THE year 2017 has ended on a low note for Pakistan’s fight against
extremism. Where once the concern was restricted to impoverished neighbourhoods
and lack of education, today extremist thought is flourishing in the media,
political spheres, elite circles and educational institutes.
Numerous professors in universities in Islamabad, Lahore and
Karachi show increased concern for radical and extremist thought that incite
violence; a phenomenon previously associated with poverty, lack of education
and/or limited to madressahs. Literature on latent radicalisation in college
campuses across Pakistan helps to provide context to current trends; one need
look no further than the brutal lynching of Mashal Khan at the Abdul Wali Khan
University. The misuse of blasphemy laws, often for revenge or personal gain,
can anger young students enough to resort to murder.
That is no surprise in a country that cedes space to the extremist
ideology of radical clerics and allows them to bring the capital on lockdown
for weeks. An open incitement to violence against minority communities, women,
students and many more, is likely then to germinate in young minds already
vulnerable to a myriad of regressive circumstances, eg Bacha Khan University in
Charsadda recently banned mixed gatherings on its campus.
Military means alone won’t end terrorism.
Intolerance, however, is not limited to college campuses or to
firebrand clerics. It is not uncommon for political leaders, eg our information
minister, to resort to slurs demonising non-Muslims, in order to attack their
political rivals or to further personal gain. All this in a country that faces
a large youth population that is susceptible to extremism.
There is no scenario where Pakistan’s fight against terrorism can
be won solely through military means. For a state in flux, even obvious
observations require repetition.
According to the Global Terrorism Index, terrorism-related
violence in Pakistan has decreased considerably since 2014, in part
attributable to Operation Zarb-i-Azb. In fact, hundreds of terrorist plots were
reportedly foiled in Pakistan in 2017.
While Pakistan’s security dimension has improved, extremism has
been on the rise, despite tremendous chatter on the subject. Stamping out
dissent in college campuses (amongst many other venues) and the dangerous
political mainstreaming of intolerance against minorities create conducive
environments that exacerbate factors generally accepted as increasing youth
vulnerability towards violence.
Rise in extremism cannot be quantified. The greatest impediment in
investing in counter-extremism programming is the inability to measure and
evaluate progress.
How many fewer young men and women have engaged in acts of
violence? How many vulnerable young people toying with the idea of violence
have not been recruited either online or in-person?
Its latent nature is what makes it not only difficult to identify
early warning signs but also present tangible results.
What is measurable though is the increase in safe spaces to voice
dissent, public venues that encourage inclusive community engagement, or the
existence of public goods specifically for young people such as public
libraries and parks, amongst many more. In Pakistan’s case, the latter are
either rapidly shrinking or are absent.
Further, investments in prevention, as urgent as they may be,
yield long-term, generational results. For a nation obsessed with instant
gratification, there is little political buy-in for such programming.
The country’s national counter-extremism policy has been devised
through consultations with political leadership, religious leaders, scholars,
academics, media, civil society organisations, and civil and military
bureaucracy.
The policy, though well intentioned and all-encompassing, lacks
cohesive political will to take it forward and not only implement its measures
but sustain its successes.
Global debates and UN resolutions on preventing violent extremism,
despite efforts to include civil society, remain state-centric with an
overwhelming focus on building state capacity.
States are often unwilling to grapple with the ultimate internal
causes of extremism, which frequently include their own policies. In some
cases, authorities and leaders are themselves beholden to ideologies that
legitimise violence and even propagate it among their own and other
populations.
If states are truly looking to tackle violent extremism, they must
address their own behaviour.
In Pakistan, alienation, exclusive politics and oppression are
structural problems that extremists are trained and adept at exploiting and
cultivating. Any conversation on the prevention of violent extremism must move
beyond building state capacity and begin to address changing state behaviour.
Safeguarding and supporting Pakistan’s next generation requires a
sustained effort and not vote-garnering, political statements.
In environments that are conducive to intolerance and violence,
fault lines are increasingly fractured leaving the state dangerously dithering
on its duty to create secure and inclusive spaces for young people to flourish.
The writer is a policy researcher.
Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2018
No comments:
Post a Comment