| Parents should not keep making the
mistake. as many do across the world, of infecting their own children with the
disease of prejudice from false ethnic pride. The disease spits out the poison
of aversion or disdain or worse. contempt for groups or communities of people
only for the reason that they are "different" and "not of us"
in race. Culture, colour or faith. Parents often groom their
children into seeking a refuge or a sense of security against the people they
had not known or even met. by looking down on them wit~ an uneasy dislike because
of fear or mistrust of them arising from the mere fact that they are perceived
"different". Parents do so unwittingly by being themselves vocal and
liberal in expressing their sweeping prejudice in the presence of their children.
The children trust their parents and accept their views. however preposterous
or generalised, as well-based and true. What is worse, children take it as normal
to harbour and peddle such lines of prejudice. People with such mental weaknesses
are known as "stereotypes" and are a threat to "islaah" (concord)
so earnestly exhorted by Islam for the well-being of the human society. In the
present world which is now mere one global village. there is no room for the people
who are stereotypes or the children who are reared as such. Who
Is A Stereotype? A person who holds a false and prejudiced opinion about
the entire community of people whom he perceives as "different" and
because of his unpleasant experience. however isolated, with a member or two individually
of that community. Or the false opinion held was predetermined because it was
also held by others of his own kind. |