The Roots of Extremism

The roots of religious extremism in Pakistan are deeper than what is usually conceived. The masterminds of terrorism have fabricated a whole ideology to lure in those people who tend to have a firmer belief in Islam. The second target is those people who are illiterate and don’t actually have any significant knowledge about their religion. It’s not very difficult to convince such people, especially when the convincers are very proficient in their job. Third are the people who are dying of poverty, and they already hold a grudge against the government. Fourth are the children of the tribal people who lose their parents in the American drone strikes. The alliance of the Pakistani government with the US is enough for them to declare war on it. Pakistan is full of these four kinds of people, so there is no difficulty for the terrorist groups to find recruits. The Pakistani and American governments themselves are indirectly making the task of recruitment easier for the terrorists.

Let’s take a look at the first kind of people. They are the so called fanatics who can do anything for their religion, from killing themselves to killing others. These people are the easy target for the terrorist recruiters. Such people might be very harmless in normal circumstances, but when they are told that the Pakistani government is allied with such governments which have killed thousands of Muslims and are still dropping bombs upon them, they won’t hesitate to grab a gun and start a war that they think is actually ‘Jihad’. Now, what is the cure for these people? Should the military hunt for them all around the country and wage war in the areas where such people are thought to be concentrated. This seems to be the least affective method, because killing people will increase the number of the fourth kind of people. Instead of killing the people, the ideology should be killed. People should be taught what the real Islam is. What are the rules for ‘Jihad’ and when is it needed, and how Islam teaches its followers to express themselves and fight against the evil using pen instead of gun. And then the most important thing, the government should really revise its policies. Their policies are serving as a tool for the augmentation of extremism in the country. They should adopt more friendly policies towards religion and limit their cooperation with the US.  Pakistan was created for Muslims of subcontinent so that they could freely practice their religion without anyone opposing them, but unfortunately the government and media of this state itself has started opposing them.  The nation hasn’t yet forgotten the blood that was spilt for the creation of this country and in the name of Islam. So, they have every right to demand the state to be Islamic instead of secular, but of course peacefully.

Now about the second type of people who are frequently recruited by terrorists. They are the illiterate ones, and due to lack of education they have a lack of understanding and thus can easily be fooled by the cunning recruiters of the terrorist organizations. These people don’t understand that the so called ‘Jihad’ that the terrorists are using for their own benefit hasn’t been benign to Islam. Rather it has disgraced Islam all around the world. The only cure for such people is of course education. Illiteracy is the root cause of many social evils, and thus a society with a literacy rate less than 60% would suffer from all types of crimes. The government should focus more on education of the Pakistani population and build more schools in those areas where literacy rate is too low and where people tend to join terrorist organizations due to their ignorance. Spending on education can be more profitable for a country like Pakistan than spending on its military.

The third type of people can be recruited for money. Poor countries all around the world face more insurgency from within the population because the insurgents can easily recruit poor people by offering money to them or to their families. Almost 23.1% people in Pakistan live below the poverty line according to the government of Pakistan, and just like illiteracy, poverty is also instrumental for rising crime rates in a society. Government of Pakistan has to create more job opportunities and should establish an effective system to financially help the poor and needy citizens.

Let’s now take a look at the role of USA in fueling the extremism by continuously attacking tribal areas of Pakistan with its drones that kill more civilians than insurgents. According to Brookings Institute, drones kill almost 10 civilians for 1 terrorist. This collateral damage is totally unjustified. The tribal people are usually very aggressive when it comes to avenging their murdered relatives, and the best way for them to take the revenge is to join the anti government forces and start an armed struggle against the murderous government of USA and its ally, the Pakistani government. Although it is rarely admitted by the authorities, but drone strikes have been a major contributor to the hatred that has spread among the Pakistanis for the US government.

Albeit its obvious that the governments of USA and Pakistan are being run by people who are quite smart and astute, and of course they don’t need any kind of advice from a blogger whose posts are rarely read by anyone, but apparently they don’t seem to adopt any policy that could improve the current situation. May be because they don’t care whether someone dies in a drone strike or in a suicide attack. All they care is how much money they make and how much power they attain.

The Sheeple of Pakistan

Many years have passed since the people of Pakistan have been complaining about the injustice, illiteracy, poverty and other problems that are being faced by this nation. But till now almost none of them have been dealt with by any government, rather there has been further increase in the number of problems.

