“Religion must be separated from the state,” Pervez Hoodbhoy said on Thursday.
He was speaking at the Forman Christian College on States Under Siege: Pakistan, Egypt and Syria.
Hoodbhoy joined the Forman Christian College Department of Physics as professor of mathematics and physics on September 2.
Hoodbhoy highlighted the need for states to keep religion out for the affairs of state.
“Theocratic states are unfair to monitories,” he said.
He said in theocratic states, a specific religious ideology was imposed on weaker groups. This created an unequal society.
In Pakistan, he said, the society was currently in a state of confusion.
“When you demand a state on the basis of religion, the question is which particular variant of that religion is being demanded?” he said.
On the recent ouster of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, Hoodbhoy said the people of the country should have been more patient with the democratic process. However, he said, they had the right to change their minds.
He expressed his reservations over the use of force by the military on pro-Morsi supporters.
He said the United States wanted to intervene in Syria for its own geo-political interests, not for humanitarian reasons.
“Weak states are prone to all kinds of disasters and collapse,” he said. “So is Syria.”
He said the state was internally weak because of the strong opposition of the Sunni rebels. The lecture was attended by a large number of students and faculty.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 7th, 2013.