Farhatullah Babar says we will have to come out of state of denial to counter extremism
PPP Senator calls for demolishing the structures of militants’ narrative
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Senator Farhatullah Babar has said that we cannot employ the enormous power of the media to fight extremism until we come out of the state of denial and call a spade a spade.
The PPP senator said this while addressing a workshop on countering terrorism through media organised by the Pakistan Institute of Parliamentary Services (PIPS) here for members of the Parliament on Monday. Members of provincial assemblies of Punjab, KPK and Balochistan, GB and AJK attended the workshop.
Farhatullah Babar said that item 14 of the National Action Plan (NAP) calls for demolishing the structures of militants’ narrative but little attention has been paid to it.
He said that narratives were made up of words and have tremendous power and significance. ‘Quran says that the universe was created with one word “kun” (Be it) and Bible expresses the same thought that in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God’, he added.
The PPP senator said that the militants narrative began to be constructed in 80’s when special syllabus was created in seminaries that taught ‘Alif sai Allah, be se bandooq (gun), jeem se Jehad, jeem se Jahannum (hell), kaaf se Kafir (infidel) and meem se mujahid, he said.
This syllabus was reinforced when Zia adopted motto of “Iman, Taqwa, Jehad fi sabillillah” and privatised Jehad inside and outside Pakistan’s boundaries. ‘Today we are reaping the fruits of that syllabus’, Farhatullah Babar said.
‘Building counter narrative requires intellectual infrastructure based on academic freedom, tolerance for dissent, plurality and critical thinking’. It will not be built in garrisons and barracks where the emphasis is on unity of command and not to encourage dissent. Most importantly it requires us to come out of the state of denial’.
‘Proscribed organisations are protected from UN action, banned outfits are allowed to reappear under different names and promises made to choke terror financing are not fulfilled but few speak up. We are still living in a state of denial and until we come out of it, there is little hope of success in countering extremists’ narrative’, he said.