Are Muslims Intolerant of Non-Muslim Minorities? The Case of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Abstract

In the wake of terrorist attacks carried out by radical Islamist groups such as Al Qaida, Bocco Haram and ISIS, there has been a growing tendency in the western societies to dub Muslims as illiberal and intolerant of religious minorities and Islam as a religion of terror. Muslims are presented as people oppressing cultures which they disapprove of. In this article, this negative portrayal of Muslims as intolerant, non-accommodative and discriminative is questioned in the context of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Pakistan. The paper, firstly, surveys the liberal theories of multiculturalism and secondly, evaluates the attitudes of religious groups in KP towards religious differences by collecting 2977 questionnaires and conducting 80 personal interviews from four religious groups. The paper shows that as a Muslim majority entity, KP society is tolerant, accommodative and non-discriminative with majority of the respondents supporting state neutrality in term of religion.