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The most convenient understanding of the phenomenon of Pakistani extremists that one hears being echoed from TV studios and their favourite ‘guests’ suggests that young Pakistanis turning into religious fanatics has something to do with illiteracy and unemployment. Though not entirely incorrect, this notion however is a complacent explanation.
It fails to explain the emergence of young religious extremists such as Omar Shaikh, Shahzad Tanveer, Hasib Hussain and Faisal Shahzad. Each one of these young men came from educated middle-class families.
Saying they were products of western societies that they were raised in is a weak retort. This attitude simply refuses to seriously address the issue of educated young Pakistanis falling for a myopic and nihilistic brand of the faith — something that was once explained as a vocation only of the illiterate and the financially desperate. There has been an alarming rise in the number of young, educated middle-class Pakistanis (here and abroad), embracing the most reactionary and anarchic strains of the faith, believing it to be a justified and logical portrayal of ‘true’ Islam.
The state and the government of Pakistan will have to thoroughly investigate and rectify this alarming trend. While actors like the 7/7 bombers and Faisal Shahzad are obvious embarrassments to Pakistan and to the Pakistani communities in the West, so are the growing number of rabid, tech-savvy young people floating around various interactive websites to mouth the most obnoxious ideas about Islam and politics. There are websites out there glorifying utter mad men and propagating most twisted conspiracy theories, and many of these are owned, run and frequented by Pakistanis who work and are comfortably settled in western countries.
Just as the sudden rise of certain crackpots (via TV) in Pakistan was keenly followed and supported by a chunk of young, urban Pakistanis, various cranks are happily catering to the already confused religious and ideological bearings of Muslim Pakistanis living abroad. Much has been written about people like Zaid Hamid, Aamir Liaquat and Zakir Naik — men who cleverly represent (and glorify) the increasingly chauvinistic mindset of the current generation of young urbanites.
A recent book on Farhat Hashmi’s organisation, Al-Huda, (written by a Pakistani woman), accuses her of spreading hatred against Christians, Hindus and Jews among Pakistani women living in Canada. In the wake of the Faisal Shahzad episode in New York last year, the Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC), a group of liberal Muslims living in Canada, accused American Islamic organisations of refusing to distance themselves from the doctrine of armed jihad waged by extremists, as did the Deobandi ulema’s conference back home late last year.
The MCC goes on to state that many young Pakistanis living in the United States and Canada regard Pakistan as a safe haven for their preparation and training for waging wars against the West. Organisations like the MCC have also come down hard on outfits such as Al-Huda, refuting their claim that they are on a mission to convert westerners to Islam.
Nevertheless, even in liberal countries like US, UK and Canada, organisations like the MCC are coming under direct attack and threats from their more myopic counterparts who, it seems, are free to peddle away hatred and confusion to Muslims living abroad.
But, of course, the situation is more alarming in this respect in Pakistan. Political Islam – a mid-20th century philosophy that advocates the creation of a theocratic society and state through the Islamisation of politics – was once the prerogative of conservative scholars and established political parties such as Abul Ala Mauddudi and his Jamat-i-Islami. However, ever since the late 1980s it has rapidly disintegrated into a bare but populist entity with two prominent strains.
One strain has striped off this philosophy’s more scholarly aspects and left only its violent jihadist aspects to work with. This strain can now be found in the barbaric ways of extremist organisations like the Taliban and many of Pakistan’s sectarian outfits. The other strain has been working to turn political Islam into a populist set of easy-to-digest ideas through which, either elections can be fought or the military-establishment can be infiltrated and used as a patron.
The JI tried flaunting the populist aspects of political Islam during the 1977 and 1993 elections, but failed. Nawaz Sharif’s PML-N did so throughout the 1990s and somewhat did succeed but only with the help of the military-establishment. Political Islam’s historical drubbling in elections in Pakistan has increasingly made this philosophy the vocation of certain powerful sections of Pakistan’s military and its many mouthpieces in the popular Urdu media and in so-called Islamic evangelist movements.
Its most recent advocate (again with a more than a little help from certain sections in the military establishment) is cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan. Though Imran’s party, the PTI, has been quite a disaster in the two elections that it took part in, he has suddenly been propped up by an aggressive right-wing electronic media and an increasingly confused number of young middle-class urbanites.
Though, quite like Imran, most of his followers’ lifestyles are rather ‘westernised,’ these are no liberals believing in concepts like democratic pluralism or in the importance of tolerating and promoting religious, sectarian and ethnic diversity. By the looks of it, they see democracy as a threat to Pakistan’s imagined existence as a monotheistic state and society based on a single (state-sanctioned and clergy-approved) strain of the faith.
