Reviving an Interfaith Legacy

By BINA SHAH
Published: November 6, 2013

Karachi, Pakistan — Pakistan’s flag, a white star and crescent on a green background taken from the flag of the Muslim League, also has a broad white stripe on the left to represent its minority faiths, which include Christians, Hindus, Zoroastrians and others. But for many, a growing trend of violent attacks by religious militants against these groups has made that white stripe begin to feel like a tightrope — or a noose.

The most egregious of these attacks (not that any of them are less than egregious) took place in September, when two suicide bombers detonated their jackets at the gates of the All Saints Church in Peshawar, killing at least 80 worshipers, most of them women and children, as they streamed out the doors after Mass.

After the attack, a young lawyer from Karachi, Mohammad Jibran Nasir, called on citizens in his city to form a human chain around St. Patrick’s Cathedral there during Mass the following Sunday. A Sunni mullah, a Shiite imam and a Catholic priest prayed together during that event, and it was replicated at St. Anthony’s Church in Lahore and Our Lady of Fatima Church in Islamabad. Clerics from different faiths and sects sat together in the pews and made heartfelt speeches about religious tolerance while a small but passionate group of citizens held up placards that read, “One Nation, One Blood.”

In another smart move, the interfaith campaign, called “Pakistan for All,” is being enacted on social media. There it has attracted the attention of moderate and progressive Pakistanis, educated and tech-savvy, who detest seeing their country plunge into violence motivated by Pakistan’s right wing, and are desperate to wrest back their country from the forces of religious intolerance.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/07/opinion/shah-reviving-an-interfaith-legacy.html?_r=0

The opportunity for political progress in interfaith activities is manifest.