Does extremism exist in Pakistan?

Western and Indian media are clamouring about burgeoning extremism in Pakistan which, in their highfalutin opinion, would prove disastrous for its very existence. Their cohorts in Pakistan also join their cacophony and claim that high water mark of extremism in Pakistan has rung the alarm bells. The question is does “religious extremism” actually possess any base in Pakistan?

To analyse the phenomenon of extremism, it is imperative to evaluate it in relation with different civilizations. In America, the dragon of extremism is running its course. There are myriad of extremist outfits mushroomed in America with blood curdling views. Aryan Nations, one of the extremist groups, aims its hatred at blacks, Jews, and other minorities. This group thinks that Jews are the offspring of Satan, blacks are subhuman, and America is the new “Promised Land” that belongs “exclusively to whites”. Butler, head of this organisation, and his followers believe in a “day of reckoning” when the “usurper will be thrown out.”

A number of high-profile extremist crimes occurred in the late 1990s. In June 1998, three Texas men with connections with white supremacist groups chained James Byrd, a black man, to the back of their pickup truck and dragged him to death. In July 1999, Nathaniel Smith, a member of the white supremacist World Church of the Creator, went on a three-day shooting spree in Illinois and Indiana.

Many militant hate groups stockpile weapons and engage in paramilitary activities, including rifle and pistol marksmanship, bomb making, and hand-to-hand combat training. Extremist groups have long espoused paramilitary units and militias as a means of defending white supremacy and as a recruiting tool. In April 1985, federal, state, and local law enforcement authorities entered the 90-hectare (220-acre) compound of the Covenant, Sword, and Arm of the Lord (CSA). Inside, authorities found a rifle range complete with wooden pop-up targets, bomb-building instructions, caches of weapons and ammunition (including hand grenades), and a 110-liter (30-gallon) drum of cyanide — a poison, which is so dangerous that even if little amount of it is placed on the palm of a man, it is sufficient to kill him. The CSA had plans to dump the cyanide, a deadly poison, into an unspecified city’s water supply, so that it could get rid of “unwanted human beings”. Even more frightful than armed racist militants are armed racist militants with a plan. In 1998, the FBI recorded 7,755 incidents of extremist crimes in the United States.

Surprisingly, members of extremists are not backward or uneducated. Richard Butler was an aerospace engineer before he founded Ayran Nations. William Pierce was a physics professor at Oregon State University in Corvallis before he founded the National Alliance. The late William Gale was a colonel in the US Army before he authored a handbook on guerrilla warfare tactics for the Posse Comitatus. Matt Hale, the leader of the white supremacist World Church of the Creator, is a lawyer. As is Kirk Lyons, the founder of the CAUSE Foundation, an organisation that offers legal support to extremist groups. (CAUSE stands for Canada, Australia, United States, South Africa, and Europe-everywhere that “kindred” white people are found).

Indian society is infested with rabid extremists. Gruesome and grisly events of Gujarat episode unmasked the face of Hindu fanatics that often remains hidden beneath the veneer layer of secularism and their overwhelming support in the Hindu society. Mere on a “suspicion” that Muslims were responsible to set ablaze the train in which Hindu fundamentalists were travelling, Hindu extremists slaughtered thousands of Muslims. Many Muslims were burnt alive. Many Muslim women were raped. Sanguinary fanatics even cut apart the belly of a pregnant woman and after doing that, killed the child, which was in her womb.

Babri Mosque was turned into debris in 1991 by Hindu fanatics and hundreds of other mosques are on their target now with the similar idea, which they had about Babri Mosque. Bal Thackery has prepared death squads to annihilate Muslims.

Genocide of Palestinian Muslims by Israeli army is known by all and sundry. Israeli army has been given the authority to bulldoze the houses of “suspects” and kill them with their own choice. “Terrorists” killed by Israeli army include 2-year-old children and women in their nineties.

Afghanistan was reduced to ashes by Americans on the basis of “suspicion” that perpetrators of 9/11 were hiding there. “Suspicion” that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, qualified it to be used as a testing ground for the up-to-the-minute war machines of the US, which reduced Iraq into cinder. Serbian army carried out genocide of Muslims. Russia killed hundreds of thousands of Chechen Muslims to subdue their spirit for freedom.

