Global Thinkers Group

By Dr. Nancy Fahim KARACHI: “A large part of the community is suffering from mutual hatred, ethnocentric mindset, intolerance, extremism and terrorism. Creating and promoting diversity is a noble cause under such circumstances,” said Dr Hasan Askari Rizvi, professor emeritus, Punjab University, in his keynote address at the inauguration of an international conference titled ‘Diversity and peace: challenges to social discourse’ organised by the faculty of social sciences, University of Karachi, on Tuesday. “The need of the hour is to promote political accommodation of diversity and a culture of tolerance and harmony through a dialogue across all kinds of divides that we encounter today. We need to build bridges of cooperation, positive interaction, dialogue and mutual sharing rather than barriers and walls that divide us and cause mutual distrust and conflict,” he said. “Religious and cultural extremism and terrorism dating back to the 1980s involved domestic and global factors a...