Imran fans, like the pro-Musharraf ‘moderates’, have, at best, sound like 21st century versions of Ziaul Haq. Instead of a sherwani and a stern frown, they can be seen in modern, western clothes and designer shalwar-kameez spouting the most worn-out rhetoric and narrative that was started by the state under Zia and his politico-religious sidekicks.
It’s the usual beat: Pakistan and democracy are not compatible; democratic pluralism promotes ethnocentricity; secularism is akin to atheism; religious extremism and violence are the handiwork of the ‘anti-Pakistan’ and ‘anti-Islam’ elements (mainly foreign), and the state and intelligence agencies of Pakistan have nothing to with it. Also to these Ipod carrying ‘revolutionaries’ there is only one correct version of Islam but most Pakistanis follow a corrupted and adulterated version because they are illiterate and superstitious; anyone questioning these assumptions is a traitor and that only politicians are corrupt, and we need a strong leader who cannot come through democracy because most Pakistanis are ignorant.
Furthermore, anyone also questioning the obvious and yet padded extremism and soft authoritarianism peddled by the Imran brigade is a ‘liberal extremist’ who is undermining religion and promoting ‘corrupt politicians’. And should I even get into their take on the need of a worldwide caliphate? Maybe not. Don’t want to turn this piece into a black comedy, if you know what I mean.
Dear Mr. Paracha
You are having a very good knowledge about Islamic fanatics and you wrote a very comprehensive column about it. But at the same time don't you think that you are being biased. Well of course organizations like MCC and others are bringing a bad name to Islam and Muslims but on the other hand what these Americans and Christians are doing, what do you have to say about it? Pakistan is going through many crisis these days but as a matter of fact you (Pakistani Media) is very much responsible for the such state of the country. And still situation is not that bad as you guys portray on the media. InshAllah the things will get better very soon.
Such a thoughtful, heartfelt piece. It's about how young people struggle to be true to their family values even while attracted to change. The descrepancy of adjusting liberated style with a conservative upbringing creates wrinkles for youth everywhere.
If there is drought in the country,NFP somehow will find an excuse to link it with Imran Khan. Yet he never blames PPP & its leadership for the lack of accountability. Blog is glaring example of selective & biased opinion.
Many young muslims living in western societies hate west and democracy.but at the same time they enjoy religious freedom provided by democracy.how pitty…
Dear NFP, you sound like my great grandmother who would not stop complaining and criticizing. While your articles are quite fun to read, they also show the shallowness of your thinking. You are no different than the millions of narrow minded lot comprising the vocal part of our society. I hope you can grow out of it and start accepting that life is not simply black and white!
NFP is minority in Pakistan. But hopefully that will not deter him speaking the truth.
Sir, with due respect you need a lot of soul-searching. Anyone to everyone in Pakistan – to you it seems – are illogical in their opinions. Weeks over weeks, you have been repeating yourself and now it loses strength.
wow, so true. I've encountered so many young, well educated Pakistanis living here in New York city who hate America and secular West, yet, they enjoy the religious freedoms and opportunities they receive here. It's just disturbing. These guys get so much from the secular Western society, yet, they also want their destruction. On the contrary, almost every Muslim country on this planet demands non-Muslims to live under Islam Sharia laws.
Imran Khan has always supported democracy and has never been part of military rule unlike other parties…..since there is no talk of PPP in your article i know for sure the writer is a PPP supporter and is trying to through dirt on Imran Khan….its governments like PPP that portrays Pak as a failed democratic state….
Agreed with Zaid.. Well the I don't read this man regularly, But with all due respect Mr NFP u always create fuss,Want to create hype, always criticizes the religious matters, but let me tell u one thing this is not our main concern as nation. The basic concern is about necessities of life. It is very easy to sit on chair and writes every thing, so be practical before criticizing Imran Khan. Can u spend whole warm and hot day on roads in the hot weather of Karachi or Sindh with the nation( U definitely cannot) i would suggest u 2 come outside and do something practical.
Ok Genius,
What is the solution then? Since everyone from Zia-ul-Haq to Imran Khan is wrong and you are the only righteous man in Pakistan then why don't you suggest how to improve our society. Everyday 180 million people in Pakistan rephrase the same problems that Pakistan faces and yet no one talks about the solution.