Surprisingly, none of them has been declared “fundamentalist” or “extremist”. The title of fundamentalist or extremist has been reserved for Muslims only. The westerners, including self-professed liberals of Pakistan, are yelping vociferously over the rising curve of extremism in Pakistan. Who are these extremists? A community, which has affinity and affiliation with Islam. These “Pakistani extremists” have never tried to exterminate blacks by poisonous substance like cyanide. They have never massacred their non-Muslim compatriots in a similar fashion their Muslim brothers were treated in Gujarat holocaust.

In the aftermath of 9/11, in which “prime suspect” was a Muslim, countless Muslims were persecuted and their places of worship were attacked.

In 1971 debacle, the worst opprobrium and humiliating blow in the fourteen hundred years of Islamic history, Indian Hindu army bifurcated Pakistan, unlike in America, where two buildings were blown up by terrorists, which traumatized the whole Pakistani nation. In this case, there was “no suspicion” that who dismembered Pakistan. Every body knew it was vulpine Hindu army, which had fragmented their homeland. However, not a single Hindu was killed in Pakistan, not a single Hindu temple was razed by any “Pakistani Muslim extremist”. Babri Mosque was dismantled in India but Hindu temples remained safe in Pakistan from “extremists”.

Although few unfortunate incidents of attacks on churches occurred last year, but these dastardly attacks were roundly condemned by religious parties by declaring these incidents un-Islamic. Thus, it was unequivocally stated that “extremists” were not the perpetrators of these heinous crimes. Considering the tactics of Indian intelligence agencies to slur the image of Muslim freedom fighters in Kashmir by planning and executing savagery by their own touts, especially on the eve of visit of foreign personalities, it can be said with a certain degree of certainty that the perpetrators of these crimes could be none other than the agents of RAW who want to malign Islam and practicing Muslims. Because history stands witness to this fact that these “extremists” have never carried out such attacks on any non-Muslim faction of their country.

Pakistani “extremists” are lampooned by “liberals” for their penchant to forge unity among Muslims and fight their common enemies collectively. When the British forces joined hands with the Americans, when war was declared against Afghanistan in the aftermath of September 11 attacks, no one branded the Britons as extremists, despite that fact that the attacks were carried out in New York and not in London, Manchester or Birmingham. Similarly, when Turkey, a country with overwhelmingly Muslim population, sent its troops in Afghanistan to aid Americans in war, no one labelled Turkey as fundamentalist. It is strange that when non-Muslims join non-Muslims to fight their collective war or Muslims join non-Muslim forces to combat their enemy, it is considered okay but when it is said that Muslims all over the world, if united are a potent force to reckon with, must carve out joint strategy to defeat their common enemies, instantly title of extremism is awarded.

Pakistani “extremists” have rendered unprecedented sacrifices to save Pakistan from foreign aggressors and snatch from the enemy what the Quaid called jugular vein of Pakistan.

When Russian army rolled into Afghanistan in 1979 in search of warm waters of Karachi, these extremists became a leaden wall and spilled their last drop of blood to defeat the mighty super power of that era. It is often claimed that it was the American military hardware that wreaked havoc on Russians. The question is: Did America started manufacturing of lethal weapons after Russian invasion in Afghanistan? The answer is in negative. Then why America, with all its supremacy of arms over Russia, could not defeat its arch rival throughout the cold war era, which started just after the termination of Word War II.

So, it was not the wherewithal of America but the will of “extremists” which spelled doomsday for Russia in Afghanistan. Russia had history that wherever it invaded, it never went back. Contrary to that, its land proved graveyard for invading forces. Latest example can be quoted of the World War II era when Germans, mightiest militarily at that time, landed in Russia and after clinching considerable victories, besieged Leningrad, now St Petersburg. Siege of Leningrad, also known as the 900-Day Siege, blockade by German forces of the then Union of Soviet Socialist Republics’ (USSR) second largest city during World War II, from September 1941 to January 1944. However, it were the Germans, the invaders, who faced crushing defeat at the end of the day and Russians had the last laugh.

