Islam, Extremism and Politics: Pakistan
Since the partition from British India in 1947, Islam has been the only thread of national identity among the people of Pakistan, who otherwise are far apart from one another due to different religious, ethnic, cultural, class, linguistic and provincial lines. Islam is the state religion of Pakistan, practiced by the majority in the country alongside other minority religions such as Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism and many others. Therefore, religion is one of the major aspects in our country which is discussed every now and then, through different perspectives ranging from economical to political to societal to individualistic viewpoints.
Like all other religions, Islam also talks about peace, harmony, tolerance and brotherhood; however due to the rise of extremism within the Muslim world in the name of Islam has led to cast doubts on the religion Islam and its following countries, including Pakistan. Extremism in Pakistan, did not gain momentum just like that, rather the nature of different political systems being practiced ranging from democracy to military rule to democracy to military rule and so forth, from time to time have also played an important role by strengthening the role of religious parties in politics and society, which have intentionally or unintentionally created a parallel world of religious extremists/militants and non-extremists (also stigmatized as liberals by the religious extremists/militants), within the state.
On the whole, political systems in Pakistan have neither been clear nor have they been understood; the swing between democracy and dictatorship/military rule has been so subtle that, it is the local people who always have to face all the repercussions in all forms of life. So it is through increased unemployment, lack of resources, terrorism, rise in inflation, low standards of living and/or ever-increasing poverty. Both civilian and military leaders have used Islam to gain legitimacy for their rule and also as a tool to formulate state policies, for example Zia-ul-Haq’s famous Islamization policies; since the 1980s, following Pakistan’s involvement in arming the Mujahideen to fight against the Soviets in Afghanistan and the Pakistani army’s continued support for Islamist militants, Islam has taken a radical turn in Pakistan, especially in the tribal areas of the country.
The ever-increasing influx of Mujahideens and young Talibans within the country have gained strong grounds by misinterpreting Islam for personal gains by extremist and militant organizations such as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Lashkar-e-Taiba. These extremist and militant organizations have been involved in massive killings within the country through their various activities such as target killings, suicide bombings, beheading of army personnel’s, sectarian/religious killings and organized attacks on security forces. Over the years, these organizations have increased their network throughout the country and have been quite successful in converting the youth of the country, towards its extremist ideology by fantasizing the concept of Jannat to them.
Today, Pakistan has emerged as a center for global jihad as well as the main haven for Taliban fighters with U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan and also within the country itself, as Pakistan has been fighting proxy-wars with militants in Swat, North Waziristan and now in the tribal areas of Baluchistan. The increasing instability and violence have not only led the Western countries to point fingers on Pakistan’s sovereignty and integrity as a country; with that have also created a wider gap between extremist/militant organizations and the state, as far as Islam as an ideology is concerned.
Therefore, it is important that Pakistan reforms its education system to maintain uniformity of education in order to create more and more economic opportunities, and also to help build tolerance among various classes and religions. For Pakistan to resolve tensions between liberals and extremists, and to emerge as a modern, democratic state, the army will have to give up support for militant groups and also need to rethink on its social and public foreign policies to create a stable state.
