Pakistan school drops John Lennon's Imagine because it "encourages atheism"

Started by Hydra009, August 26, 2017, 08:51:46 PM

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Hydra009



QuotePupils at the Karachi Grammar School (KGS), a liberally-inclined private institution with 2,400 places, were on Friday night due to sing the anthem at an in-house concert, upholding a tradition that stretches back decades.

But administrators decided it would no longer be safe after a popular conservative journalist highlighted ‘controversial lyrics’ in the song, hinting that they might fall foul of Pakistan’s strict blasphemy laws.

QuoteMr Abbasi reportedly said that the school’s new Principal, Dr C. E. Wall, a British citizen educated at Appleby Grammar School, was introducing corrupting secular values to KGS, whose alma matter includes the assassinated former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto.

Quote“We were introduced to [‘Imagine’] by the school” she said, “it was always a song of peace, that’s why it resonated with us. When you live in a country like Pakistan and are constantly hearing about attacks it is really soothing to hear a song that unites us.”

The reaction on Twitter to Mr Abbasi’s campaign was mostly negative.

“This is precisely the problem with our country,” posted Salman Ali Shoaib, “small-minded people focusing on songs of peace rather than terrorism, hatred, bigotry.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/25/pakistani-school-drops-plans-sing-john-lennons-imagine-accusations/

"Corrupting secular values"  Heaven forbid!

The elephant in the room here is of course religious zealotry - which has contributed to an awful lot of death in Pakistan - and such people's emotionally-driven need to silence even mild dissent.  Thus are born blasphemy laws and these bizarre moral panics against relatively innocuous "militant atheist" stuff while violent extremism is preached far and wide.  It's so strange, yet so familiar.  Replace Pakistan with South Carolina and this story would still seem plausible.

Shiranu

For what it's worth, and I only mention this because you do, there was more than a fair-share of self censorship across the United States, not just in the South, when the song was released, as well as pastors calling for the song to be pulled from radios. I can only imagine the outrage that would have occurred had it been introduced into one of our schools.

Thankfully, American pastors generally don't have as much power as Pakistani imams in national politics, or even state politics. The diversity of our society keeps any one religious sect from having enough manpower to enact their set of rules that other sects might disagree with.

It's scary to think just how borderline America really is from being a theocracy... if we were not a nation of immigrants, we would likely be much more politically akin to Turkey than Western Europe. Not to the religious fanaticism of someplace like Saudi Arabia or Pakistan, but with enough "glorious history" for a charismatic, egotistical dictator to exploit the majority religion (in this case, I will consider Protestants/Catholics as two separate religions) into wanting to revive the so-called glory days and giving him the power because the populist vote fell for his lies...

Also, it's scary to think how closely Erdogan and Trump do sound like each other when you put it that way.

Sorry, slight tangent there...
"A little science distances you from God, but a lot of science brings you nearer to Him." - Louis Pasteur

SGOS

"Nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too."  Yeah, I can understand why the fanatics don't like it.  But the song is about coming together, and religion does tend to drive people apart, except if everyone is in the same church.

Munch

'Political correctness is fascism pretending to be manners' - George Carlin

aitm

A humans desire to live is exceeded only by their willingness to die for another. Even god cannot equal this magnificent sacrifice. No god has the right to judge them.-first tenant of the Panotheust

Shiranu

Quote from: aitm on August 27, 2017, 03:12:44 PM
It's Pakistan so........it's like...Pakistan

Yeah, all the Pakistanis I have met have been absolutely amazing people but their country... eh...

I know it's not considered third world, but if you look at Karachi... it's third world.
"A little science distances you from God, but a lot of science brings you nearer to Him." - Louis Pasteur

Cavebear

Quote from: Shiranu on August 27, 2017, 07:55:46 PM
Yeah, all the Pakistanis I have met have been absolutely amazing people but their country... eh...

I know it's not considered third world, but if you look at Karachi... it's third world.

Pakistan is third world.  Nuclear weapons or not, it is not a unified country.
Atheist born, atheist bred.  And when I die, atheist dead!