A mighty super power with this history had not only to pull back after accepting defeat from Afghanistan but also largest entity on the world map æ whose area was so large that just before its collapse on its one corner, the sun was setting and on the other corner it was rising æ could not resist its dismemberment and finally crumbled into various pieces.

Similarly, these “extremist” played pivoted role to teach the occupying force in Kashmir a lesson and liberate the jugular vein of our country from Indian occupation by laying their lives which numbers in thousands.

In an environment where unscrupulous people, with their insatiable appetite to plunder the national exchequer and stash money in foreign banks, would be labelled as progressive and, on the other hand, the people who, without getting a penny from the exchequer, spill last drop of blood from their veins would be declared “extremists” and “fundamentalists” then when the country will need young blood to safeguard itself from the enemy, who would like to offer blood?

Does extremism exist in Pakistan?

Western and Indian media are clamouring about burgeoning extremism in Pakistan which, in their highfalutin opinion, would prove disastrous for its very existence. Their cohorts in Pakistan also join their cacophony and claim that high water mark of extremism in Pakistan has rung the alarm bells. The question is does “religious extremism” actually possess any base in Pakistan?

To analyse the phenomenon of extremism, it is imperative to evaluate it in relation with different civilizations. In America, the dragon of extremism is running its course. There are myriad of extremist outfits mushroomed in America with blood curdling views. Aryan Nations, one of the extremist groups, aims its hatred at blacks, Jews, and other minorities. This group thinks that Jews are the offspring of Satan, blacks are subhuman, and America is the new “Promised Land” that belongs “exclusively to whites”. Butler, head of this organisation, and his followers believe in a “day of reckoning” when the “usurper will be thrown out.”

A number of high-profile extremist crimes occurred in the late 1990s. In June 1998, three Texas men with connections with white supremacist groups chained James Byrd, a black man, to the back of their pickup truck and dragged him to death. In July 1999, Nathaniel Smith, a member of the white supremacist World Church of the Creator, went on a three-day shooting spree in Illinois and Indiana.

Many militant hate groups stockpile weapons and engage in paramilitary activities, including rifle and pistol marksmanship, bomb making, and hand-to-hand combat training. Extremist groups have long espoused paramilitary units and militias as a means of defending white supremacy and as a recruiting tool. In April 1985, federal, state, and local law enforcement authorities entered the 90-hectare (220-acre) compound of the Covenant, Sword, and Arm of the Lord (CSA). Inside, authorities found a rifle range complete with wooden pop-up targets, bomb-building instructions, caches of weapons and ammunition (including hand grenades), and a 110-liter (30-gallon) drum of cyanide — a poison, which is so dangerous that even if little amount of it is placed on the palm of a man, it is sufficient to kill him. The CSA had plans to dump the cyanide, a deadly poison, into an unspecified city’s water supply, so that it could get rid of “unwanted human beings”. Even more frightful than armed racist militants are armed racist militants with a plan. In 1998, the FBI recorded 7,755 incidents of extremist crimes in the United States.

Surprisingly, members of extremists are not backward or uneducated. Richard Butler was an aerospace engineer before he founded Ayran Nations. William Pierce was a physics professor at Oregon State University in Corvallis before he founded the National Alliance. The late William Gale was a colonel in the US Army before he authored a handbook on guerrilla warfare tactics for the Posse Comitatus. Matt Hale, the leader of the white supremacist World Church of the Creator, is a lawyer. As is Kirk Lyons, the founder of the CAUSE Foundation, an organisation that offers legal support to extremist groups. (CAUSE stands for Canada, Australia, United States, South Africa, and Europe-everywhere that “kindred” white people are found).

Indian society is infested with rabid extremists. Gruesome and grisly events of Gujarat episode unmasked the face of Hindu fanatics that often remains hidden beneath the veneer layer of secularism and their overwhelming support in the Hindu society. Mere on a “suspicion” that Muslims were responsible to set ablaze the train in which Hindu fundamentalists were travelling, Hindu extremists slaughtered thousands of Muslims. Many Muslims were burnt alive. Many Muslim women were raped. Sanguinary fanatics even cut apart the belly of a pregnant woman and after doing that, killed the child, which was in her womb.

