Daily Times

If you are one of those liberals who out of their own ignorance like to trivialise the complex issue of terrorism as a matter of taking a decisive military action in North Waziristan Agency (NWA) against the jihadi organisations and criminal groups, then I must disagree with you as I believe the root of the problem lies somewhere else. Similarly, if you are one of those naive conservatives who consider that the guerrilla fighters both in Afghanistan and Pakistan are just responding to foreign invasion and drone attacks and do not have their own motive to wage a war against Pakistan, then again I must differ with your views as well since it underestimates the power of an ideology that has shattered the peace of the whole world.

Terrorism can by no means be oversimplified as an act of retribution nor can it be limited to the tribal region of Pakistan and Afghanistan. It is now a worldwide phenomenon, as we all realise, involving North and Central Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and the Far East. In some areas, it seems to emerge from local traditions; in others, it is nothing more than a violent power struggle; and in still others, pure vengeance drives the movement. A rogue element within the jihadi groups that we once trained ourselves explains the situation for some. And the role of foreign countries playing their cards with perfect accuracy is key to understanding the problem for others. For some, the military is reluctant to take action and wants to save some of the groups as assets in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of US forces, while for others the politicians are to be blamed for their lack of support for a decisive army operation. Liberals blame conservatives and conservatives blame liberals, each for being ignorant and out of touch with reality. In short, everyone holds everyone else responsible for the loss of thousands of lives, the plight of people, and the shattered economy of Pakistan, and no one is ready to put forward a comprehensive strategy to understand and combat an elusive and clever enemy, which sometimes even resides in ourselves.

To be honest, almost all terrorism in Pakistan and around the Muslim world has a religious colour to it. Whether it is an unrealistic expectation about an egalitarian society through the implementation of sharia law, pure ignorance of the society at large regarding Islam, or a tactic of criminal gangs to take control in the name of religion, everywhere, the terrorists rely upon some Islamic principles to provide them with the moral strength to carry out their atrocities. That is why, in order to contain terrorism, it is imperative for us to take concrete measures to dissociate them from each other. Notwithstanding the importance of God in our daily lives, we need to discourage hyper-religious sentiments and disincline from extremist views in society, which sometimes can provide legitimacy to bloodshed. Concurrently, everyone should be educated that violence is a prerogative of the state only, and is not acceptable in any form when applied by private people, jihadi groups and regional organisations.

Not all hyper-religious sentiments are violent, let me say that, and in fact most of them are peaceful and non-aggressive. However, in my opinion, these beliefs and motives are still closely associated with terrorism and can be counted as one of the reasons for our inability to take meaningful action against violent crimes. Hyper-religiosity may vary from personal devotion to Islam and its values — which is encouraged and preached in society — to the armed struggle for the implementation of sharia laws across the globe and everything between these two extremes. It exists at different levels in different individuals in different colours at different times and creates a mass confusion in society which in turn only helps the terrorists. Accordingly, even the strongest Taliban apologists, the right-wing political parties of Pakistan who seem to understand and approve the ideology of the Taliban but do not agree with their methods, denounce the indiscriminate killings of civilians. Nonetheless, if the killing is not indiscriminate and a particular individual or a sect is targeted instead, the same act of violence can be tolerated, condoned and maybe even encouraged by society.

The clearest and most obvious examples of such a contrast lie in our response towards blasphemy and heresy. Without any irony, a moderate Muslim, who otherwise is supposedly sane and decent, and may not even practice Islam in his daily life, will support the persecution of minorities if he holds an extremist ideology. In the same spirit, he may also shower rose petals on the bodyguard of Salmaan Taseer, Mumtaz Qadri, who after defying his own pledge to protect the Governor as his bodyguard, shot him using the same gun that was supposed to be used to defend the life of the Governor. There may also be no word of condemnation from him when members of the Shia community are declared kafirs (non-Muslims) and are harassed to convert to Sunni Islam. These peaceful and apparently non-aggressive Muslims may also turn a blind eye to the assassination of one of their leaders if he or she loses their life in a suicide attack. Furthermore, many people in Pakistan believe that the blasphemy law should be in place exactly the way it is, and that all Ahmedis are non-Muslims as mentioned in the constitution. Keeping in view the trends of society, the Taliban just take one step further than the rest and act upon their beliefs: they attack places of worship in daylight and society does not even flinch. Similarly, while society believes that the Christians — by not accepting the Prophet (PBUH) as the Greatest Messenger of God — can be charged with apostasy, the Taliban are again found to be one step ahead: they are busy burning their homes and society still lies in a deep sleep.

The writer is a US-based freelance columnist. He tweets at @KaamranHashmi and can be reached at skamranhashmi@gmail.com