Religious’ Establishments: with Us or Against Us
By Talat Farooq
December 25, 2014
Maulana Abdul Aziz publicly refused to condemn the Peshawar School carnage. He did so because he was convinced no one can touch him. He may not be faulted for his complacency. After all, while the Red Mosque operation has been criticised loudly, not many have had the courage to just as loudly insist on finding answers to a fundamental question.
It was never explained by those in authority how more than 5000 persons –including foreigners – had been hiding in a mosque along with weapons in the heart of the capital. Taliban-apologists have daringly excused TTP atrocities in the context of the Red Mosque. In an environment that lacks a culture of research and critical thinking taking religious texts out of context has been their modus-operandi. Adding fuel to fire through rampant anti-American sentiments, these apologists have played havoc with our country.
What we have witnessed at the Army Public School in Peshawar on December 16 is the physical manifestation of what these terrorists have been doing to the hearts, minds and souls of our youth for decades. They embarked upon a brainwashing and indoctrination strategy against our younger generation with just as much planning and organisation as they employed in the Peshawar carnage. And in pursuing both these objectives these terrorists have been helped by state dithering on the one hand and societal confusion, on the other.
One wonders if we were involved in a conventional war against an external enemy would the state have tolerated pro-enemy views with such abandon. Would the state have allowed religious seminaries to provide fodder for the enemy forces?
Would ‘religious’ establishments have been allowed to spew hatred against other Pakistanis so as to disrupt national unity? Would it have allowed other countries to provide a lifeline to our external enemy whose military forces were massacring Pakistani citizens? Would the state have allowed the Council of Islamic Ideology to waste resources and energy by focusing on the marital affairs of Pakistanis rather than constructing a counter-narrative to the enemy’s religious propaganda?
If this were a conventional war would we have allowed enemy soldiers to take refuge in our residential areas? Would a mullah have dared to pronounce the enemy as shaheed while humiliating our defence forces? Would we have actually allowed politicians with pro-enemy views to run for elections leave alone vote for them?
The point is that in a conventional war the external enemy is clearly recognised as such. There is no ambiguity about an external foe’s intentions and we know beyond doubt that if the enemy is allowed to take over our country our existence will be undermined and our identity will be destroyed.
It is the unconventional nature of warfare that has allowed the terrorist narrative to flourish and it is the failure of our state institutions to allow it to remain in good health for so long. The state should have realised years ago that this unconventional enemy has very conventional objectives and that the intentions of the internal enemy are no different from that of an external adversary. It should have owned this war.
There should never have been any ambiguity on this score.
The greatest enemy in this ongoing war is extremism. This enemy has been targeting the existence of our homeland with weapons and through written and spoken words. Like a conventional enemy the terrorists have employed military means and psychological propaganda to target not only our security but also our political, economic, social and cultural paradigm. Unlike an external enemy, however, they have proven more insidious not only because of their invisibility but also due to their use of religion for political ends.
It is high time such individuals and institutions were taken to account. Imams must not enjoy complete freedom of expression in their sermons and a stringent monitoring mechanism for madrasas must be devised and implemented on a war-footing. These schools should be brought under the control of provincial education ministries. Their foreign sources of funding from should be stopped forthwith. No country, whether brotherly or not, should be allowed to fight their proxy wars on another’s soil – a lesson that our state too should follow in letter and spirit.
The military is fighting the enemy with full force. The government and civil society must join hands whole-heartedly as well. Both print and electronic media can become the most effective medium for forging national unity. There are many thinking people in Pakistan – other than the usual faces on television – and the media should invite them to debate and discuss issues crucial to clearing the webs of ambiguity.
Air-time should be denied to the Taliban as well as their apologists. They thrive on publicity. Hate literature should be confiscated and its creators arrested and punished. Sectarian militants should be dismantled forthwith.
Besides implementing counterterrorism laws the state should come up with practical measures to involve society in identifying suspicious characters and activities. And it goes without saying that elected local governments can help fight terrorism more efficiently.
It was heartening to see the protesters outside the Red Mosque. Such scenes should become a regular occurrence. The PTI has recently demonstrated its ability to motivate the so-called silent majority in the country. The party should use its skill to motivate the citizens in the right direction in the ongoing war.
At the end of the day it is the ordinary people who have to bear the brunt of terrorism. We must step up pressure to ensure that different institutions – both civilian and military – are cleansed of Taliban apologists.
Talat Farooq is a post-doctoral researcher at Birmingham University.
Source: http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-9-292269-With-us-or-against-us
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-terrorism-jihad/religious’-establishments-with-us/d/100670