Quelle: Labour Party Pakistan (LPP)
Pakistan : What to do about religious fundamentalism ?
“Let’s deal with the ISI and the Pakistan military and let’s go recruit these mujahideen. Here is a very strong argument which is… it wasn’t a bad investment to end the Soviet Union but let’s be careful with what we sow… because we will harvest.” – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, April 23, 2009.
October 28, 2009 — Once again Pakistan has become the focus of world attention. Every day there is news of the latest suicide attack or military operation, with killings, injuries and the displacing of communities. Recently schools were ordered closed for more than a week. Even children talk about death and suicide attacks.
With more than 125 police checkpoints in Islamabad, it has become a fortress city. Lahore and other large cities are suffering the same fate : there are police road blockades everywhere. After each terrorist attack authorities issue another security high alert and set up additional barriers. How ironic that, until recently, officials and the media described these “terrorists” as Mujahideen fighting for an Islamic world.
Under immense pressure by the US administration of President Barack Obama, the Pakistan government has launched a series of military operations in various parts of the country. This has led to an unprecedented wave of killings, with hundreds of thousands more being forced to leave their homes for temporary shelter.
Pushed out of Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks in the US, religious fanatics from different countries have found refuge in Pakistan. They have two aims : to make Pakistan more Islamic and to teach the government a lesson for its close relationship with US imperialism. However the price is being paid by ordinary people.
Religious fanatics are the new fascists. They believe in the physical elimination of their political opponents. Although they may appear to be anti-imperialist, they are not a progressive force. Instead they are an extreme right-wing force that wants to turn back the clock of history.
The religion of the state
Pakistan is also known as the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Religion is part and parcel of the state. The constitutions and the judiciary are all beleaguered with Islamic demagogy. Most of the education syllabus is also coloured with Islamic ideology ; even scientific explanations somehow manage to drag in religion. Religion has become a way of life. Every donation to charity ends up in the coffers of the religious institutions.
Although the rationale for the Pakistan state was to be a place for Muslims, it was to be a secular Muslim state. When the state was formed in 1947 the population was not fundamentalist. But as time went on Pakistan adopted an Islamic ideology that today gives these fanatics a more favourable ground for the promotion of their dream of an Islamic country.
At the end of the 1970s, with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Washington decided it needed to develop an indigenous counterforce. In order to fight “communism” in Afghanistan, Washington worked closely with Pakistan’s military dictator, General Zia ul Haq, and the Pakistani intelligence service, the Inter-Services intelligence (ISI).
There are dozens of books explaining the rise of Taliban and Mujahideen under the direct guidance of the US, but the ISI had no reason to cut off funding after the Soviet retreat in 1987. If the Americans were no longer interested in these guerillas, the ISI found these jihadis useful in its conflict with India over Kashmir.
Also, there are many religious political parties in Pakistan. Jamaati islami and Jamiat Ulmai Islam, along with other Sunni and Wahabi political parties, are all for an Islamic revolution. They also give political support to the religious fanatics of the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
Hillary Clinton admits US role
Even Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, acknowledged Washington’s responsibility in promoting the religious fanatics. She admitted to a US Congressional sub-committee on April 23, 2009, that the US had effectively created the current disastrous situation in Afghanistan :
“It was President Reagan in partnership with Congress led by Democrats who said, you know what, it sounds like a pretty good idea… let’s deal with the ISI [Pakistani intelligence agency] and the Pakistan military and let’s go recruit these mujahideen. Here is a very strong argument which is … it wasn’t a bad investment to end the Soviet Union but let’s be careful with what we sow… because we will harvest.”
However, it is not only the US that are harvesting what they have sown. Numerous Pakistan governments were ready to do whatever Washington wanted them to do out of sheer financial greed. Since 1978 different governments have all been a close US allies. This includes 20 years of military dictatorship under Zia (1977-1988) and General Musharaf (1999-2008). These various governments enabled religious fanatics to establish religious educational institutions that have changed the country’s religious culture.
The Madrassas’ tactics
One of the main strategies used by the fanatics to bring jihad to the youth of Pakistan was through opening religious schools (madrassas). They mushroomed under the Zia ul Haque dictatorship. At present, there are religious schools throughout Pakistan. Of the more than 15,000 registered madrassas, about half are in the Punjab. Experts estimate the numbers are higher : when the state tried to count them in 2005, a fifth of the province refused to register.
The madrassas found a place among the working people as they were marketed as offering a free education with religious teachings. In fact, the failure of the government to provide adequate resources for free public education paved the way for the progress of the madrassas. Pakistan has one of the lowest literacy rates in the world. The government spends less than 3 per cent of GDP on education. Only about half of Pakistanis can read and write, far below the proportion in countries with a similar per-capita income, such as Vietnam. According to UNESCO, one out of three school-age Pakistani children does not attend school ; of those who do attend, a third drop out by fifth grade. The enrollment of girls is among the lowest in the world, lagging behind Ethiopia and Yemen.
Though madrassas make up only about 7 per cent of primary schools in Pakistan, their influence is amplified by the inadequacy of public education and the innate religiosity of the countryside, where two-thirds of the population live. The madrassas are the real breeding grounds for religious fundamentalism.
More than 15,000 registered religious seminaries in the country cater to more than 1.5 million students and more than 55,000 teachers. Before 2002, according to the Religious Affairs Ministry, the number of registered madrassas in Pakistan were not more than 6000. After 9/11, the religious fanatics who left Afghanistan came to Pakistan, and with the help of the two provincial governments run by the religious alliance MMA — North West Frontier Province and Baluchistan — they were able to quickly establish more madrassas. By 2007 there were around 13,000 registered seminaries across the country. At this time General Musharaf was a partner in the so-called US-led “alliance against terrorism”. He was manipulating both the fanatics and the imperialists.
By March 2009, the number of registered madrassas in Pakistan reached 15,725.
The growth of religious fanatics
The partnership of religious fanatics with US and the Pakistan intelligence agencies went unchecked until the 9/11 attacks. Then the whole scenario shifted. The Mujahideen was labelled terrorist and Washington wanted a military solution to the growth of religious fundamentalism.
