Culture of Empathy Builder: Maryam Sakeenah


Maryam Sakeenah and Edwin Rutsch: How to Build a Culture of Empathy in Pakistan
		Maryam Sakeenah is a social worker, teacher, and freelance writer living in Lahore, Pakistan. She teaches Literature, Islamic Studies and Sociology. She is leading a project for virtual education for underprivileged school children. Maryam also authored a book documenting Islamic and Oriental responses to the Clash of Civilizations, titled Us Versus Them and Beyond: An Oriental-Islamic Rejoinder to the Clash of Civilizations Theory.
I talked with Maryam from her home in Lahore, Pakistan about her article, The Murder of Human Empathy. This article was her response to the recent attacks on Christian homes in Lahore. She writes, "Empathy is curbed and limited through narrow, parochial banners of ethnicity, nationalism, race and creed so that the empathic drive does not extend to the out-group. The out-group is then ‘otherised’. However, a more severe form of this is dehumanization of the other, often institutionalized by the social superstructure: state, media, education, religion. Through stereotyping, essentialism, ethnocentrism, prejudice and propaganda as well as censorship and selective relaying of information to the public, minority groups and those whose interests clash with or threaten one’s own are systematically dehumanized and even demonized to appear less than human, despicable, lower-order ‘others’ whose eradication may not be of any great loss to human civilization." She calls for leaders (especially religious leaders) in Pakistan to stand up and advocate for fostering empathy for all people. "Empathy humanizes and civilizes. Its suppression intensifies secondary drives like narcissism, materialism, violence and aggression. The task of religion, education and the media must be to bring out the empathic sociability stretching out to all of humanity..." Sub Conferences: Education

"Following the reprehensible attack on Christian homes in Lahore, a spine-chilling image of an arsonist cheering over the burning flames went viral. One wonders how human beings can become capable of such naked, audacious sadism.

Throughout history, human beings have shown themselves to be capable of wreaking terrible destruction and causing great suffering. Yet, Jeremy Rifkins, in The empathic civilisation, insists that human beings are “Homo Empathica”, which is defined and distinguished as the ability to empathise."

The murder of human empathy — Maryam Sakeenah - Daly Times
"Empathy is curbed and limited through narrow, parochial banners of ethnicity, nationalism, race and creed so that the empathic drive does not extend to the out-group. The out-group is then ‘otherised’. However, a more severe form of this is dehumanisation of the other, often institutionalised by the social superstructure: state, media, education, religion. Through stereotyping, essentialism, ethnocentrism, prejudice and propaganda as well as censorship and selective relaying of information to the public, minority groups and those whose interests clash with or threaten one’s own are systemtically dehumanised and even demonized to appear less than human, despicable, lower-order ‘others’ whose eradication may not be of any great loss to human civilisation.

Modern technological warfare seems to be designed to keep empathy at bay: the victim is invisible and remote, represented by a red dot on a laser screen, annihilated by a light, single click. Drone pilot Vanessa Meyer said, “When the decision had been made, and we saw that this was an enemy, a hostile person, a legal target that was worthy of being destroyed, I had no problem with taking the shot” (Nicola Abe: ‘Dreams in Infrared’). "

Attack On Christian Homes In Lahore And The Murder Of Human Empathy - eurasiareview.com
"In Pakistan religion is increasingly used as one of the most powerful means of deflecting empathy from those outside the faith and sectarian affiliation. Religious intolerance in a culture of violence and anger is a fatal mix and has gone on a bloody rampage. While the causes, factors and agents responsible for the ongoing madness are complexly intertwined, the resistance, rejection, counternarrative and healing that ought to have come from the representatives of religion in this part of the world has been inadequate, half-hearted, ambiguous and equivocal."

Video: Lahore log : The murder of human empathy
Following the reprehensible attack on Christian homes in Lahore, a spine-chilling image of an arsonist cheering over the burning flames went viral. One wonders how human beings can become capable of such naked, audacious sadism.