Creating an anti-extremism culture

As the Financial Action Task Force has also emphasised, the world is indeed concerned about militant organisations in Pakistan. And it is to the Pakistani people that they present the biggest threat of all.

Since 2002, when actions against terrorism gained greater pace, Pakistan has lost thousands of lives to terrorists. The toll we have taken is far higher than that of any other country – including India and the US. It is for this reason that Pakistan needs to deal with militancy: not because anyone else in the world demands it or threatens to oust it by force, but because the people of Pakistan would benefit enormously if all forms of extremism could be eradicated.

This applies not specifically only to militant groups but also to the manner in which people think and the degree to which such messages are spread. They most often threaten not anyone based beyond Pakistan’s borders but groups within the country itself. Minority sects, minority groups and women have all felt the dangerous impact of this.

The hatred is visible on messages left over social media and at other forums. It is quite obvious that while only a small minority actually participates in the physical activity of any organised group, a far larger number may hold views that are biased against specific people within the country itself. It is for this reason that Pakistan needs to deal with the problem and by doing so, ensure that its own people are safe.

For a moment, we need to ignore the FATF, New Delhi or voices raised from Washington. Instead, we need to look inwards at ourselves and at the real problems, identified by all political parties when they devised the National Action Plan in January 2015, in the wake of the terrible killings at the Army Public School in Peshawar. No other nation has had to deal with scenes quite as terrible as those witnessed at the school, where so many helpless pupils were mowed down. While NAP itself has been only partially implemented, many in powerful positions have since then upheld the argument that hatred and the forces that deprive it must be removed from Pakistan to allow its people greater harmony and safer lives.

Pakistan then has more motive than any other nation to act against extremism itself. It also has the experience to do so. It has seen since the 1980s how extremism and the sectarianism that comes with it can quickly expand its grasp over people and result in a cycle of death and killings. The emergence of new groups putting forward hatred only adds to the violence. The arrest of leaders of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan indicates a move in the right direction. More such measures need to follow. More than arrests, it is wiping out the culture that underlies such extremist behaviour that will be the hardest task of all. If the environment in which extremism and hatred thrive can be altered, then we would have moved a very long way forward in controlling the problem and eventually eradicating it from everywhere in the country. We are already aware of the need to do so.

The tedious task of pulling out the roots of hatred, one by one, like a weed that has worked its way into a garden, slowly taking over more and more space, must be begun. Removing it is a slow task, but it is one that will have to be performed if anything resembling true change is to come.

We must consider how this can be achieved as quickly and effectively as possible. The electronic media has already exerted a hold on the minds of people everywhere. It must play a part. As the first step, any material that promotes extremism must not be broadcast. This falls in line with the laws against hatred already in place. TV dramas, talk shows and other programmes must in fact send out a message promoting the ideas of tolerance and respect for different beliefs and opinions. We badly need such tolerance if our country is to become a harmonious place to live in.

But of course the media alone cannot perform magic. Textbooks and other materials will need to be utilised as well. One step that can be taken is to promote a culture in which the arts, including reading, music, theatre, dance and other forms of quality entertainment can flourish. These have been largely pushed aside with guns and harsh rhetoric used as a weapon against others who hold different views used far too frequently and far too vehemently. Books alone make huge differences in the lives of people. They encourage thought, discourse and debate. By taking them away from lives, we have done a huge disservice to our people.

The critical thinking that the study of the humanities brings with it needs to be brought back. The notion that science is somehow superior to humanities is now deeply rooted across our educational system and in other places. This too needs to be removed so that more young people learn to take up books, to ponder over cultural events, to debate and discuss them without resorting to heated argument or arms, and by doing so to learn facts that they may not have been familiar with before.

Creating this culture is in itself critical to removing extremism. At the current time, too many people repeat phrases and slogans they have heard like a kind of mantra, without attaching to it any thinking or any introspection. This is sad; it resembles the kind of environment within which fascism thrives. It is vital that we break the chain which creates this. We have become unaccustomed to hearing new ideas or accepting change.

The ‘West’ is consistently labeled as bad, without recognising that while much good lies in the ‘East’ and often goes unappreciated, the West too is not necessarily entirely evil. A broader sense of the world we live in has to be built. This can only happen in small steps. But it needs to happen if we are to break through the stifling atmosphere within which hatred, bigotry and bias can so easily grow.

We must also examine other factors which have led to groups which promote violence growing in number and strength. Unemployment or the sense of purposelessness among young people is a part of the phenomenon. When young men and young women have nowhere else to turn, a gun offers them some direction and some sense of power. In today’s highly technological world, with extremist groups using technology expertly, so does a computer and the functions it can perform.

When organisations arm persons with these, they can have a quick impact on drawing them into a tight circle within which they feel a sense of belonging and can be indoctrinated to think in a specific way. We have seen this happen everywhere in the world. It is certainly happening at home. The key task is to find ways to break through the circles that promote extremism and find for people a new way in which to express feelings and thoughts.

The writer is a freelance columnist and former newspaper editor.

Email: kamilahyat@hotmail.com