Pakistan - This Christmas

Christmas this year will be a slightly quieter affair than usual. Some of the Christian groups who make up just under two percent of Pakistan’s total population of 190 million have said they will not be celebrating the occasion because of the Peshawar school attack, which killed 132 children. Others too have agreed to tone down festivities. But the affair will be a subdued one also for other reasons. Many minority communities in the country, including the Christians, will be thinking about their status in a nation torn apart by militancy and extremism in the name of religion. Minorities have been the target of repeated attacks in the past – and when Christians have died in Peshawar, Hazaras in Quetta or Hindus subjected to acute violations of rights in Sindh, the national flag has rarely flown at half mast nor have three days of mourning been officially announced.

We wonder what the founder of the country Muhammad Ali Jinnah, whose birthday also falls on December 25, would have made of this. Through his short tenure as head of state, Jinnah advocated equality for all citizens in the country he had done so much to bring onto the map. We have every reason to believe that Jinnah, a man of moderate, tolerant religious views, would have been shocked and horrified by what has become of the country he founded, and by the horrors enacted within it. This is something we need to reflect on today. It is clear we stand at a very important crossroads. We need to choose at this moment which path to take. It could be the road Jinnah had advocated: one that leads to rights for all; and justice, equality and tolerance for all beliefs, or the one that was carved out after Jinnah by forces who hold that all non-Muslims are infidels who deserve discrimination and that there can be no concept of equal rights for them. The point of choice has come now. We can no longer shy away from this reality. We need to work together to decide what kind of nation we want to be. It is true many have been left shocked by what happened in Peshawar. But can we convert this shock into action to steer our country more towards the kind of vision Jinnah had? Or is it already too late for us to save ourselves and our fellow citizens?