Why is it so? Who is the root cause of these problems and who is the obstacle to the solution of these problems?

Most of the Pakistanis would answer that the governments of Pakistan have been both the cause of all the problems, and the obstacle to the solution of these problems, and it is quite true as well. There have been few Pakistani politicians who have ever been sincere to their nation. Most of them are known to be corrupt. They care more about their pockets than the life of a poor person. 

But can any government survive if it is the sole cause of all the problems of a country? Who is keeping such governments in power, while they are being abhorred by the nation?

The answer would be America. Pakistanis would instantly blame The US government of supporting the unpopular Pakistani governments, like they have been doing so in many Arab countries. This is again true, as now even a child knows how The US government kept Mubarak in power for decades and how the Bahraini regime is being supported by them in spite of nation wide protests. They have always supported the governments all around the world who submit to their desires and alter their policies according to their requirements, no matter how much these governments are disliked by the people.

So, what happened to those governments that were being supported by America but were unpopular? And what happens to the people if they successfully get rid of such governments?

A very common response by some Pakistanis would be,”its quite impossible for us to survive without the American aid. If we don’t have a government that is loyal to the US, we will lose everything. We would be deprived of the aid and will have to live hand to mouth”. Well, aren’t the Pakistani people already living hand to mouth? What do the people of Pakistan get out of the aid that is sent by the US? According to the government of Pakistan, 23.1% population of Pakistan is living below the poverty line. For those who don’t know what it means, 23.1% people among the Pakistani population earn less than $ 1.25 a day. So, what are they getting out of the money sent in by The US? Absolutely nothing.

Then what difference will it make for the people of Pakistan if someday Pakistan gets nothing out of the American treasury? There will be no difference at all, because people aren’t getting anything even now. All the aid gets absorbed in the highest levels of Pakistani military and political establishments, and Pakistanis can easily survive without the leftovers that reach them. Besides Pakistan is a very self sufficient country provided the government is interested in the country’s prosperity. It has large gold and copper mines like that of Sandak, it has huge reserves of coal in the Thar desert, it has fertile lands, it has some very appropriate locations for big dams, Baluchistan is full of mineral mines and precious stones. This country doesn’t need any foreign aid; it is the government that needs it. Because they don’t care about the country, they only care for their own bank accounts.

What happened to the people of Iran after they threw out their corrupt monarch who was loyal to the US government? Did they starve to death? Could the US government bring them down to their knees? Aren’t they surviving in spite of all the sanctions imposed on them by the US? Someone would say that they can do it because they have oil. But how did the people of Iran get the oil? Before 1979, The British used to gather all the income from the Iranian oil through its corporations and take it back to their own country. The people of Iran just got a very small share, and that’s why at that time they suffered from the very problems that are now being faced by the people of Pakistan; poverty and illiteracy. They revolted against their corrupt ruler and got hold of their oil and threw the British companies out. Now there are less than 2% among the Iranian people who are living below the poverty line, same as that of The US. Their literacy rate improved dynamically after the revolution. That’s how Iranians got the oil, can’t the people of Pakistan get beck their resources that are being plundered by foreign companies?

What happened to the people of Egypt and Tunisia? Are they now starving to death? Tunisians don’t even have any significant oil reserves, but still its economy is apparently improving after the ouster of Ben Ali. The fact is that the people of Pakistan themselves are responsible for their problems. They are still somehow inclined to bear all the corruption of their politicians, and the problems that they cause. They aren't utilizing their potential to solve their problems and to get rid of the corrupt system. They can’t bring around a change because they don’t want to strive for it, because they aren’t people, they are ‘sheeple’. It’s not very difficult for the politicians to make a fool out of them again and again. They are easily lured in by the false promises of their false leaders. Sheeple of Pakistan wouldn’t see a different day until they don’t start thinking on their own, and don’t start striving for a change. The least they should do is to vote for someone who hasn’t been tested yet. Why vote for those who have always proved to be corrupt, selfish and greedy? Why do they keep on voting for those avaricious people who have always preferred their own desires to the desires of nation? This term ‘sheeple’ isn’t meant to be offensive, it just describes a common tendency among the Pakistanis, that is to follow their leaders blindly, without thinking that their leaders aren’t leading them to a better future, rather they are just fooling them to get themselves rich. Pakistanis are the nation who got a separate country when they strived for it. Thus they have the potential, but they are now lacking the enthusiasm. Once they open their eyes and start thinking for their better future, they would get rid of the current system of corruption and live a far better life than what they are living now.

"Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves." Qura'an, Verse 13:11 

A Polarized Society

The ideology of ‘Enlightened Moderation’, coined by Gen. Musharraf, is still being used to combat extremism in Pakistan. But unlike its name, the ideology didn’t prove to be moderate. It targets Islam and Muslims instead of extremists and terrorists. The governments of Pakistan have been trying to fight extremism in Pakistan by eradicating Islam itself, which in turn is fueling the extremism, and is creating two poles in the Pakistani society. On one side are the people who support extremism, while on the other side are so called moderates, who have actually started opposing Islam. The people in between have slowly been depleted by this constant polarization of the society. They either have to choose the Islamic extremist side, or the ultra secular side, and unfortunately both sides are getting almost equal number of supporters, which is making the polarity stronger.

So, what happens when opposite poles meet? The simple answer is ‘annihilation’. A civil war can break out due to this polarization, and of course it will disrupt the remaining stability of this already unstable country. Such a situation might not be very dangerous for many countries around the world, but for a country like Pakistan, which is very unique in many respects, such situation can bring an end to even its existence. Pakistani media is continuously trying to change the mentality of a moderate Pakistani to either an extremist, or an ultra secular mindset. In an effort to reduce the radicalization of the society, media has started campaigns to promote secularism, and discourage religion. This they are trying to do by showing different plays on Pakistani TV channels that don’t represent the Pakistani population at all. They encourage the young generation to 'free' themselves from religion and the 'backward' traditions of modesty. There are talk shows that criticize religion and try to portray it as a backward idea that can’t cope with the problems of this era. All this infuriates a person who has even a slightest belief in Islam, on the other hand it encourages the secular people to adopt an ultra secular mindset, and hence the ridge between the Pakistani people continues to widen.

Most of the people who can be labeled as religious minded or fundamentalists, reside in Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. These two provinces have already been deprived of many facilities that the people of other provinces have access to. So, discontent is already there, which combined with this media war will eventually turn them against the people of other provinces. People with a more secular mindset are concentrated mainly in Punjab, and some areas of Sindh e.g. Karachi. This polarization, along with deprivation, can lead to disintegration of this country. There has always been a tendency in the people of Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to get a country of their own, where their rights wouldn’t be violated and where they would be able to practice their religion more openly without being discouraged by the government and media.The future of Pakistan will be darker than what is usually thought, if Pakistani media keeps on this campaign.

The Dying Language

Stronger the language of a certain nation, the stronger will be their nationalism. Strength of a language can be determined by observing the purity, with which people speak it, the amount and quality of literary work done in that language, and the self sufficiency of that language. English, Turkish, Persian, Arabic are all examples of some ‘strong languages’. Their speakers usually don’t mix words from other languages considerably, although nowadays it’s very common for people to use some words of other languages, but comparatively this practice is quite rare among the speakers of the mentioned languages. These languages also have a huge stockpile of literary work, and most of them are very self sufficient i.e. translations for most of the words that didn't originate in the areas where those languages are spoken can be found in these languages (but of course there are many exceptions as well). Now, about the nationalism of the speakers of these languages, Arabs are known for their staunch sense of nationalism, same goes for Turks, Iranians and Americans.

After observing all these nations, let’s take a look at the Pakistani nation. The founders of Pakistan were smart enough to understand that they can’t lead the Muslims of Indian subcontinent as a nation till they don’t provide them with an ideology to form the basis of their nationalism, and a language which will serve to consolidate their idea of being a single nation. The ‘Two Nation Theory’ was propagated as the ideological foundation of Pakistani nation and Urdu was selected to be their language, because it was mostly spoken by Muslims in the subcontinent. The Hindus also labeled this language as the language of Muslims and refrained from speaking it. This language was supposed to be the official as well as national language of Pakistan, because without a common language it’s very difficult for a group of people who belong to very diverse ethnic backgrounds to feel like a nation. At the start it went very well, but soon Bengalis started demanding their local language (Bengali) to be declared the national language along with Urdu. This was the start of the discord between the people of East and West Pakistan that eventually led to the separation of East Pakistan, which is now known as Bangladesh. Although there were many different factors that had an affect on this separation, but one of the most important factors was language.