Babri Mosque was turned into debris in 1991 by Hindu fanatics and hundreds of other mosques are on their target now with the similar idea, which they had about Babri Mosque. Bal Thackery has prepared death squads to annihilate Muslims.

Genocide of Palestinian Muslims by Israeli army is known by all and sundry. Israeli army has been given the authority to bulldoze the houses of “suspects” and kill them with their own choice. “Terrorists” killed by Israeli army include 2-year-old children and women in their nineties.

Afghanistan was reduced to ashes by Americans on the basis of “suspicion” that perpetrators of 9/11 were hiding there. “Suspicion” that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, qualified it to be used as a testing ground for the up-to-the-minute war machines of the US, which reduced Iraq into cinder. Serbian army carried out genocide of Muslims. Russia killed hundreds of thousands of Chechen Muslims to subdue their spirit for freedom.

Surprisingly, none of them has been declared “fundamentalist” or “extremist”. The title of fundamentalist or extremist has been reserved for Muslims only. The westerners, including self-professed liberals of Pakistan, are yelping vociferously over the rising curve of extremism in Pakistan. Who are these extremists? A community, which has affinity and affiliation with Islam. These “Pakistani extremists” have never tried to exterminate blacks by poisonous substance like cyanide. They have never massacred their non-Muslim compatriots in a similar fashion their Muslim brothers were treated in Gujarat holocaust.

In the aftermath of 9/11, in which “prime suspect” was a Muslim, countless Muslims were persecuted and their places of worship were attacked.

In 1971 debacle, the worst opprobrium and humiliating blow in the fourteen hundred years of Islamic history, Indian Hindu army bifurcated Pakistan, unlike in America, where two buildings were blown up by terrorists, which traumatized the whole Pakistani nation. In this case, there was “no suspicion” that who dismembered Pakistan. Every body knew it was vulpine Hindu army, which had fragmented their homeland. However, not a single Hindu was killed in Pakistan, not a single Hindu temple was razed by any “Pakistani Muslim extremist”. Babri Mosque was dismantled in India but Hindu temples remained safe in Pakistan from “extremists”.

Although few unfortunate incidents of attacks on churches occurred last year, but these dastardly attacks were roundly condemned by religious parties by declaring these incidents un-Islamic. Thus, it was unequivocally stated that “extremists” were not the perpetrators of these heinous crimes. Considering the tactics of Indian intelligence agencies to slur the image of Muslim freedom fighters in Kashmir by planning and executing savagery by their own touts, especially on the eve of visit of foreign personalities, it can be said with a certain degree of certainty that the perpetrators of these crimes could be none other than the agents of RAW who want to malign Islam and practicing Muslims. Because history stands witness to this fact that these “extremists” have never carried out such attacks on any non-Muslim faction of their country.

Pakistani “extremists” are lampooned by “liberals” for their penchant to forge unity among Muslims and fight their common enemies collectively. When the British forces joined hands with the Americans, when war was declared against Afghanistan in the aftermath of September 11 attacks, no one branded the Britons as extremists, despite that fact that the attacks were carried out in New York and not in London, Manchester or Birmingham. Similarly, when Turkey, a country with overwhelmingly Muslim population, sent its troops in Afghanistan to aid Americans in war, no one labelled Turkey as fundamentalist. It is strange that when non-Muslims join non-Muslims to fight their collective war or Muslims join non-Muslim forces to combat their enemy, it is considered okay but when it is said that Muslims all over the world, if united are a potent force to reckon with, must carve out joint strategy to defeat their common enemies, instantly title of extremism is awarded.

Pakistani “extremists” have rendered unprecedented sacrifices to save Pakistan from foreign aggressors and snatch from the enemy what the Quaid called jugular vein of Pakistan.

