College campuses across America have been through turmoil with student protests due to ongoing conflict in Gaza that has resulted in the loss of thousands of innocent lives in response to a brutal terrorist attack by Hamas on Oct. 7. Hundreds of students and faculty members have been arrested and detained.
I attended school and college in my land of birth, Pakistan, under the rule of Gen. Mohammed Zia-ul Haq, who choked the opposing voices and even thought processes with the brutal force of state apparatuses, especially on college campuses.
The religious and patriotic furor was utilized as a tool to justify the onslaught on freedom of speech and the peaceful right to protest. It weakened the voices of reason and strengthened the minority of extremists who, in a matter of a couple of decades, destroyed the fabric of society.
School and college campuses that were supposed to be nurseries of critical thinking were heavily censored by Gen. Zia, who banned student unions and political clubs. Police and military forces were often deployed on the campuses to suppress the progressive thought processes and dissent among students and teachers on the campuses. It was an atmosphere of fear........