November 21, 2007

PAKISTAN -- Despite the killing of over 100 people during a showdown between the two cleric brothers and Pakistan military in Islamabad in July the Islamists' zealous adherence to their declared agenda of Islamizing Pakistan shows no signs of abating.

The rising Islamic militancy in Pakistan is a cause of concern for progressive-minded people in the country. Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf also cited rising Islamic extremism as justification for imposing emergency rule on November 3.

Imposition of emergency rule in the country saw suspension of Pakistan's constitution, sacking of country's top judge and media restrictions. Musharraf's critics, however insist that the President imposed emergency rule to preempt the Supreme Court ruling on his re-election as president last month.

Indifferent to the current political turmoil gripping the country, Maulana Fazlullah, a hard-line cleric has waged an aggressive campaign to enforce Sharia (strict Islamic law) in Swat, Pakistan northern area. The cleric is broadcasting his message to the people of the area through an illegal radio station. Strangely, the cleric expects non-Muslim men to grow beards while the minority women in Swat have started donning veils in the fear of being penalized should any of his 'watchdogs' see them not attired in Islamic way.

Whilst the ambitious cleric has somehow or other managed to launch an illegal radio station the radical Muslims in some areas of the country have forced Christian priests to stop using the Church loudspeakers.

The extent of the curtailment of religious minorities' freedom in Pakistan is not hard to imagine if the hard-line clerics enforce their brand of Islam in Pakistan. Muslim hardliners belabor under the delusion that they are very much popular with the people of Pakistan. Convinced by this self-invented assumption they are sparing no efforts in letting people know the “true” version of Islam. Contrary to their hypothetical popularity rating they are the least popular with the majority of people. If they ever commanded some modicum of respect by the people it only waned gradually as most of the people in the country have come to know that anti-western rhetoric is all they can offer.

The fundamentalists, however, do not appear to be accepting the reality. Instead of trying to work on their grey areas they are busy inciting people to violence under the pretext of one thing or another.

Suicide bombing was unheard of in Pakistan some years back but now the Fadayeen--a Taliban honorific for suicide bombing--are ready to blow themselves up. Incensed by the storming of the radical Lal Masjid or Red Mosque in Islamabad the Islamists have carried out a string of suicide attacks. The sharpening of the sectarian and religious divide is again the handiwork of forces that are not amenable to the culture of inter-faith harmony. Where will their street power stem from if people started living in peace and harmony in Pakistan? Who will they preach hate to if people start promoting love?

Over the years they have tried every trick in their book to woo peoples' support. This ranges from making a political capital in the aftermath of any real or perceived incident of injustice in the west with the religious minorities to lashing out at the West for its acts seen as unjust by them to accusing the western countries of meddling in Pakistan affairs.

On November 16, Friday a conservative religious party convened a rally in Islamabad during US deputy Secretary of State, John Negroponte's visit to Pakistan to tell the participants of the rally that the US was interfering in Pakistan's politics. The rally was timed with Negroponte's visit to fuel anti-American feelings in the country. They perhaps assume that people would follow them in mass numbers if their opponents cease to have the backing of western forces. With or without the backing of the west the liberal, progressive and enlightened minded people have been and will remain Pakistani peoples' preferred option.

As the liberal forces have outshone them in all other areas the Islamists have started banking heavily on "Islam card." Instead of pursuing the strategy that has not worked for them in the past the Islamists would do better trying something more innovative.

© 2007 ASSIST News Service, used with permission