By: Muhammad Rizwan Bhatti
The gruesome manifestation of ghastly extremism at Sialkot Lynching incident has shocked and shattered every sane Pakistani. The brutal killing of Sri-Lankan National Priyantha Kumara Diyawadanage has shamed humanity and undoubtedly made a deadly scar on the face of Pakistan.
The brutal killing of foreign national on alleged blasphemy is not first one but horrifying remembrance of Killing of Mishal Khan and burning alive of Shama and Shahzad Masih. The youth in Pakistan has become erratic and frustrated. The chanting of slogan with religious attributes makes them believe that they are doing right for the glorification of Islam and finality of Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH).
Persecution in the name of religion is forbidden and against the teaching of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). Pakistan is diverse in Ethno-socio and religio-political dimensions. There is a strong need to reconstruct the misplaced religious thought by disseminating the narrative countering radical extremist ideologies. This uphill task can be done by the intellectual and enlightened response to critical ideologies, the revival of moribund cultural and social values.
The environment of intolerance and violence has wrought havoc and continues to mangle Pakistan until and unless measures are not done to cripple the terrorists with all their vitriolic ideologues. Rehabilitation and reintegration of extremist elements can be done by creating environment, generating job, imparting vocational training, after-care monitoring process, respectful involvement of parents and social reengineering of militants and terrorists.
The existence of law identifying the salient features of a rehabilitation programme give legitimacy and clarity to an otherwise makeshift desired outcome require the opposite or even both types of rehabilitation. The establishment of Legal framework has become indispensable. The administrators of Pakistan’s program must evaluate the factors contributing to radicalization and try to neutralize and prevent those factors and help in deprogramming the rehabilitees behaviorally and cognitively. It is really crucial to de-glamourize terrorists and foils the attraction that some terrorist groups seem to enjoy through projection of valid and patent counter-narratives having a broad and all-embracing appeal.
It is important to de-legitimize the methods and goals practiced and proclaimed by fiery political and sectarian leaders, terrorist outfits, sympathizers and their supporters and debilitate the terrorist’s capacity of wooing others to follow their militant ways. De-radicalization of society should be bracketed with wide perspective of National reconstruction as vigorous counter-narrative is essential in routing the militancy and extremism.
The monopoly of religious thoughts and dissemination in private hands is risky and fraught with numerous divisive pitfalls. This is what we see happening in Pakistan, led by the five Wifaq’s — Religious Boards of five Sects — and the prevalence of religio-political parties. Based on the experiences of Turkey, Malaysia or Indonesia, Pakistan’s mainstream political parties, perhaps, can help initiate inculcation of patience and toleration among adherents for sectarian harmony. This, however, must not be misconstrued as a move to infringement of religious freedom. Everybody is and must remain free to practice faith and exercise its fundamental right of enjoying religious freedom. But that practice must not become an instrument of injustice, discrimination and intolerance. Through this endeavour of religious harmony and political pluralism, the menace of extremism can be eliminated and soft measure in the shape of deradicalization can be ascertained.
The mosque is the place of congregation for prayers and well-placed channel of mass communication for the Muslims, especially for the villagers. So, this sacrosanct institution can be used to disseminate the message of peace and reconciliation to de-radicalize and inculcating the diffusing dynamism of Islam which is inimical to violence, extremism and militancy.
The institutional reforms are paramount in importance. The refurbishment of the Criminal Justice System has become ineluctable to get rid of rising scale of militancy. The threat is both mundane and predictable in nature. With the robust judicial reforms, the sentence rate will be increased and justice will be prevailed to get peace and prosperity in state and society.
The Government methods and statistics to deal with extremism, radicalization and de-radicalization measures should be exposed to veteran researchers to adopt a holistic approach and develop mechanisms for effective de-radicalization manoeuvers. There is a dire need to cultivate respect for diversity and intentional inclusion to promote harmony in society. There are number of factors that give forth to fundamentalism in society, there is a dire need to address the causes including economic disparity, illiteracy, religious dogmatism, unemployment, ineffective judicial system, bad Governance, ethnic and sectarian dichotomy, mass corruption and extremist narrative. NACTA needs to formulate short and long term strategies to combat the menace of extremism and radicalization that has led to militancy in society. Education and reorientation of people can change the trajectory of extremism towards enlightenment.
The writer is a Ph.D Scholar, Dept of Political Science, Govt College, University Faisalabad and can be reached at [email protected]