When Russian army rolled into Afghanistan in 1979 in search of warm waters of Karachi, these extremists became a leaden wall and spilled their last drop of blood to defeat the mighty super power of that era. It is often claimed that it was the American military hardware that wreaked havoc on Russians. The question is: Did America started manufacturing of lethal weapons after Russian invasion in Afghanistan? The answer is in negative. Then why America, with all its supremacy of arms over Russia, could not defeat its arch rival throughout the cold war era, which started just after the termination of Word War II.

So, it was not the wherewithal of America but the will of “extremists” which spelled doomsday for Russia in Afghanistan. Russia had history that wherever it invaded, it never went back. Contrary to that, its land proved graveyard for invading forces. Latest example can be quoted of the World War II era when Germans, mightiest militarily at that time, landed in Russia and after clinching considerable victories, besieged Leningrad, now St Petersburg. Siege of Leningrad, also known as the 900-Day Siege, blockade by German forces of the then Union of Soviet Socialist Republics’ (USSR) second largest city during World War II, from September 1941 to January 1944. However, it were the Germans, the invaders, who faced crushing defeat at the end of the day and Russians had the last laugh.

A mighty super power with this history had not only to pull back after accepting defeat from Afghanistan but also largest entity on the world map æ whose area was so large that just before its collapse on its one corner, the sun was setting and on the other corner it was rising æ could not resist its dismemberment and finally crumbled into various pieces.

Similarly, these “extremist” played pivoted role to teach the occupying force in Kashmir a lesson and liberate the jugular vein of our country from Indian occupation by laying their lives which numbers in thousands.

In an environment where unscrupulous people, with their insatiable appetite to plunder the national exchequer and stash money in foreign banks, would be labelled as progressive and, on the other hand, the people who, without getting a penny from the exchequer, spill last drop of blood from their veins would be declared “extremists” and “fundamentalists” then when the country will need you

Establishing a new civilization

The Muslim historian does not judge any civilization on the basis of its material achievement only; he also takes into consideration the extent to which it has realised the basic objective ordained by God, the Creator for His creatures. Allah said: "I have only created Jinns and men, that they may serve Me." (51:56)

Thus, a noble civilization is the one which creates a suitable environment -- political, social, economic, cultural, and material -- that will enable man to direct himself towards the worship of Allah Almighty and to adhere strictly to His commandments in all his activities, unimpeded by the institutions of the society.

These institutions should not be permitted to cause any contradiction between religious belief and conduct, nor should they put pressure on anyone to deviate from his obligations towards Allah, Lord of the worlds.

No matter how advanced a civilization may be in its sciences, literature and arts; no matter how colourful its achievements in architecture, furniture, clothing, and cuisine; no matter how far a civilization has advanced in material progress; in the opinion of the Muslim historian, it still remains "backward" and "deficient" so long as it falls short of creating an environment appropriate to the worship of Allah and the observance of His commandments as embodied in the Shari'ah.

Islamic civilization itself has passed through several stages, and undoubtedly, most of its material achievements were not realised during its early period. Major achievements came in the third and fourth centuries after the Hijra (migration of the Holy Prophet [Sall Allaho alaihe wasallam] to Madinah from Makkah), also termed as "AH".

For this reason, we find the Western historian Adam Mitez voicing the opinion that the fourth century of the Hijra represents the peak of Islamic civilization, because this period was the most appropriate for the worship of Allah.

When compared with the behaviour of the Muslims in the fourth century of the Hijra, the behaviour of the Muslims in the first century was clearly more in accordance with the teachings of the Shari'ah. The Holy Prophet (Sall Allaho alaihe wasallam) alluded to this when he said: "The best of generations is my generation, then those that come after them, then those that come after them."

This logic seems strange indeed to the minds of the non-Muslim historians, because they have accepted the criteria and values of Western civilization. But for the Muslim historian, who has managed to break free of the domination of Western values, criteria and concepts, the whole matter appears self-evident.

The Muslim has been able to achieve this new vision due to the new wave of Islamic awareness, the effects of which are now quite visible throughout the contemporary Islamic world.

One of these effects has been the breaking away of the young Muslim generation from the clutches of Western civilization. Islam and faith have inspired them with feelings of superiority, self-confidence, and independence, both spiritual and intellectual. This is significant because it represents the first correct step in the direction of establishing a new civilization, God willing.