It would be nice to see some constructive criticism and some solutions, an implementation plan, not just a statement like improve the literacy of this country or some shit. The implementation plan has to be there.
You are just another Pakistani who scribbles out his thoughts and does nothing about it. You are no better than the people who follow the Drawing room Islam or talk about conspiracy theories. But of course, easier said than done!
Brilliant! I second you Zaid
"If you think there is a solution, then you are part of the problem." – George Carlin.
Stop asking for solutions and start thinking for yourself!
@M Ali Khan: How lucky you were to come across such a great saying and how intelligent of you to have copy-pasted it! If, being a political watchdog, one can't devise solutions then one should definitely also stop repeating oneself too!
There are many people who are upset about your comments about Imran Khan. However I consider this as your opinion which you are entitled to. I think IK is still confused about his strategy to bring his party to the mainstream. He also has been influenced by people like Hamid Gul. IK opposes the americans which is fine. However he has never clearly condemned the terrorists and appears to justify them by his silence. He may be a good cricket captain but doesnot have the right vision to be good leader at this critical juncture.
Interesting article, quite plausible too. But just note that multiculturism in all western socities that allow immigration stands a complete failure.
If we would have followed Imran Khan and Nawaz Shareef we would be facing Libya like situation instead Egypt like situation which was negociated by Benazir Bhatto. Or may be we would have end up like Bahrain by following Rightwinger…
You keep writing the same things over and over again NFP. I don't know if that is what is required in your country or not, but that is how it is.
Excellent as always !!!
NFP cannot hide his hatred towards Imran Khan. Happy to see NFPs fans not even supporting him on this one.
NFP is a real hope of Pakistan. I urge people of Pakistan to come out 'RELIGION…RELIGION….RELIGION' mindset…and if we Hindus can do it…why u people cann't..
After all our root are same…although some people think Saudi is their root and thats the basic problem…
sir your work is excellent which really depict our country and most people of our country are not aware of games of our politicians and our establishment i m really impressed from your every article
Imran Khan has become a pivitol obsession for NFP's diatribe. Wikileaks revelations about our current leadership have slipped by the blogger.Imran stands untarnished.
This is apparently an attack on Imran. I would appreciate more evidence about the statement that he is just the second 21st century westernized Zia.
I love your earlier work. This piece is bad. Did Imran ever say democracy is not compatible with Islam. Please give references for your accusations. Yes, we are all sick of obscurantists but you are picking at IK just because he is anti American!
if pakistanis want good infrastructure, good schools,economic progress and higher standard of living, they must keep islam for their personal life instead of making it a political issue.
Dear Mr. Paracha
Thanks for reminding your readers again about how the politics works in Pakistan and how its right wing politicians are groomed, as you put it," with the help of establishment" I particularly liked your comparison between Imran and Nawaz Sharif. Nawaz has developed a nack of annoying the establishment and perhaps propelling Imran is answer to his explicit outburts of the "establishment"?
Religion must be shelved in Pakistan.
Very mild and moderate interpretations of Islam promoted.
hinduism can be shelved as it is a religion but islam is a way of life infact THE way of life encompassing all spheres of life from personal to the state affairs therefore one cannot shelve Islam as private .But thats what the west want as they did for christianity but it will not happen since it is against the very ingrediants of quran and mohd(saw) life
A good article, but I am surprised about some posts which show how brainwashed they have become with this vicious indoctrination …
Separation of church from state was not a over night process. when heretic burnings and witch-hunting and burning became rampant and Christanity lost its way inEurope, Eurpoe entered what are called the Dark age of Europe. It was then decided that it was best to separate church and state. Its good to learn from others mistake only a fool falls in the same hole twice.try reading some European and Christian history.
Someone said, "We should learn from the mistakes. But our life is not long enough to learn from our mistakes only." Separation of religion and state is must. It should be done as soon as possible. Rest of world is progressing very fast. Its 21st century and if you wait for something for happen like happened in christian societies, it could be too late. May be some renowned islamic scholars can come together and find a way to separate state and religion in islamic societies.
I think its not the PTI or Middle Class you should worry about, its the TTP and LET in places like Dera Ghazi Khan and Faisalabad. Those suicide bombers and terrorist are mostly youth from poor families studying in madrassahs and village schools and brainwashed to the extent that they they think that by killing people they can enter paradise.
Yet another attempt to creat a case against Imran khan which forunately has fallen flat.I Like you NP but not when u try to creat hypothetical illogical assumptions. You told us what you dont like about IK now tell us what you like about him.
