By Ahmed Saeed
Islamabad — In a society plagued with religious intolerance and discrimination against non-Muslims, a university campus appears to be challenging the bigotry.
Non-Muslims students at NUST say they appreciate the caring and tolerant attitude of fellow students and administration at the university, despite their grievances about religious holidays and religious studies.
“I have never heard a single word of discrimination or hate during my four year stay at NUST,” Sunil Nanjiani, a final-year electrical engineering student told Pakistan Ink. “NUST is just like a second home to me.”
Anand Kumar, another electrical engineering student, was also satisfied with the environment at the university.
Kumar said the NUST administration is “very caring”. He recalled that once in the first semester he had complained about messing and the hostel authorities had addressed his complaint swiftly.
Kumar said he has never been confronted about his religion at NUST.
“No, we always have a positive discussion about our religions and rituals with our Muslim friends,” he said.
However, Kumar said Islamiyat should be an optional subject for non-Muslim students.
“We should be allowed to take Ethics as an alternative course,” he said.
Ethics is offered to matriculation students as an alternative to Islamiyat at the secondary education level through the district boards of education in Pakistan.
“I wrote an application to the relevant authorities at the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (SEECS) regarding the issue but it was refused,” said Kumar, who got a B+, the second-highest grade on offer, in the Islamiyat course.
Kumar’s complaint was addressed to his department head. Engineer Habeel Ahmad, the associate dean of Electrical Engineering at SEECS, said the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan has set Islamiyat as a compulsory subject.
“We are helpless to give any relaxation in such matters,” Ahmad said. “Only the HEC can give relaxation in such matters.”
Bharat Kumar, a student at NUST Institute of Civil Engineering, also had the same reservation regarding Islamiyat as a course. He too filed an application for the change of subject but it was also denied.
Bharat Kumar also suggested that NUST authorities should give holidays to non-Muslim students for their religious festivals.
“We shouldn’t be applying for holidays (for our festivals), they should be granted to us like Muslim students (get religious holidays),” he said.
Attempts were made to discuss both issues with the officials at NUST headquarters. However, the officials deflected the issues, mocked the queries and ultimately refused to comment. The administration also could not provide statistics on the total number of non-Muslim students at NUST.
The issue of Islamic Studies as compulsory subject is, in fact, controversial not just at the higher education level but also at the primary, middle school and intermediate levels.
Non-Muslim Pakistanis have regularly demanded they be allowed to study alternative subjects. At least one provincial government has started to work on developing textbooks for alternative courses for non-Muslim students.
However, some non-Muslim students at NUST willingly take Islamiyat as a subject.
Elvena Sasha Paul, who is a student of business administration, is one such example. She scored the only A grade in Islamiyat for both sections of her business administration degree programme.
Paul is also happy with non-Muslim students being able to make their voices heard in classes.
One time her teacher narrated some controversial information about Christian history.
“I just challenged her facts and told her my point of view on it and my madam conceded her mistake by just saying that you definitely know better than me,” Paul said.
Bharat Kumar recalled a similar story.
“Once our teacher of communication skills gave some examples about the ‘Indian Hindu’ mindset. I was a little uncomfortable with these remarks. However, the teacher realized his mistake and explained the context of his remarks and apologised,” said Bharat Kumar, his eyes glittering.
“This is the best part of being at NUST and I want such a loving and tolerant society all over Pakistan,” he said.
PAKISTAN INK 