Militancy, Muslims bugbear across the globe

Don’t blame the US’ War on Terror

There is no chance of success in winning over the main body of the Pakistani Taliban to peace. The militants were fighting the state and committing reckless acts of terrorism long before the Americans arrived in Afghanistan. They will continue to do so after the departure of the US troops. Unless the state has the will to fight, it will disintegrate on account of their activities.

The government is wasting time and misleading the nation by rousing false hopes.

Myths have been created and facts distorted by the TTP sympathizers in certain political parties, some sections of the establishment and the pro-extremist elements in the media. Ch Niasar misstates facts when he refers to the militancy saying, “These are after-effects of 9/11.”

The TTP wants negotiations to release the pressure for peace from the tribal areas. It will use the talks to project itself as a defender of the tribal people against the government. It will try to create dissension between the government and the military by putting up impossible demands like general amnesty for militants and the release of top terrorist prisoners. But it will never renounce the cult of the gun.

No use blaming Musharraf’s joining the US-led war on terrorism as the root cause behind extremism or suicide attacks. Militancy is a bug that has bitten Muslim societies across the globe, irrespective of the domestic policies or international alignments of their respective governments. Extremists and terrorists are blowing themselves up or conducting terrorist attacks not sparing innocent citizens in the countries ruled by the pro-US regimes, no less than the ones in the bad books of the US, like Syria. The phenomenon has also occurred in countries ruled by the Islamist administrations like those in Tunisia and Turkey.

Nigeria which has remained totally uninvolved in the US war against terrorism has its own version of the TTP called Boko Haram. The militant organisation is as violent as its Pakistani counterpart. Last month Islamic militants wearing army fatigues gunned down 44 people praying at a mosque in northeast Nigeria, while another 12 civilians died in a simultaneous attack at another place. The stated reason was that the imam of the mosque had debunked religious extremism for being opposed to Islamic teachings. Boko Haram also has attacked Christians outside churches and teachers and schoolchildren, as well as government and military targets. Since 2010, the militants have been blamed for the killings of more than 1,700 people, according to a count conducted by the wire agency, The Associated Press.

The landlocked West African Mali, with a population of around 16 million, is known for a rich heritage of Muslim scholarship. It is plagued by no less than five terrorist groups all professing to kill for the greater glory of Islam. They have already stripped the historic town of Timbuktu of its beautifully constructed tombs, declared a part of world heritage by UNESCO. The tombs, according to the Salafist outfit Ansar Dine, had to be demolished as they spread idolatory. The library which contained thousands of rare manuscripts too has been destroyed.

Somalia in the Horn of Africa with a population of 10 million has been turned into a failed state on account of civil war and extremism. The Islamic group Harkatul al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen linked with al Qaeda has increased its presence in Mogadihu, the capital city, where it has carried out massive attacks targeting important structures and government buildings. Al Shabaab claimed the responsibility for terror attacks that rocked Mogadishu last Wednesday.

In Turkey, homegrown Islamic militants tied to Al Qaeda, carried out suicide bombings in Istanbul, killing 58 people in 2003. The targets were the British consulate, a British bank and two synagogues. In 2008, an attack blamed on Al Qaeda-affiliated militants outside the US consulate in Istanbul left three assailants and an identical number of policemen dead.

The Turkish government dealt with the elements ruthlessly instead of holding talks with them. The militants had either got training in Al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and were sending recruits there. They had planned to attack Turkish soldiers in Kabul and police in Turkey. The administration ordered launching of several nationwide crackdowns on suspected militants. They were rounded up, interrogated and those found involved in terrorism related activities were prosecuted.

Aspiring to follow the Erdogan’ model of governance, the Tunisian ruling Islamist party Ennahda initially had a conciliatory attitude towards the Salafist militants. The party had fondly hoped that its erstwhile allies and jail mates could be brought to the mainstream. This was no more than a pipedream. The assassination of two secular opposition leaders by the militants led the Ennahada to condemn the terrorists. This led to more terrorist attacks and incidents of decapitation of the Tunisian soldiers. The government finally ordered the air force to attack the militant strongholds in the mountains.

Pakistan’s Islamic militants are either motivated by the perverted ideology which has influenced many in the Muslim world or by love of lucre – or both. One can fight a zealot but one cannot convert him. A man who mints money through jihad would abandon it only if provided a better option to accumulate money. Talks and arguments won’t help.

The TTP chief Hakimullah Mehsud clearly put forth his ideological position in a video message earlier this year: “Democracy is the system of the infidels… We want the implementation of Shariah, which can only be enforced through waging Jihad. A time will come that the Muslims will establish the caliphate on the surface of earth.”

The establishment of Sharia in Muslim countries through the barrel of the gun is one pillar of the TTP doctrine, jihad against the non-Muslim world another. Even Asmatullah Muawiya’s terms for a ‘meaningful dialogue’ contained in the first ever offer of talks by Talban in December last year were totally unacceptable. The constitution should be rewritten in the light of the Quran and Sunnah, Muawiya demanded in the letter. The second condition was to allow Pakistan’s territory to be used for attacks on other countries – something only a rogue state could do. The TTP was dragged into a war with Pakistan from the Afghanistan and Kashmir fronts, the letter maintained, and the government and the army were responsible for this. “The Pakistan Army should become a “Pure Islamic Army” and not act as mercenaries for America. Instead of taking out guns against Muslims, the Pakistan Army should prepare to take revenge for the 1971 war (with India). This will also add the potential of Kashmiri mujahideen to our forces,” the TTP letter reads.

There are stories about jihadi leaders having accumulated piles of money through foreign donations, drugs trade, bank heists, kidnapping for ransom and extortion. When the close relatives of Baitullah Mehsud were detained and tortured by the Taliban, it was widely perceived to be a fight over the dead leader’s hoard supposed to be in the family’s custody.

Go ahead with talks if you are ready to turn the country into a failed state. Declaring murderers as ‘stake holders’ in peace, and finding recourse to dialogue with them is a sign of weakness of the state. And it can only encourage the murderers instead of putting an end to the killings.

The writer is a political analyst and a former academic.