Every religion has only one brand, they, however, take cultural traits of their followers and become moderates or extremists in their expression depending upon the already present traits (political, social, and economical) of the culture. What is the nature of core values of every religion? We never want to go that far, what we do is to take diluted form (mix with our political, economical and social world view) of religion, consider it better than the one our counter-parts have. We never want to discuss the crux of the problem and merely want to hang in the peripheries. WHY???
Asghar Baloch
First it was PRESIDENT OBAMA ,then it was secretory of states Mrs Clinton & now its you, who have talked about CONSPIRACY THEORY sir gi ….lol ..its not a CONSPIRACY THEORY Mr Nadeem sir but a HIGH PROFILE PROJECT known as the….NEW WORLD ORDER.
best wishes & regards
ALLAH HAFIZ
May be TIP led by Imran Khan is being propelling as an alterntive to Nawaz Sharif's PML-N. Nice article anway.
NFP
You are totally correct in your assertions fanaticism / extremism is spreading in society totally unchecked the persons even from well to do families are turning towards the rigid version of Islam their mental orientation is same as of a terrorist In a TV show few years back one expert said that these new born muslims can be as dangerous for the society as the open terrorist they can be turned to real terrorism in few days because they have the same education and orientation they just need few inspiring lectures from a Jihad master
PTI is a one men party and the rest of members are as corrupt as the other political parties of Pakistan.Every one is extremist here in one way or the other.
who is corrupt in pti? any proof?
Mr.Paracha,you mention that the terrorists follow the nihilistic brand of the faith as well as reactionary strain of the faith. Tell me please, is the holy book not clear what a good Muslim should do? I mean Mullaha Omar,Bin Ladan,Abul Maududi,Syyid Qutib and many more are and were good muslims who would have understood the holy book very clearly.
It is not necessary that the educated or well read people do not understand religion but it is their way of gaining and retaining POWER. Osama Bin Laden, Mulla Umar, Hitler and all the dictators including Zia Ul Haq did know what they were doing but by misdirecting the largely ill informed but the majority populations they were simply creating a POWER BASE for themselves. In the present context the Pakistani Military as a body, Imran Khan, Nawaz Sharif and other opportunist politicians are using the same people in order to gain power. They are not concerned where their ideas will lead the country. The same can be said about many other corrupt politicians in other countries.
People like NFP are needed in large quantities.
poor article nfp. firstly what you say about pti is exactly opposite to what they say. they have never talked about sharia or Islamic systems of politics. they are fully involved in our democratic system and are preparing for the next elections. you just created a strawman argument for the purpose of this article.
you have also accused imran of benefitting from backing from the army etc. you have made this claim a few times now. do you have any proof? a few weeks ago i saw imran on tv stating that he Will leave politics if anyone can prove isi or army is backing him. so if you have proof easy way to get rid of pti. time to put up or stay quite….
Another article attacking Imran in Dawn and yet again a string of accusations about his policy by twisting half truths around.
I thought Dawn was a more credible paper.
I totally agree with Tugra, Imran Khan wear westren dresses with bow when he touring europe or america last weak I listen him on CNN where he clearly says that we cannot win this war on terror until and unless we it our own war
Writing is full of rehtorics and biased opinions. It would be better if these opinions were based on some logics and facts. One question. Whom you hate more Imran or his followers?
absolute rubbish. part of your extremist theory in 90s is correct but everything else is same old stuff. it seems that you do not actually what youth is going through and what people are striving for. on the contrary to what you say, youth is getting into what is needed in Pakistan, a pure democracy. people like yourself were once against chief justice movement and labeled it as political movement but every one saw the fruits of that movement. you better wake up and try to find the truth. yes extremism has spread across many parts of pak and zia-ul-haq was its initiator but not every one who prays five times and wears shalwar qamees is extremist, similarly not every western educated is liberal extremist but we have to stop looking at {akistan from west's eyes. look at it from your own eyes.
Nice article.
Dear Nadeem,
You hit the nail on the head, as always. But when will the right thinking people of Pakistan join you vociferously, which is the need of the hour. Right now, the extremists are ruling the roost and dictating the terms.
Kudos to your spirit and courageous writing. It takes a lot of spine to stand up to the islamists in Pakistan.
The -oh- so impossible sacrifices and changes need to be made by me and you. Only then do you and me deserve a fantastic leader and a thriving progressive nation, with peace loving common men:))
There is nothing that Imran Khan has ever said or done which suggests that he does not believe in democracy, pluralism and tolerance.In fact his beliefs are contrary to what you portray.
