Bishop condemns 'hate material' in Pakistani textbooks
12 July, 2013 - A Pakistani Catholic bishop on Wednesday urged the faithful to highlight
biases and hateful material found in the country’s educational literature. “I invite
all people from our multi-religious, multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and multi-cultural
society to take initiatives to reach out to people and spread the word about fanaticism
in literature,” Archbishop Joseph Coutts of Karachi told a conference in Karachi,
entitled Education for Peace. Recent research by the conference organizer, the National
Commission of Justice and Peace Commission (NCJP), cites numerous instances of school
textbooks with material that could incite secular mistrust and hatred. It also claims
a significant rise in such references. In textbooks issued by the education authority
in Punjab province, the researchers found 45 instances in 2009, increasing to 122
in 2012. In Sindh province, the number of hate references were found to have doubled
in a similar period. Peter Jacob, NCJP executive director, said: “We have noticed
three books that were free of hate material in 2009 had chapters with hate material
added in 2012.” As an example, in a chapter on the United Nations, a Social Studies
book approved by Punjab province states: “Most Non-Muslim nations of the world have
always been against the Muslims.” And a book from Sindh province on the same subject
says, as an aside: “As was their habit, Hindus deceived Muslims at every step”.
The researchers also contend that syllabus textbooks offer a very one-sided view of
world events, dwelling only on wars, killings, discrimination and conspiracies against
Muslims. Several nations are described as “enemies of Islam.” Taj Haider, secretary
general of People’s Party Pakistan in Sindh province, has endorsed the views of Archbishop
Coutts and the NCJP. “It’s a really difficult task but we assure all our support to
the NCJP to remove hateful material from textbooks,” he said. “By spreading this
material we are not just planning to destroy others; we are committng suicide and
killing our own nation,” Haider added. (Source: UCAN)