Extremism is the buzz work that has moistened the tongues of many since 9/11. It is an issue which has overtaken the scarcity education and poverty as the single most important threat facing the nation. With extremism comes the assertion that it breeds terrorism, meaning that an extremist is either a terrorist himself, is likely to aid and propagate terrorism or at the least carry thoughts which could influence others to carry out terrorist activities.
Considering all this, it is rather bizarre that there is no agreed upon definition of extremism. Extremist opinions are subjective and may vary from one society to the other. UK recently introduced its latest measure to counter religious extremism within the society, the Prevent strategy. It defines extremism as, “vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs. We also include in our definition of extremism calls for the death of members of our armed forces, whether in this country or overseas”.
It would be very interesting to see how this definition sticks within the Pakistani society. It would be difficult to define fundamental Pakistani values in the first place as even more than 60 years after the inception of the country, the media and youth are debating whether Pakistan should or should not be an ideological state and whether or not it was made it the name of religion. However, it holds true that if majority of the Pakistanis, and so their respective opinions, can be labeled as ‘moderate’, then anything at a crossroads with this can be called extreme within the sphere of the Pakistani society and so if someone shows ‘vocal or active opposition’ to the majority opinion, then he should be an extremist. Whether it actually will be good or bad for the country is a separate debate but when going for broader definitions which have a massive impact on the society, the majority view needs to be understood and incorporated into any strategy formulated to combat extremism.
According to a recent Gallup survey, 67% percent of the Pakistanis believed that the government should take steps to ‘Islamize’ the society where as a meager 13% were opposed to the idea. The same survey also found out that 59% of Pakistanis like to identify themselves as Muslims first whereas only 22% consider being Pakistani as their primary identity. A significant majority of these religious minded people hailing from all walks of life don’t identify democracy, or at least as it exists in the west, as a form of government they would be happy to put their weight behind.
Democracy among the masses in Pakistan is taken to mean an election process where people are empowered to choose their leader who is in turn accountable to them. It is worth mentioning that neither the government nor the media has proactively taken steps to educate the masses on the clear distinction of legislative authority lying with the people in a democratic state as opposed to an ideological state based on religion where it rests with God. As the Pakistani people are not inherently secular, making this distinction clear would see these people distancing themselves from democracy. Considering this background, millions in Pakistan may intelligibly feel that Pakistan should be a secular democratic state, yet an equal if not greater number of people may hold the opinion against it. Therefore, unlike Britain, democracy will not qualify was a fundamental Pakistani value.
Few can be opposed to indentifying rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs as fundamental values of the society. Certainly, there are miscreants within every society, the Taliban in Pakistan’s case may strongly disagree, however, the moderate majority of Pakistanis relate to these values. A testament to inter faith or even sectarian tolerance in Pakistan is that people generally coexist without much trouble unless there is meddling by different religious and political groups which thrive on unrest. Therefore, within the spectrum of the Pakistani society, anyone opposed to this may be labeled as an extremist.
The last part of the definition deals with having ill feelings about the country’s armed forces. This at least on the surface may seem like an area where the ordinary citizen may not wish to prod. Our history, however, is littered with incidents and events which have fuelled such feeling amongst the people for the army. The treatment of the then East Pakistanis by the very people who were stationed to protect them bred what may by British standards be deemed extremism, yet came to be known as right of self determination by others and eventually resulted in a separatist movement. The Balochs don’t have a very different story to tell. Perhaps that tale hasn’t matured yet but the series of events seem to point the future in the same direction. With successive military operations and drone attacks in FATA with collateral damage far outstripping the utility of these operations, the residents of these areas aren’t too fond of the army either.
The Prevent strategy further cites the main threat as Islamism which has been defined as ‘a philosophy which, in the broadest sense, promotes the application of Islamic values to modern government’. It is unclear which specific ‘Islamic values’ are inferred but if introduced in a country which claims to base its constitution on Divine Message and prophetic sayings, the citizens might find it relatively easier to swallow if the word ‘Islamic’ was replaced by ‘foreign’.
How best to tackle extremism remains debatable, whether it should be my reforming the Madrasas system or rather by crushing any signs of it by ‘muscular liberalism’. However, for a start it is impertinent that the definition should be based on consensus and if not then it should at least be agreeable to the majority of the population. What is certain is that importing foreign definitions of extremism might take the country nowhere in countering it as the basic values on which it is based don’t stem from the local masses.