Daily Times

Rudyard Kipling obviously knew a thing or two about the deadly scourge of terrorism stalking our western frontier. The same terrorism that exacted a gut wrenching toll on the young lives out on a mission to tame the refractory tribes whose truculence defies time. The above lines that captured the poignancy of the British human loss on the troubled frontier are as germane to the present sacrifices being rendered by our gutsy officers and men as these were to the colonial pacification attempts in the tribal areas. The flower of our youth being cut apart mercilessly with metronomic regularity asks for recognition of its supreme acts of altruism in the service of a country that still largely remains ambivalent about the nature and virulence of the phenomenon that drives terrorism. That phenomenon doubtlessly is extremism of the mental, moral, and epistemic dimensions. It is a powder keg that has been used by internal as well as external actors to light the fires of a perennial conflict that thrives on the perverted ideology of misguided zealots. These Frankenstein’s monsters have grown too big for all stakeholders, including their ideological kinsmen amongst the mainstream religious politicians.

Nations like Kampuchea, Vietnam, and even Bangladesh have emerged out of their violent past to slay the dragons of hate and extremism resulting in unimpeded economic progress. In Islamic countries like Malaysia, Turkey, and Indonesia, religious extremism has been tamed well through active state regulation. Sectarianism and religious extremism have been controlled effectively by the above governments through a very effective control and monitoring mechanism of the sermons, acts, and writings of clerics. Contrarily in Pakistan, a laissez faire spread of religious indoctrination under active state patronage for an extended period of time has groomed an entire generation of clerics and their followers who consider their version of religion as the only path to salvation for the faithful. It is now very difficult to disabuse that generation of diehard believers to renege on their vows of violence. A very strong and sustained counter extremism effort is required at the national level to root out the ideology that nourishes violence and terrorism in society. Spreading seeds of violence through a sedulous brainwashing effort, the new internet and TV evangelists continue spewing their hate sermons without any visible countervailing narrative from the state or the civil society.

The difference between the likes of Sufi Muhammad and Farhat Hashmi is only of the level of sophistication and the target audience. While one pandered to the raw emotions of rustic followers the other targeted well heeled begums of the middle and upper class to advance her brand of religious particularism. Till the time the state does not pick up enough gumption to refute the hateful narratives of all purveyors of religious exclusivism, our sons and daughters will keep dying in a war that has turned out to be our longest. We a nation that once took a vicarious pleasure in the Indian Army’s involvement in low intensity conflicts, begotten out of Indian political follies, have started feeling the same heat now. No anodyne nostrums or placebo solutions are going to reverse the situation for us. We have to take tough measures and initiate fundamental reforms in the way we treat religion and extremism in our society. In order to find those tough solutions we need to identify the reasons behind our present mess with brutal honesty. One big question that we as a nation need to ponder is the dialectical relationship between the law and religious morality.

As per eminent historians Ariel and Will Durant, whenever in history man made law vanished,religion held sway. Whenever man made law gained potency, the hold of religion weakened. Perhaps providence also willed it to be this way.  Whenever human civilization reached the apex of sophistication, its law making powers grew, while the same powers declined when civilizations atrophied. In today’s world, human conduct is chiefly regulated by laws that are made by those who consider themselves moral beings. The power of these laws is therefore derived from a social contract between the governments and the governed. Where however the polity is weak and the law enforcement effete a supra political social contract becomes de rigueur. That social contract is provided by religion as interpreted by those who have made religion their political creed in order to impose their warped world view on the gullible masses. Poor literacy standards and low human development indices help cement that bond between the clerics and the masses. One solid conclusion from the above reasoning is the rise of religiosity and extremism in the absence of strong and just laws. A non egalitarian society essentially is an extremist society. That has been the bane of our society and others including inimical neigbours as well as distant regiona and global powers have exploited this weakness to further their nefarious designs.

Till the time the state picks up enough gumption to refute the hateful narratives of all purveyors of religious exclusivism, our sons and daughters will keep dying in a war that has turned out to be our longest

What are the dimensions of our extremism problem and their possible antidotes is a question that needs to be answered without equivocation or delay.There is a need to institute reforms in our religious education in seminaries that are imparting archaic pedagogic fare to an impoverished clientele leaving it unfit for absorption in the modern world job stream. The Friday sermons from the pulpits instead of fire and brimstone should be a spiritually healing experience. The state needs to regulate and control the content and tenor of the sermons from the mosques that have the potential to touch a raw nerve amongst a largely illiterate and gullible populace. Our masses take lead from their leaders and therefore the noblesse oblige responsibility of ruling elites makes it essential to provide the direction to the clerical zealotry which if left unchecked degenerates into an explosive religious demagoguery capable of great damage. The state has to look at the Saudi Arabia, Turkish, and Malaysian models and bring in line the obstreperous demagoguery of the sectarian titans with the practices in those nations. The clerical community especially the rural variety will see the wisdom of the state’s direction easily as the notion of moderation gels well with the pluralistic and inclusive message of a peaceful Islam that was practiced for ages in villages and small towns of the country.

The overt symbols of religiosity need to be regulated in line with the tolerant, inclusive, and peaceful version of Islam practiced by our Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Religious scholars like Javed Ghamidi with command over religious as well as temporal knowledge should be sponsored through state patronage and given active help in spreading their moderate ideas amongst the masses. Obligations towards fellow Muslims or the “Muamalat” should be elevated in the hierarchy of the religious beliefs in sync with the teachings of Islam. The state’s propensity to use religion as an opiate of the masses to divert attention away from their real issues should be actively discouraged. The state should come down very hard on religious superstitions and heresies weaning people away from religious charlatans and mountebanks masquerading as spiritual healers and the fake intermediaries between God and mankind. All religious seminaries should be forbidden to teach curriculum from the medieval ages that foreclose all career potions for the kids except becoming Imams of mosques or clerics. All Madaris should be immediately brought within the educational mainstream by affiliating them with normal education boards in addition to their affiliation for religious education with Wafaq ul Madaris.

And finally the laws of the land have to be made in conformity with both the needs of a modern state and the welfare of the masses. State laws must promote justice, equity, and egalitarianism in sync with the vision of our founding father as well as the dictates of religion. The State should give no reason to any charlatan to exploit public deprivations on religious grounds. The above will only happen when we jettison this outmoded colonial era justice dispensation system that has created a litigious instead of a just society. Time has come to take the bull of extremism by the horns and if the above reforms in religious epistemology, proselytization, and education are not implemented earnestly we will never win this war against terrorism.

(The writer is a PhD scholar at NUST;rwjanj@hotmail.com)

Published in Daily Times, February 12^th 2018.