Terrorism is a multifaceted phenomenon which impacts society on multiple fronts
ISLAMABAD: Terrorism is a multifaceted phenomenon which impacts society on multiple fronts. Cultural terrorism can be termed a policy of attacking or suppressing cultural values or of destroying cultural treasures, an offensive against dominant systems of meaning within the realms of propaganda and disinformation. In Pakistan, the obnoxious, baleful effects of the American war on terror have not been limited to the political realm — the cultural damage has been even more perverse. The systematic elimination of cultural icons like Amjad Sabri has shocked the world. Something to think about: why do terrorists attack cultural icons, artefacts and treasures? The answer is logical. They provide the citizenry with healthy, democratic outlets and help the state and society to craft a counter-narrative against terrorists’ lethal ideology. They have aesthetic and literary orientations, irrespective of religious and ethnic dimensions. Through their murderous tactics, militant outfits try to instill fear, suppress progressive forces, and create ideological divisions in society. Regretfully, this has resulted in brain drain and loss of indigenous talent.
The recent killing of internationally acclaimed qawwali maestro Amjad Sabri has triggered an outpouring of grief and condemnation nationwide. While his death was tragic, the response of the public is encouraging. In the past too, Dr Farooq, Ghazala Javed and Aiman Udas were eliminated while Malala Yousufzai survived an attack. The attacks on the shrine of Data Darbar in Lahore, the abode of Baba Kharwari in Ziarat, the shrine of Sufi Sheikh Nisa Baba and Sheikh Bahadur Baba in Khyber Agency, and the tomb of Rehman Baba in Mohmand Agency were orchestrated out of religious intolerance. This trend corroborates the harsh reality of the militants’ strait-jacketed ideological fixation of and intolerance to cultural diversity and religious plurality.
The Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan, al Shahab in Somalia, Boko Haram in Nigeria, and the IS in the wider Middle East are hell-bent on destroying the Muslim civilisation for a strategic ideological orientation as well as for their commercial interests by plying out proxies under the veneer of religion. Can the state’s complicity be ruled out? For too long, the policies of appeasement and mollycoddling militants have boomeranged, eating into the very vitals of multicultural Muslim societies. Enough is enough. The state, society and civil society organisations must put in energised efforts in a bid to get rid of the monster of intolerance and bloodshed which haunts Pakistan and the wider Muslim world.
Saeed Ullah Khan Wazir
Published in The Express Tribune, June 28th, 2016.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