Mr Paracha,I was half expecting you to dish out some Imran bashing this week, but what you wrote in criticizing him is just not true. Imran opposed Musharraf and military rule and fought for democracy while your beloved PPP democrats cut a deal with the dictator, he even refused to participate in the sham elections held by Musharraf. Neither has he ever given credence to conspiracy theories. His only controversial stand has been to call for negotiations with militants which is slowly bearing out to be the right call given that the Americans are trying to do the same in Afghanistan. Every other country places value on the lives of its citizens and armed forces and under the current circumstances too many Pakistanis are losing their lives, we have no option but to try and stem the flow by negotiating with anyone willing to lay down their arms
If negotiating with Taliban had the potential to reduce terrorism, it would be the right course. But we know what happened in Feb 2009 with the Aman ke muvaayde – the Taliban simply treated that as state weakness and captured more ground and came to settled areas in Swat. Muslim Khan said he does not believe in constitution or democracy. They would only stop with the implementation of sharia which included barbaric punishments such as whipping that girl.
How will it help to negotiate with such people. 2009 is not that long back. How can we forget history so quickly?
why have people like you made an example of the SWAT DEAL only when the issue of negotiating with the Taliban comes up. Why do you forget about the other deals that still hold. like the deals with haqqani network, hafiz gul bahadur, ansar ul islam, commander nazir etc
Nice analysis as usual!!
Keep up the good work; however, I believe the Pakistanis have reached the point of no return, when its comes to delusion, schizophrenia and conspiracies. As time passes, we will see more troubles for Pakistan not because of Pakistan but because of its people, and definitely not from the illiterate-feudal-subjugated poor class, but the elite and rich. These elite and rich have destroyed Pakistan for their own greed and selfishness, and continue to do so with their mind-boggling theories about supremacy of religion and race (which in reality false apart if you open up any book to check the facts i.e. contribution of the west against contribution of Pakistan, I know this comparison is not even laughable). This mass dementia created by agencies with the help of TV channels, which will never stop till the time they annihilate themselves.
I salute your courage Nadeem but the fact is we have to go a long way to be free. We have to realize that religion does not have all the answers and until or unless it is critiqued; we would never become a vibrant society.
once again, divert the people from the real issues, and start a debate that will go no where. your identification (or something like it) of the root causes, makes my belief more firm, that Pakistan is not getting out of its problems any time soon.
It is very clear that you do not have a single point to prove against Imran, to his fans. Against Democracy? you need to listen to his speeches with much more attention.
Question. Are we Muslims first or Pakistani first? Answer. Muslim first.
Question. Can we sacrifice Pakistan for the glory of Islam, if the need arises? This is a tough one still. Or is it?
No, you are a soul first. all other identities are mere illusions.
This is already tested notion that religion does not stand the test of time as far as nations and nation building is concerned. Look at Middle east. All are Islamic states and all have huge discontent. Dictators use Islam to rule and exploit their people. That Islam cannot itself be the unifying factor has been proven by repeated and bloody wars between Islamic states. Also, the question wil soon arise, which Islam? Instead of unfying people on narrow basis of religion we should aspire for broader definitons of nationhood and patriotism.
We are Pakistanis first and then anything else. Why?. Answer: If (God forbid) Pakistan ceases to exist tomorrow, this will not have any bearing whatsoever on Islam as a religion itself. However, we as Pakistanis, as a nation will be completely doomed. Our so called brotherly Islamic countries will do nothing in our support. Without a state, a nation is doomed. Look at the poor Palestinians. So please identify yourself as Pakistanis first and after that whatever you think you are is your PERSONAL preference.
whatever; pakistani or muslim first; it doesnt matter if we realise the true understanding of being a muslim, which is ''peace, tolerance and regard for others'' , and pakistani which means to be a good citizen and adopt humane ways of living towards others!
you are really a guide for us the youth stuffed with confusion!
We are Pakistanis first and not whatever religion one believes in or not. Stop being delusional, OK?
Religion is NOT your nationality. Its your belief, that's it.
dear nadeem, great article as always. Transparent.
If Imran Khan and co believe Democracy is not right for Pakistan, what does he feel is fit? A islamic empire? That he should be made the Emir of Pakistani Emirate/ Khanate? I can see only more and more darkness with the rhetoric of these blind men.
Sir,
Tell us, IS THERE ANY HOPE or not ?
At this rate nothing will progress,not even the ECONOMY, till the 22nd century !!!