Book Review : Pakistan as a jihad factory

Abbas’s narrative is about Pakistan’s regression from Jinnah’s dream to Musharraf’s nightmare

Hassan Abbas, a Pakistani scholar at Tufts University, USA, called his book “Pakistan’s Drift Into Extremism – Allah, the Army, and America’s War on Terror.” Sushant Sareen named his book “The Jihad Factory –Pakistan’s Islamic Revolution in the Making.” Amir Rana’s investigative book was originally in Urdu but its translated version is called “The Gateway to Terrorism.” This is the new identity of Pakistan. From being “Non-India,” Pakistan it is increasingly referred to as the cradle of terrorism.

Abbas’s book is a narrative about Pakistan’s regression from Jinnah’s dream to Musharraf’s nightmare. Zia ul Haq’s use of religion to strengthen his hold, create sycophants, and an Islamic order started of the present problems. Zia died in a crash for which almost everybody was suspect but no one was found remotely guilty. Perhaps, nobody wanted to find the guilty.

One gets an eerie feeling of a hidden hand in some of the conspiracies when “they” try-- more than once--to get rid of Musharraf, threaten his Interior Minister, Gen Moinuddin Haider, by killing his brother, and succeed in assassinating Musharraf’s popular and very professional Chief of Staff, Gen Ghulam Ahmed. The Interior Minister had said …“imagine what would happen to Pakistan when militant leaders of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba would start trekking back once their objectives were achieved.” The Lashkar Chief Hafeez Mohammed Saeed who was listening was not amused. But the truth is that “they” are there somewhere in the background, powerful and ruthless.

This worry is real. If Pak authorities do not find other avenues for these jehadis then the Ahle Hadith dictum quoted by Rana becomes more ominous for Pakistan. Writing in 1995, Abu Fattada of the Ahle Hadith (the Pakistani version of the Wahabbi sect) of which Lashkar-e-Tayyaba is an affiliate, said, “For us Pakistan is the most appropriate place for jehad. Evils like apostasy, oppression, injustice and obscenity are rampant here.”

The Lashkar views this differently. It often says, “We will fight for the Word of God morning and evening. Be it Israel or India, America or Russia, we will fight against the infidels. We will not stop jehad in the way of God. Our bodies may fall to pieces, the blood in our veins may drain out, but we will not stop jehad.” Incidentally, the Pakistan Army’s motto -“Jehad fis b’Allah”- jehad in the name of God- may be terse but the message is the same.

Sareen relies solely on Pakistani sources – all open and respected – to depict Pakistani society rapidly sinking into a jehadi mindset. His commentary is interspersed with quotes from the Herald, Newsline, Friday Times, Dawn, Nation, The News, and the Pak Urdu press. Sareen says that the jehadis have begun to set the political agenda in Pakistan, they have made strong inroads into the Army and civil service. The real conversions to extremism are in the smaller towns away from metros like Lahore. Even rural Sindh, the home of Sufi Islam, is rapidly becoming Wahabbi. The author says that a crackdown now would lead to disturbances but is necessary. The alternative is letting the state go under.

Mohammed Amir Rana’s 668-page book is the result of extensive travels in Pakistan, interviews with 160 jehadi organisations and their members, visits to more than a hundred madrassas, and access to scores of documents. The book is an eye opener --about the number of jehadi organisations that exist and their agenda and painstakingly lists various organisations according to their affiliations – Hanafi-Deobandi, Ahle Hadith, Barelvi, Shia, and Jamaat-e-Islami. Then there are madrassas of different persuasions, sectarian outfits, united jehad councils, their leadership, the degrees they offer and the amount they spend (not known in all cases). The book is a serious student’s dream. For others it tells a horror story.

Gen Musharraf’s problem today is that, even if he wants to rein in these jehadis, (estimated around 50,000 to 80,000) he has no place to send them and they have no other expertise. In the 90’s they were conveniently diverted from the Eastern Theatre to the Western; but this cannot be reversed today. Jehad masquerading as a freedom struggle is no longer fashionable or nor fobbed off as an event in remote places.

The liberal lobby – the civil society -- has begun to see problems for itself and for Pakistan. Recently, a Pakistani professor had observed that it was Pakistan that had drawn the sword first but was now left holding its sharper edge. There are other reasons to feel nervous and besieged. In March, MMA- backed militants in Manshera in NWFP denounced the presence of women judges in the district court as “un-Islamic”. When women cannot take part in a mini-marathon in Gujranwala, Punjab, when their faces can no longer appear on advertisements, then life is going to be a whole lot tougher.

The country is on religious skids. Recently Musharraf suddenly caved in to the right-wing religious MMA demand that a person’s religion should be mentioned on his passport. The much-touted deeni madrassa modernisation and reform launched after 9/11 has faltered badly. 10,000 madrassas continue to function with an enrollment of about a million students and quite a few will graduate as jehadis for global duties.

The liberal wants India to give some concessions on Kashmir, or at least to give a road map here and now. The hope is that this will knock the wind out of the jehadi sails. Yet the trust deficit is so large that many skeptics think this is not a change of policy or objectives. Other tactics having failed, this could be the last throw of the dice – the smiling, gentle approach.

The Pakistan establishment says repeatedly that its heart bleeds for the Kashmiri but its eyes are fixed on the water of the region. Any Indian attempt to give the Kashmiri a better life by providing electricity or irrigation from the rivers that flow through the State and within the treaty, is met by howls of protest. The reason is simple. The interests of the Punjabi farmer in Pakistan come first. These are linked with the fortunes of the landed feudals, the bureaucrats and the Army that draws the bulk of its force from the Punjab. And for this the Punjabi Army of Pakistan will fight to the last Kashmiri or the foot soldier of jehad

Musharraf’s threat of a Kargil II may be meant for domestic audiences as also reports about a Corps level exercise in the Northern Areas of POK. But his inability to introduce procedural changes in the dreaded Blasphemy Law punishable by death or life imprisonment indicates the strength of the religious right.

Musharraf repeatedly asserts that Pakistan is not a secular state but an Islamic state. He says that the threat to Pakistan is internal and not external yet continues to arm himself to the teeth, tests India-specific missiles and refers to India as “our arch enemy” on his website. That is his choice, either from conviction or from a need to pander to certain lobbies.

Some commentators in Pakistan fear that the strength of the extremists will continue to grow unless the Mullah-Military alliance is broken.

Vikram Sood
(The reviewer is a former Secretary to the Government of India)

Source : Hindustan times 17th April 2005