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Roundtable conference on extremism in Pakistan: Extremism in S Asia rooted in British imperialism

* Panelists discuss historical, contemporary dynamics of fanaticism in country
* Say scholarly endeavours needed to make society peaceful, tolerant

By Mahtab Bashir

ISLAMABAD: Intelligentsia should engage with religious discourse and demonstrate that modernity, economic development, the women’s rights, rule of law, pluralism and democracy are fully compatible with Islam.

This emerged as a key point during a roundtable conference on ‘Extremism in Pakistan: The Role of State and Non-State Actors, 1979-2009’ here on Tuesday.

Quaid-e-Azam University’s History Department arranged the roundtable in collaboration with Centre for Civic Education Pakistan (CCE) and Higher Education Commission.

Noted historian Prof Dr Naeem Qureshi chaired the roundtable, which was attended by Dr Tahir Amin, Dr Tariq Rahman, Dr Ayesha Siddiqa, Dr Nazir Hussain, Simbal Khan and Shabana Fayyaz, Dr Razia Sultana of the QAU’s History Department and Zafarullah Khan of the CCE as panelists.

Presentations by Prof Dr Naeem Qureshi, Zafarullah Khan, Dr Ayesha Siddiqa, Simbal Khan and Shabana Fayyaz were followed by lively discussion on the historical and contemporary dynamics of extremism in Pakistan.

Dr Qureshi traced the roots of extremism in South Asia to the advent of British imperial rule and the Muslims’ reaction to foreign rule; some sought to accommodate modernity, while others repudiated it.

He said Pakistan itself was a consequence of the struggle of the modernist Muslims. However, he said, these modernists after independence sought to co-opt extremist elements for short-term political ends.

“This trend was re-asserted with a vengeance during the Ziaul Haq’s military rule (1977-1988) coinciding with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and that set much of the present crisis in motion. It may sound strange but the way forward was to go back to (Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali) Jinnah’s vision of a moderate Muslim state in which people of different religious, sectarian and ethnic affiliations could live in peace, Qureshi said.

Dr Tariq Rahman said instead of seeking refuge in conspiracy theories and blaming others, the first step to confronting extremism was to stop living in a state of denial. “We need to reassess our external relations in the light of domestic realities,” he said.

Dr Tahir Amin said in this respect, Pakistani policies in Kashmir and Afghanistan had boomeranged and unless the state improved its performance on all fronts, there was little hope of stemming the tide of extremism.

Dr Ayesha Siddiqa said the societal structures supporting extremism had made the process irreversible though not necessarily impossible to contain it.

Zafarullah Khan highlighted the demographic and global factors, which shape extremism. “Such factors include the youth bulge and the resultant difficulties in absorbing the youth into productive work.

And the other was the globalisation of both Western liberal modernity and Islamic radicalism through the same modern media,” he said.

Shabana Fayyaz urged the participants to challenge stereotypes and the semantics of labels such as extremism and radicalism, while observing that it was the combination of anti-Western, anti-India, anti-democratic and anti-Semitic discourses, which made contemporary violent extremism so intractable.

Simbal Khan pointed out the criticality of understanding the trans-nationality of the extremist movements and their most violent offshoots.

Dr Nazir Hussain focused on the economics of extremism and its impact on society and the state.

The panelists and the participants lauded efforts of the QAU’s History Department, the CCE and the HEC for arranging the conference and stressed the need for more such scholarly endeavours to make the society peaceful and tolerant.

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