Reviving Pakistan's Pluralist Traditions to Fight Extremism

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Recent report by the conservative Heritage Foundation;

Reviving Pakistan’s Pluralist Traditions to Fight Extremism

Nothing too new but good to be reminded of old but important facts.

Pakistan is in the midst of rapid political shifts that are challenging the leadership’s ability to maintain cohesion within the country and even raising ques­tions about Pakistan’s ability to survive as a viable nation-state over the next few years.

Muhammed Ali Jinnah, Pakistan’s founding father, envisioned a predominantly Muslim, yet sec­ular and multiethnic democratic state. Indeed, Jin­nah’s struggle to achieve independence from the British Empire was a democratic one. Most South Asian historians agree that the political movement that persuaded the departing British Empire to split the Indian subcontinent into Pakistan and India was colored with religious exclusiveness, but the ultimate goal was not to establish Pakistan as a theocratic state.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah famously supported reli­gious freedom in his historic speech to the constit­uent assembly in 1947, asking the new Pakistani citizens to feel free “to go to your temples…mosques or any other places of worship in the State of Paki­stan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed—that has nothing to do with the business of the State.”[3]](http://www.heritage.org/Research/AsiaandthePacific/bg2268.cfm#_ftn3) However, in the years that followed independence from the British, Pakistan’s civil and criminal laws and societal norms became more intolerant of religious diversity. In addition to increasing discrimination against religious minori­ties, such as Christians and Sikhs, intra-religious conflicts among Sunnis, Shi’ites, and Ahmadis have also been on the rise.[4]](http://www.heritage.org/Research/AsiaandthePacific/bg2268.cfm#_ftn4) Several major constitutional and policy milestones in Pakistani history have con­tributed to this backsliding on religious freedom.

Teaching Intolerance

The real engine for hate material against religious minorities comes from a wide net of radical madras­sahs (Islamic religious seminaries) spread through­out Pakistan, including the cities of Karachi, Lahore, Quetta, and Islamabad and the Federally Adminis­tered Tribal Areas (FATA). Reforming the curricu­lum of these madrassahs must be at the center of any Pakistani effort to eradicate religious discrimi­nation. A number of these madrassahs are financed and operated by Pakistani Islamist parties, such as the Jamaat-e-Ulema Islam (JUI), and by Pakistani expatriates and other foreign entities, including many in Saudi Arabia.

The Madrassahs: Breeding Grounds for Religious Intolerance
Many of the Deoband and Ahl-e-Hadith madras­sahs in Pakistan support militancy and foster a way of thinking that leads to acts of terrorism. Even madrassahs that do not openly support militancy continue to teach concepts of religious intolerance that fuel extremism.

Conclusion

One of the most important ways to fight Islamist extremism is to demonstrate the importance of respect for other religious traditions and the bene­fits to society of developing a culture of religious freedom and pluralism. The Pakistani people have a deep culture of pluralist traditions dating back cen­turies, which their founding leader sought to pre­serve in order to strengthen Pakistan as a nation-state, while maintaining the country’s Muslim iden­tity. Pakistanis need to nurture this pluralist, toler­ant tradition in order to stabilize and develop the country as it faces extremists that wish to destroy Pakistan’s South Asian identity, retard overall growth and development, and isolate the country from the global community.