Book on ‘counter-extremism’ launched

Author Sadia Nasir, an independent researcher, attends event

RAWALPINDI:

A book titled “Extremism and Counter-Extremism Narratives in Pakistan: An Analysis of Narrative Building” by Dr Sadia Nasir was launched at an event held by the Department of Humanities and Social Science department of Bahria University, Islamabad.

Dr Sadia Nasir, who is an independent researcher and a UNESCO/Keizo Obuchi research fellow was present at the event.

Former Federal Secretary Hamid Ali Khan praised the timely contribution and Pakistani perspective by the author. He said that the author has provided a clear difference among various concepts such as extremism, radicalization and terrorism which are often interchangeably used but have different connotations.

On the other hand, NACTA National Coordinator Dr Shabana Fayyaz while discussing the importance of the book mentioned that the author has used primary sources to educate the readers about the importance of the construction of narratives and counter-narratives in Pakistan and the role of seminaries.

The book has been recently published by Routledge; London and New York as part of its series on Routledge Studies in South Asian Politics, and is the first of its kind to analyse extremist narratives and counter-narratives, from different lenses at the same time.

The book provides a reasoned and thoughtful analysis demonstrating the complexity of trying to build a meaningful counter-extremism narrative that is not detached from broader socio-political realities.

As a valuable and much-required contribution to the existing literature on extremism and narrative building in Pakistan, this book would help students, academics and policymakers in identifying the limitations of counter-narratives in Pakistan, while providing them with a detailed overview of extremism and extremist narratives.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 14^th, 2023.