A demand has been made by the civil society members and political activists for the removal of hate material against religion from the textbooks. The removal has been demanded to promote love and peace in the province.
The issue was raised during a conference on uprooting religious tolerance through formal education system in Pakistan at a local hotel. The conference was organized by National Commission for Justice and Peace and South Asia Partnership of Pakistan. The speakers at the event argued that the hatred has been created against the non-Muslims for more than three decades with the help of the lessons in the books.
However, none of the successive governments cared to remove such material. It has been feared that if the textbooks continued to have such matter then the society would bear the negative impact. On the other hand Professor Shafiq Rehman said that religious extremism has nothing to do with education as the people, especially the youth are mostly influenced by the media.
It was also argued that laws have been made to give equal rights to people who belong to religious minorities but this is not possible unless the majority of people change their behavior and attitude towards the minorities.
Photo Credits: dawn