Afterwards, the Urdu language constantly weakened, which means that its speakers lost interest in their language. They seized feeling proud of their language, and gradually its literature lost its quality and contributors. English is taught as a secondary language in most of the Pakistani schools, but is considered more important than the first language. A person with poor English will be considered more illiterate than a person who knows English well; no matter how poor he is in Urdu. When such tendencies develop in a nation, it loses the sense of identity and nationalism. This can even result in its annihilation.

The first thing that the Israelites did after building their country was to revive Hebrew, which had been their language in ancient times. It developed a sense of identity for the people of Israel and helped them to feel that now they are a ‘nation’, with a ‘national language’.

In Pakistan some people proudly tell each other, or in some cases they will deliberately make people notice that they don’t know Urdu very well. The question is why a Pakistani would behave like this in the first place. Why have Pakistanis mentally accepted that English is superior to their own language? The simple answer would be that Pakistanis have mentally accepted that English speaking world is superior to them, so their language of course would be considered by them to be superior to their own language, or in other words, although Muslims of subcontinent have got independence from Britain, but mentally they are still enslaved by them. Rather to be more precise, Pakistanis are now enslaved to the Americans, and nowadays American English is more common in Pakistan. This mental slavery has divested the Pakistanis of their national dignity and pride.

So what should the Pakistanis do to revive their nationalism and their sense of pride? As language is one of the most important elements of nationalism, so in order to make the nation strong, the national language has to be strengthened. If weakening of nationalism can weaken the language, then strengthening the language can strengthen the nationalism. People should feel proud to speak their own language, and government should encourage writers and poets to contribute in building and improving the Urdu literature. State media should promote the national language and more emphasis should be put on the national language in the schools instead of foreign languages. Steps should be taken to purify Urdu from words of other languages that can be translated.

A nation can’t be a nation without a national language. So, if Pakistanis really want to survive as a nation they will have to strengthen their national language, otherwise the powers which have mentally enslaved this nation will soon enslave them physically as well.

The Dangerous Nukes

Pakistan conducted its first nuclear weapon test in 1998, just after India tested its nukes for the second time. Six nuclear explosions were carried out in a remote area of Baluchistan after India carried out five nuclear explosions. And after that Pakistan just accelerated its production of nuclear weapons, and according to Natural Resources Defense Council, has eventually surpassed the number of nukes possessed by India. It estimates the warheads possessed by India to be between 80 and 100, while that of Pakistan to be between 90 and 110.

The US government has long been concerned about Pakistan’s nuclear ambitions. Most probably they are afraid that the nuclear technology could be ‘exported’ from Pakistan to Iran, or Pakistani nuclear arsenal could fall into the ‘wrong hands’. So, it’s in the best interest of the US government to eliminate Pakistan’s nukes or at least bring them under their own control. But few things are guarded in Pakistan with such agility and invincibility as its nuclear arsenal. Besides using force against a country armed with nukes and missiles with ranges long enough to hit all the US military targets in the region doesn’t sound convincing, but what if the guardians of the arsenal itself are proved to be incapable of guarding it. 

In the past few years, many events took place which directly affected the reputation of Pakistani armed forces, who are the sole guardians of Pakistani nuclear program. Let’s take a look at three major events chronologically:

GHQ Attack (October 10, 2009):

General Head Quarters of Pakistan Army was attacked by four to six terrorists. After heavy gunfight, SSG was called in for assistance, and they eliminated the terrorists, while it is said that two of them managed to escape, and six Pakistani soldiers died. This was a huge setback for the reputation of Pak Army. GHQ was considered to be the most difficult target for the terrorists. The attack convinced the people of Pakistan, and the whole world, that Pak Army isn’t that much strong now as it used to be in the past. 

Abbotabad Raid (May 2, 2011):

US SEALs landed in Abottabad, some kilometers from Pakistan Military Academy, and killed Osama Bin Laden who was hiding in a compound right inside the town. ISI and Pak Army were criticized by the whole world, and people of Pakistan were once again demoralized due to the incapability, or alleged contacts with the terrorists, of their security forces. There were only two possibilities, either ISI was not able to track the most wanted person on the planet who was hiding just some kilometers away from Pakistan military training facility, or they were themselves hiding him inside Pakistan. In both the cases Pakistanis were to lose faith in their security forces. Besides the Army was criticized for not intercepting the US helicopters that invaded the country without any permission or prior knowledge of the Pakistani government. Though many people around the world doubt whether the American forces actually killed Osama, or was it just a false operation conducted to make the world believe that Pakistani nukes can really fall into the ‘wrong hands’. There is lack of evidence that Osama was really killed, as there were no photos to show (except a pathetically photo shopped one) and the dead body was instantly thrown into the sea without showing it to the world. Still those who prefer to believe in ‘official statements’ don’t like to think that their president can ever lie to them. 

