Terrorism has changed the Pakistan that my generation grew up in. The world we inhabit has quite literally exploded around us, teetering on the brink of disaster and yet somehow moving along. But the biggest tragedy stemming from terrorism for the general population, in my view, is not just the loss of life and limb of innocents. It is also the desensitisation to violence and a near lack of feeling each time there is a new attack. It is a failure to respond rationally.
Fear and tragedy should not paralyse societies but the latter should always make societies pause and engage in introspection. It seems that imagination is another casualty of our times and particularly the terrorism in this country. When Adam Smith wrote in the 18th century that sympathy is largely imagination he was onto something. But it seems that for this country we feel neither sympathy nor shame. Both presume humanity and involve introspection. Breeding conspiracy theories of the world being against us will help no one, especially this country. And by refusing to acknowledge the deep-rooted issues that require engagement and confrontation, we are only digging a deeper hole for ourselves.
For nearly a decade, we have cited poverty as the chief cause of terrorism finding fertile soil in our land. That is what we have sold to the donor world also. But as recent research conducted by 4 American academics reveals, such assumptions need to be questioned. The rest of the world too has, for the most part, believed us that poverty is the major issue to tackle. But this recent research reveals that disapproval of militants groups and their policies is highest among the lowest income groups/the poor. This surely does not mean that efforts to eliminate poverty should be stopped but it does mean that the more serious trouble lies elsewhere. It lies partly with our education system and by this I mean mainstream education — which distorts history and promotes an apartheid. More importantly the fault lies with a particular brand of political Islam that interprets religion to support violent extremism. It is this patriarchal, gun-toting, take-no-prisoners brand of violent Islam that Muslims throughout the world and in Pakistan in particular need to confront.
Who are we kidding? Omar Sheikh, the man sentenced to death for the murder of Daniel Pearl, attended Aitchison College and not a Madrassah. Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, one of the chief architects of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, was not born or raised in a destitute household. Osama Bin Laden, Zawahiri, the hijackers of planes on 9/11 and train bombers on 7/7 were the products of a distorted mindset and not abject poverty. Going around Lahore, you may note a number of shopkeepers who keep boxes for collecting ‘donations’ for ‘organisations working in Kashmir’. People in this country engaged in collecting and donating money to organisations that have no respect for life or liberty are not beggars but often middle and upper class professionals and businessmen. As long as we glorify Islam to the exclusion of all other religions, as long as we do not inculcate a culture of respect for those with values or a faith different from us, no amount of poverty alleviation can eradicate terrorism. The reason is simple. Poverty is only a factor but definitely not ‘the’ factor when you examine the motivations of the most murderous. Their motivation is a distorted ideology — something that only we, and not the rest of the world, have to and can correct.
The practice of religion is a fundamentally human exercise and therefore based on an exercise in interpretation. The interpretation of the Quran and that of a written constitution essentially raise the same points for agitation: whether the interpretation is to be guided by a strictly ‘textual view’ that is stuck in time or should it be a more ‘contextual view’ that stresses that the document in question is a living breathing organism that must be interpreted to respond to the times. Somewhere along the way, the intellectuals of the Muslim world fell behind. Our own scholars have not carried the mantle that they were supposed to carry. Progress results from competition. Since the moderate and those believing in a contextual view became silent, those supporting a patriarchal interpretation and advocating murder of innocents becomes the spokesperson for Islam to the world. While the rest of the world advanced many among the Muslims played the helpless victims and became busy plotting murder. Now the plot is being played out. And these killers and their recruiters are often not poor children but people who are the product of a largely unquestioned ideology based on hate.
It is this victim complex and hateful mentality that we need to get out of and question those who have corrupted and continue to corrupt Islam. The rest of the world will not believe our cries of a peaceful religion if we fail to correct its continued distorted interpretations. Reading, writing and asking hard questions of ourselves is the answer. Money does not threaten the murderers in our midst. But a challenging argument responding to their hateful ideology could be the most telling punch we throw at them.
The writer is a Barrister of Lincoln’s Inn and practices in Lahore. He has a special interest in Anti-trust / Competition
law. He can be reached at wmir.rma@gmail.com