What do we share with India? I can name many cultural and ethnic commonalities but the one thing that we distinctively share, is the love and passion for cricket. Nothing makes us more excited than a Pakistan vs India cricket match. From ad campaigns to political point scoring, we have been beating down on one another for as long as I can remember. Patriotism has been synonymous with undermining our neighbor. Among all the chaos and hatred, there are always peaceful Pakistanis and Indians hoping for better relations.
Recently Facebook introduced an option to put up our profile pictures supporting our teams. All the cricket nations jumped in and the cricket world loved the idea absolutely. But the Indian and Pakistani fans went one step ahead, using their profile pictures as an expression of their desire for peace.
Masses from the shore of Karachi to Lahore and from Kolkata to Amritsar started changing their profile pictures on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and used the hashtag ‘profilesforpeace’.
It is quite a message, rejecting the ‘hate politics’ and ‘extremism’ on both sides of the border. On one hand, Pakistani cricket fans are changing their display pictures to support India and on the other, Indian cricket fans are changing their display pictures to show their support for the Pakistan cricket team. It is a lovefest.
People from both countries have been writing letters to their political leaders and urging them to shun the politics of extremism and hatred.
The CEO of Facebook was also interested in the lovefest and updated his status accordingly:
