Social cohesion: Interfaith harmony, tolerance can play key role: speakers

LAHORE: Interfaith harmony and tolerance can play a key role in social cohesion and role of every segment of society is imperative in this regard including the business community. Businesses cannot prosper in the absence of peace and tolerance and the case of Karachi is quite pertinent which suffered heavily for the lack of these.

These views were expressed by the Punjab Minister for Human Rights, Minorities Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Ejaz Alam Augustine during a consultative workshop on 'Interfaith Harmony' held here the other day at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry in collaboration with Youth Development Foundation (YDF), a non-governmental organisation working for the promotion of peace in the society.

The minister stressed upon the importance of social and religious harmony and spoke about the initiatives the government had taken to ensure a tolerant society. Senior Vice President LCCI Ali Hussam Asghar appreciated the view point of Augustine and said the business community truly believes in promoting social tolerance that holds key importance in maintaining peaceful co-existence among various groups of the society which are classified in terms of religion and social class etc.

He said our own religion Islam commands the Muslims that there should not be any discrimination based on clan, creed, race or religion. The word 'Islam' itself refers to peace. Muslims are strictly instructed to treat all people with kindness through dialogue and show full respect to freedom of faith.

Ali Hussam continued that establishing peaceful coexistence has now become a challenge. It is either because of our lesser understanding about teachings of Islam or paying more attention towards such opinions spread by various extremist groups who have their own vested interests in sustaining differences among the multiple sections of society, he added YDF Executive Director Shahid Rehmat was of the opinion that we have to remain vigilant and at the same time act wisely to differentiate which ideology is better to be followed. "We should vow to play our specific part to promote the soft image of Pakistan. Without any doubt, creating widespread interfaith harmony can be one of the factors to achieve this objective."

LCCI Vice President Mian Zahid Jawaid Ahmed, Deputy Director Human Rights and Minorities Affairs Department Muhammad Yousaf, LCCI Executive Committee Members were also present on the occasion.

During the discussion, it was also pointed out that businessmen can promote acceptance by not discriminating against employees on the basis of religion, being conscious while giving charity to different groups and using CSR funds to run campaigns and research programmes at educational institutes on how to promote peace and interfaith harmony.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020