Identity Based Violence

Naila Tasneem

The former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders recently quoted “I’m Jewish. My father’s family died in concentration camps. I will do everything I can to rid this country of the ugly stain of racism.” His statements reveal a harsh reality that how a religious or racial identity can lead to persecution in various forms and is not only a global but a historical phenomenon as well.

Identity based violence is becoming a major form of persecution in US, Europe and many other parts of the world. It is a quite myopic and an unfair practice when people are categorized and judged according to one specific identity based on religion, language or geographical boundary only and not just as human beings at the first place. In fact the Black Lives Matter movement has now spread to Canada recently after death of a Somali immigrant Abdi Rahman Abdi who died after being hospitalized in critical condition following his arrest.

Read also: US Elections, Drone Strikes and Sovereignty

On the other hand in Pakistan the roots of sectarian violence can also be traced to the weightage given to a person’s religious affiliation or inclination towards one school of thought and becoming completely oblivious to other parts of his identity. Human beings are not just religious beings and they also have other aspects to their identity. Therefore persecuting people on basis of their beliefs is a practice that completely ignores every other part of a person’s identity and his contribution to the society. If we lose humanity amidst putting across our view point we lose everything. When such chaos happens the distinction between what is lawful and unlawful is blurred to an extent that even highly educated people fall into this trap and commit heinous crimes or uphold extremist ideals on many important matters. Violence is perpetrated by imposition of singular and bellicose identities of gullible people, championed by proficient manufacturers of terror. If identity based thinking can be amenable to such brutal and heinous manipulation, how can we find peace and sanity? Our shared humanity gets fiercely challenged when our differences are narrowed into one devised system of distinctly powerful categorization. The worst impairment comes from the denial of the role of reasoning and choice, which follows from the recognition of our plural identities. Democracy is not just about majority vote elections but also about public deliberation and reasoning often termed as “government by discussion” as termed by Nobel Prize winning economist Amartya Sen.

Human beings are multi dimensional beings and it is deleterious for us to see each other mere as Shia, Sunni, Hazara, or other ethnic and religious identities. The plight of Hazara community in Quetta reflects the gravity of fear and frustration suffered by them at hands of banned sectarian outfits. If humanity precedes everything else we will not be able persecute people based on identities such as religion, language, race or nationality. If religion was the only binding force between people and nations; Bangladesh would have not been seceded from Pakistan on basis of culture, language, literature etc. Hence such divides will be endless and it will be hard to have peace anywhere. Thereafter the day will not be far when we will be having our own movements like Baloch Lives Matter.

If we start classifying people based on race, religion, culture, ethnicity, language, income status instead of treating them with dignity, human beings we will be putting peace and humanity at a great risk

Furthermore, Muslims face persecution in US, Europe and military brutality in the recent uprising in the Kashmir valley. When speaking of glorious Islamic Civilization many people only emphasize the military achievements of Muslims and ignore their academic contributions. For instance Muhammad al-Khwarizmi introduced the Arabic numeral system to the Western world. One of the greatest Muslim contributions to civilization began in the 8th century when Muslim scholars inherited volumes of Greek philosophy. Muslims scholars eventually brought the ideas of great ancient Greek minds such as Socrates, Aristotle and Plato into Europe, where their philosophy was translated into other European languages. This is why Muslims contributions formed the bedrock behind the European Renaissance and the Enlightenment, two movements that resurrected Greek philosophy and gave new life into a European continent that was bogged down with religious dogma and bloody internal conflicts.

Muslims worldwide must invest more in education, science, and information technology in order to continue their tradition of being pioneers for knowledge. The pioneering contribution of Muslims in so many disciplines like medicine, mathematics, chemistry, astronomy, physics, and philosophy is often subsided by the west and also many religious scholars who only emphasize military prowess. Muslims today are in a strangely unfortunate position of being viewed through a lens that mostly depicts Muslim society as a backward and dogmatic culture. The popular western historical account is estranged from documented reality that demonstrates that Islamic civilization at its height was the model of human progress and development. Islamic society in the medieval period sought unity in diversity by accepting the contributions of non-Muslims like Jews, borrowing freely from the preceding advanced civilizations, and using this knowledge to build a progressive society.

Extremists and radical elements only want to identify themselves as members of a certain community or school of thought and they hardly emphasize the progress Muslims made towards academics, arts, architecture etc. in the medieval ages. Without recognizing these invaluable contributions we have reduced ourselves as people who use religious sect as a barometer to judge other Muslims and not the multitudes that may exist in their identities. If we start classifying people based on race, religion, culture, ethnicity, language, income status instead of treating them with dignity, human beings we will be putting peace and humanity at a great risk.

Writer is an Economist based in Lahore.

Email: [email protected]    Twitter @npanthers

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article are those of the author and Balochistan Voices not necessarily agrees with them.