To be tolerant is not easy! In the world of over communication, over interaction and excessive freedom of speech, its even more difficult.
As the mode of transportation and communication improved so did people's ability to reach out and interact. In 60s, 70s and 80s it was an era of global culture and people of the world coming together and uniting. Unfortunately, people, cultures and societies don't "melt" and "blend" so easily. It takes centuries for cultures evolve and once they do such cultural values get embedded in the people for generations. We might pretend or even convince that we have moved on or "progressed" but in reality we are still the same. We might suppress our emotions and feelings and call this tolerance.
When one group of people decide that their religious and cultural values don't matter much or that there is no reason to feel passionately towards them, it creates an imbalance in the world. Especially when they interact with a group of people who feel otherwise. Not very long ago people of this planet had their own cultural space. They were together because of common beliefs. It was understood what was allowed and what was not. Trade was done with other nations but that did not mean that the cultures and values would be traded as well.
In the Indo-Pakistan sub-continent, there have been several invasions of cultures, religions and beliefs. We can go back as far we like and will realize that for thousands of years different invaders have been attacking, capturing, destroying. building, settling down and leaving this region. Each of these invaders left behind something and probably took something with them as well. From surface it may seem like this was evolution of a new culture which was a mix of new and old values but actually it was more of a suppression of old values and forced acceptance of new values. Thus creating a culture and society which inhibits signs of deep rooted resentment against the invading culture.
When the British invaded the Indo-Pakistan sub-continent they challenged the local system of governance, religious values and social values. They forced introduced their own systems and values and made the locals live according to these British (white man's) progressive values. While the preachers converted the locals to Christianity and called thousands of years old customs and rituals barbaric, they failed to acknowledge that these old systems had evolved and had been working for the local people for a very long time and just like in any society, everybody cannot have everything.
Mostly all the changes introduced by the British were to serve their own interests just like all the invaders before them had done. Like in seventh century AD when the Muslims invaded India, Muslims too destroyed and ransacked ancient Hindu and Buddhist temples. Slaves were taken and many old religious rituals were forbidden like the Hindu wives used to burn themselves alive when their husbands died. Additionally, many Hindu customs and cultural things gradually became part of this region's Islamic culture.
Again, Hindus of India even today have a strong resentment towards Muslims because for centuries Muslims invaded and ruled them by force. With the decline of the Mughal Raj and later retreat of the British from India, Hindus realized that this was the time to regain control of their own land and revert to their own original values. Creation of Pakistan was not acceptable to the Hindus of India but due to the situation and circumstances of the time it was not possible to stop this.
Pakistan, which was created in the name of Islam (well it was actually created to safe guard the rights of the minorities of India), is a Muslim country that has a very different kind of culture. While the Indians resented the Muslims, Muslims of Pakistan resented the British. Islam practiced in Pakistan is not the real Islam. It has many sects and each sect has sub-divisions. Many Indian and Hindu customs have become part of Pakistan's culture and this culture has seeped in to the religious beliefs of the people.
After independence from India in 1947, Pakistan became a society based on very poor masses with extremely conservative religious and social values and very few rich and extremely liberal elites. Distribution of wealth was very uneven. Religion and politics were on collision course from the very start. Religion was used by many politicians as a tool to win over and control the masses. Liberals were far smaller in number and as time progressed more and more minorities immigrated from this country which had started mutating from a safe heaven for all the minorities in to a bee hive of extremist and intolerant "Muslims".
Today, with lack of knowledge, we are trying to revert back to our "original" values... what these original values are, I really don't know. We are not Arabs, we are not Greeks, we don't want to be called Indians either. We need to realize that we don't have any "original" values. We are Pakistanis. We made a country which was supposed to be home for all the minorities... we also need to realize that politics also played a huge role in the formation of our country. Religion has become a Pakistan Achilles Heel.
Our enemies use our religious beliefs against us and our own politicians and religious leaders use Islam as a tools and weapon to create instability for their own gains. Tolerance which is supposed to be the essence of Islam has been replaced with hate and intolerance. It has become extremely easy to enrage the Muslims of Pakistan (and some other Islamic countries) by making fun of Islam.
While it is absolutely ridiculous to go around burning your own country because someone thousands of miles away has insulted your religion, it is also equally shameful that all these so called democratic, liberal and progressive countries allow their people to do and say hurtful and insulting things knowingly. Is it really freedom of speech to insult and hurt other's emotions? Just because people in the west don't respect their own religion and their Prophets does not mean that they should be disrespectful to other faiths! Its again a matter of imposing your own values on others.
