A few days ago, Pakistani newspapers published results of a PEW opinion poll for 2013 and 2014 indicating a large percentage of Pakistanis being perturbed with violent extremism in the country. According to the report of this American survey, about 60 per cent of people in Pakistan did not support the above-mentioned phenomenon and close to 59 per cent people indicated a dislike for the Taliban. In some ways, the PEW survey figures by default legitimise the military operation, since it can now be claimed that since the majority of Pakistanis are worried about violent extremism, something should be done to allay their fears.
The issue with quantitative research methods such as this survey, which is conducted by a foreign organisation, is that results can often reflect the bias of the host institution. A lot depends on what kind of access is provided and what kind of people were questioned.
Referring to the PEW survey results, is it fair to deduct that majority of these people, who expressed anxiety vis-a-vis extremism, are people with progressive thinking that will help in turning the country around towards peace and stability? The survey clearly did not fathom the ideological bias of the respondents. In any case, for a lot of people expressing opinion about such issues, violent extremism is not a reflection of their own thinking and behaviour. In fact, many of us make the mistake of thinking of violence and terrorism as external to our social behaviour. Allowed to look closely, we can see that violent extremism is actually a reflection of our radical thinking and attitudes. Over the years, people have evolved a certain mindset that feeds into creating extremism. The way we think about our community, the kind of belief system we have, what is our perception of different minority groups and similar issues would indicate that we have, indeed, turned into a society that will support extremism.
The issue of blasphemy is a reflection of our thinking. There is not a day that we do not hear of someone being killed or accused of this heinous crime. Many of those who might have expressed concern about extremists may also be the people that would happily become part of a lynching mob. One of the problems right now is that blasphemy is linked with mob justice. You accuse a person and set the mob on him or her to do the job. If the accused is lucky, he or she will land in a police lock-up or a jail, otherwise death is instantly guaranteed.
Consider another issue of sectarian bias and related hatred. It is not something that is exported from the outside but is a byproduct of how we think about other communities around us on the basis of our belief system. Start talking to people and you will soon find out how extremism is sown inside us. We are, however, made to believe that our attitudes and the way we think about things is not connected with the overall drift of the society. Our general understanding, for example, is that extremism is something which is confined to poor areas. Violent extremism is driven by poverty and illiteracy. While lack of financial resources and education may be a contributory factor, it is not necessarily a driver.
In Pakistan, we have gradually evolved into a society with a latent-radical mindset. This means that we nurture a perspective which tends to differentiate between people on the basis of faith. Myths are then built around this bias to deepen the divide. The other day, for example, I was talking to a perfectly educated and fairly affluent gent. We were discussing local and international politics until he inadvertently and unconsciously made a remark that reflected his ingrained perception. His remark had a deep sectarian bias and he was certainly not a person who would otherwise be accused of joining some militant organisation and killing people of the other sect. He was probably not even conscious that his inner bias would ultimately influence how he reacted to violence. Not surprisingly, when educated bureaucrats and police officers in Punjab and other places say that ‘we don’t have terrorism, but sectarian violence’ it speaks of latent-radicalism, which is not limited to the uneducated and the poor.
Again, over the years, violence against women has increased. The number of cases in which women making their own choices and then are killed by family members has increased. It is not simply a matter of the media reporting such cases more than before. Our behaviour is a reflection of our attitude and mindset, which, in turn, denotes the knowledge we have acquired both formally or informally. The increase in the aforementioned cases is not because of proliferation of media outlets but because today, religion and religious bias is much more ingrained in our thinking. The citizen of 30 years ago had lesser access to modern interpretation of religious ideology. Surely people had faith but their perceptions were not programmed in a certain way. Honour was always a critical issue but today, family and individual honour has acquired a lethal tone because now it is laced with a particular interpretation of the religion.
More than ever, it is time that we considered our own attitudes and see how we, at an individual level, are contributing to extremism around us. The poor will get manipulated and driven to violence because of their material needs (at least, so we believe) but the militant infrastructure draws its inspiration, support and legitimacy from those that have a better social status. The source of funding for many militant outfits comes from the upwardly socially mobile middle class and upper-middle class who finance these outfits due to a desire for atonement of sins or because they believe that jihad is a religious duty. Since they do not have the capacity to participate themselves, they happily finance someone else to undertake it. In short, it’s our own radicalism that produces violence. Unless we locate the problem where we should, it will remain unsolvable and wouldn’t get resolved only through military operations.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 10th, 2014.