Mehran Base Attack (May 22, 2011):

More than ten terrorists stormed PNS Mehran Naval base in the port city of Karachi. According to Pakistani news channels, two P3-C Orion aircrafts were destroyed in the attack. Security forces regained the control of the base after 17 hours of fierce fighting in which some 12 soldiers lost their lives. This was yet another setback for the reputation of Pakistani security forces. 

There have been many other incidents which were relatively minor, but they also contributed in shattering the image of Pakistani military and eventually the Pakistani people lost confidence in their security forces (who in the past used to trust the forces blindly). Pak Army was criticized by the whole world for their incapability to secure some of the very crucial sites in the country. 

There have always been some indications of the presence of foreign elements in these incidents. The idea of some illiterate narrow minded terrorists planning such attacks is not convincing. These incidents, along with some other minor incidents, have led the Pakistani people and the whole world to believe that Pakistani forces aren’t really capable of defending their nukes, because they couldn’t even defend their own Head Quarters, and couldn’t track Bin Laden who was hiding right under their nose. The Army Chief needs to take some immediate steps to improve the reputation of the security forces, otherwise the days are near when Pakistan will be ‘defanged’. 

“We have accurate information that, in order to gain dominance over Pakistan and weaken the country's government and nation, the Americans want to sabotage Pakistan's nuclear facilities and pave the way for the US's extended presence and the weakening of the national governing of the people through the lever of the [United Nations] Security Council and some international organizations,” ~Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Lost Identity

People of Pakistan have nothing in common other than faith. It is their faith that serves as a binding force for a group of people who otherwise belong to diverse ethnic backgrounds. Most of the times, nationalism is defined on the basis of ethnicity. For example, Arabs are an ethnic group, and they have a very strong nationalism. Similarly Turks, Germans, French and majority of all other nations, but Pakistanis are classified as a nation on the basis of religion.

What if someone snatches their religion from them. Would they survive as a nation after that? Or would they just disintegrate into their respective ethnic backgrounds?

Observations show that whenever religion becomes weak, ethnic differences become strong. For example in 1916, it was very easy for Lawrence of Arabia to convince the Arabs to revolt against Ottomans and build an empire of their own. It was a time when Islam was losing its strength and people were slowly unifying as ethnic groups instead of religious groups. So, as long as religion was playing an important role in the lives of the people of middle east, they lived together as a single nation. But as soon as people lost their faith, they got divided. It doesn’t mean that they seized practicing Islam, they just seized giving that much importance to religion as it was given some centuries ago. Same is the case with the people of Pakistan. This nation can easily be disintegrated once someone rips off their faith.

After Pakistan got involved in the war on terror as an ally of The US, its governments had to fight religious extremism on a very basic level. To change the mind set of people, Gen. Musharraf started a media campaign to reduce the influence of religion on the minds of people and persuade them to adopt a more secular mindset. He introduced a term ‘Enlightened Moderation’, which was defined as practicing  Islam moderately, as opposed to practicing fundamentalist version of Islam. But the media campaign that followed the introduction of this ideology wasn’t even ‘moderately Islamic’. Instead of targeting the extremist mindset, it targeted even the moderate Muslims and attempted to marginalize or almost eliminate the factor of religion from the life of the Pakistani people. This bore two major drawbacks. First, it polarized the society and eventually encouraged extremism, indirectly. Secondly, it reduced the influence of religion on the people of Pakistan, and thus they lost their identity. Now there is more ethnic discrimination in Pakistan than it was ever before, because people are slowly forgetting the faith that was holding them together. Besides the extremist mindset has been fueled by this propaganda campaign because fundamentalist Muslims perceive it as a threat to their religion, and thus they get motivation, instead of discouragement. 

A better way to handle this situation was to educate the people of Pakistan about the real Islam. The teachings of Islam can be misinterpreted to fuel terrorism, but they can also be taught in their true sense to end this problem. An extremist Muslim will never turn an ear towards any media campaign that attempts to marginalize Islam, but campaign that preaches peace and tolerance in the light of Islamic teachings will have quite an effect on that person.