Daily Times

The recent state-sponsored Islamic directive, or fatwa, forbidding suicide bombings issued by 1,800 Muslim clerics in Pakistan has received favourable reviews from the establishment. President Mamnoon Hussain effusively described the fatwa ‘as providing a strong base for the stability of a moderate Islamic society.’ But sceptics, like this writer, wonder how a single fatwa on suicide bombings can reverse the country’s long slide into extremism and help create a moderate society.  At best, the fatwa is a small step towards laying the groundwork for a counter-narrative to extremism.

Ever since the 1970s, Pakistan has suffered as a result of sectarian violence and militant jihadism. The bloodshed unleashed by mostly Sunni extremist groups against the Shia minority has wracked the country. Also, it is important to mention that the Shias are not the only sect facing violence at the hands of extremists. The Ahmadi community, Hindus, and Christians are all at the receiving end of the Sunni onslaught. In addition, the murderous campaign of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) launched in 2007 has claimed the lives of thousands of Pakistani military personnel and civilians. Only recently, the Pakistani military moved decisively against the TTP, very nearly ending the strong challenge to the writ of the state.

Additionally, over the past four decades, a fanatical and rigid version of Islam has gradually embedded itself in Pakistani society. Through the threat of brutality, Islamic militants have terrorised and muzzled moderate and tolerant Pakistanis, who support the main tenets of democratic way of life, including respect for basic human rights, acceptance of diversity, respect for secular sources of law, and opposition to extremism.

Undeniably, Jihadi terror springs from rigidity and literalism. Extremists justify murder from a crude interpretation of Islamic texts. Jihadis see their actions as rational, virtuous and obligatory. Extremists believe in the premise that violent jihad is the natural state of Islam. Militant jihadists and their sympathisers in Pakistani society have declared that religious war, not political reform, is their sole objective. It is an uphill, if not impossible task, to wean extremists away from murder and violence towards harmony and co-existence.

Furthermore, unique to Pakistan, the state has coddled and used non-state extremist religious groups, essentially as proxies for external operations in Afghanistan and Indian Kashmir. This strategic policy expanded the space and influence that these groups enjoyed in Pakistan itself. While the militants still constitute a minority in the country, they have developed an extensive logistical and financial network in the country at large.

Punjab is an ideological hub, training site and safe haven for many national and transnational groups. Dreaded Sunni sectarian groups like Sipah-e-Sahaba and Jaish-e-Mohammad and anti-India groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba are based in the province

A key weakness is the government’s inability or unwillingness to rein in militants. Historically, Pakistan has a poor record of giving into religious extremism and intolerance. Punjab, the largest province, is both the epicentre of state power and jihadi terrorism. The province is an ideological hub, training site and safe haven for many national and transnational groups. Dreaded Sunni sectarian groups like Sipah-e-Sahaba and Jaish-e-Mohammad and anti-India groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba are based in Punjab. These groups allegedly have ties with state intelligence agencies. Furthermore, recent attempts by the state to mainstream hardcore Islamist groups into the political sphere, raises questions about the state’s seriousness toward curbing extremism.

It is always easier for a state and society to condone, even start, violence but bringing about peace is much more difficult. Pakistan requires a sea change in state policies and narrative that has allowed hydra-headed extremism to prosper and grow. The recent clerical fatwa, to have any tangible and permanent benefit, must lead to decisive state action against all extremists groups perpetrating violence in the country and the region. At this crucial stage, ignoring violence in any shape or form or discriminating between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ extremist groups, adversely affects the collective struggle against global extremism. Moreover, a comprehensive plan to deal with extremism must address problems like illiteracy and joblessness, which affect young Pakistanis. A deep national introspection could offer the young, who are eager for fresh thinking, a way out to escape the dead end of radical Islam. Undoubtedly, winning the battle of ideas is the best hope against extremism.

Few questions: Can Pakistan, a country that has developed ‘strategic’ jihad as a weapon against its enemies give up its jihadi option? Can citizens who have lived and battled in a world of jihad and allowed it to control their thinking see the difference between right and wrong? Can we dissuade those who continue to propagate their fantasies of theocracy and a caliphate, which have little chance of ever happening? Can militant Islam ever reconcile with the ‘sins’ of modernity, enlightenment, free thinking, acceptance of change and a tolerance of cultural heterogeneity?

On his recent trip to Pakistan, Prof Dr Mohammad Mahmoud Abu Hashim, vice president of Egypt’s Al-Azhar University, while rejecting the western portrayal of Islam, put forth the standard line that “Islam is a religion of peace which has nothing to do with extremism and all acts of terrorism being committed in its pristine name.” Perhaps, a more realistic view in the present circumstances is the one offered by Nobel Laureate Salman Rushdie which is that “paranoid Islam, which blames outsider, ‘infidels’, for all the ills of Muslim societies, and whose proposed remedy is the closing of those societies to the rival project of modernity, is presently the fastest growing version of Islam in the world.” Hopefully, for Pakistan’s sake the peaceful version of Islam prevails.

The writer can be reached at shgcci@gmail.com

Published in Daily Times, February 2^nd 2018.