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COMMENTS (17)
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The author has generalized the aspects. When it comes to blasphemy, people do react. & Pakistanis generally are jazbati. In their jazbati & eagerness they tend to impose the sentence themselves without waiting. In Ireland, Catholic nuns dumped small babies in septic tanks. It was their culture at that time. It happened until 2000. They have slowly corrected themselves. But if you notice, the news have been hidden. Pakistan's media always makes a big fuss over issues bringing bad name to Pakistan.
Similarly Honour killing is not strictly prohibited in any laws as it fall under the purview of customs and tradition and accepted. It is just like marriages of 8-13 year old girls. This is quite common and is acceptable as a custom & has religious sanction not only in Pakistan but also in middle east countries.
@Leela4fun: ".... Many fabulous myths have been created about muslim exceptionalism, which are still parroted by Pakistanis...."
Myth creation is not the monopoly of just one group of people. History books are full of varieties of myths. You can pick and choose.
Err.. Wasn't this the raisin dieter of Pakistan made by Jinnah? Muslims were supposed to be a different nation and were unable to live together with Hindus of India, and hence the demand for Pakistan. Many fabulous myths have been created about muslim exceptionalism, which are still parroted by Pakistanis.
A building is as strong as its foundation.
@Gp65: As per law of the land apostasy isn't a crime hence changing of religion is not punishable though extreme social pressure at places. O yes you can do it despite being born as Muslim. I know so many such people and interestingly they face least social pressures. @Whitesky: I didn't really got it would you further elaborate it.
Hit the nail on the head. Now if someone can share this insight with the boys and their minions in Aabpara.
Media is largely responsible for this situation in Pakistan as majority of people are not even able to read and write..... overwhelming majority of people always remain against violence and extremism but electronic and print media keep glorifying terrorists in the name of Islam and it is still carried out without any check....
@sabi: Great !!! find faults with others for every ills in the society and sit tight . naturally the outcome is the existing scenario.
Well said, doctor. Its fallacy that extremism is made up of poor folks. If it was, we wouldn't have some young radicals pop up from well off Western Sunni Muslim communities and households (like a recently discovered cell in Calgary, Canada) who join terrorist groups overseas, or wish harm to their host countries, besides the open funding from rich ME regimes, individuals or global donations.
Its a global ideological crisis amongst us giving space to destructive fundamentalism or Islamist fanaticism. Time we identify and accept the problem (Canada's security agency bluntly spells out the religo-political threat). Its not a Pak origin issue only, as seen with other Arab, non-Arab Muslims and converts. But Pakistanis and Pak state could do more in prevention. Other nations need to be accountable stakeholders too, like those in the ME. Be it export/import of beliefs, local HR abuses against marginalized communities or aggressive political foreign policy goals.
In regards to the survey's methodology, it missed out demographics like FATA or Gilgit-Baltistan, and was urban heavy. Ethnic or sectarian breakdowns would have been informative.
@sabi: Can a person who is born in a Muslim family and lives in an Is lamic country, openly say he is an atheist without being punished for apostacy?what dhouce does he have if not to wear a cloak of religion?
Surveys are very scientific these days. But most of us like this writer are so pessimistic that we are not willing to accept any positive results. All we need to do is continue with democracy and strengthen institutions, and be realistic but not pessimistic.
@author. "More than ever before it is time we considered our own attitudes and see how we, at an individual level, are contributing to extremism around us...Unless we locate the problem where we should, it will remain unsolvable..."
As long as Muslims fail, rather refuse, to admit that it is the nature of their religion more than anything else that shapes their extremist attitudes you will never be able to locate the problem troubling the Islamic world including Pakistan.
Excellent article! Blaming others is the easy option therefore that is what most people do. Introspection however difficult is needed when the society is changing for the worse.
Atheist is one who doesn't believe in God or life hereafter and he admits it publicly nothing wrong as its his right of freedom. The worst atheist is one who wears cloak of religion and fools people.What would you expect from such people nothing but hatred violence and mayhem. In religious world there is a strong concept of accountability to a superior force after death. An atheist has no such concept of any force on top of him thus religion becomes a powerful tool to achieve his objectives leaving behind a highly intolerant society. If only we understand that religion means peace and love and anybody defying the basics is not a true leader but a fraudulent (I call them worst atheist) we can kick them out for lasting peace.Dilemma of Muslim wold is,religion is alive and practiced without knowing the spirit of it and this make a great room for opportunists to exploit it for their greed for wealth and power. So its not religion but ignorance that is why whole Muslim world is bleeding at the hands of atheists.
Absolutely right Ayesha, we have an ideological problem that needs to be challenged and its narrative defeated.
It has taken Pakistan over sixty years to get radicalised , it will take another sixty to de radicalised , by then the world would have move too far ahead. Pakistan sadly has missed the boat of prosperity n peace. ET dnt censor.