We have come to think of Pakistan as a place from where no good can come out but it was heartening to see the pakistanis raising their voices to protect the temple and respect minority snsitivities.

Religious intolerance must never be tolerated. To be silent in the face of intolerance is intolerance itself. It is a blot not only on those who commit the acts of intolerance, it is a scar on the face of societies that allow it.

One of the very first posts we had done here on ATP was about the alleged demolition of a Hindu temple in Rangmahal Lahore (here). We followed it up with a second post demonstrating that by design and by default key forces in the media and amongst politicians tend to distort issues for their own myopic gains, even at the cost of the larger issues at stake (here). A third post on this issue from ATP followed up the story further and tried, as best as we could, to separate the facts from the rhetoric (here).

The comments made on the article are even more interesting. One comment explains how people build mosques to grab public land, a situation very similar in India regarding temples and mosques.

Unfortunaltey rules are not the same for masjid and mandir. Somehow abandoned or old mandirs seem to be a fair game for land grabbers whereas masjids seem to be encroach upon public lands without proper demarcation. Rules should be applied in the same way for both the majority and minority’s places of worship. I know for a fact that many mosques in Federal-B-Area karachi are built on amenity plots (mostly cricket grounds) and they keep expanding over the years by taking more and more space around them but nobody dares to regulate them. Masjid or mandir, they should both be given properly demarcated plots, with consideration for future expansion, and both should be provided govt security against land grabbing.

I guess things are very similar accross the border.

Anyways, it is good to see liberals raising their voices in Pakistan.

October 18, 2006 · Ajit · No Comments
Posted in: Pakistan, Religion