Religious extremism not limited to Islamic world: Bilawal

KARACHI: Religious extremism is just one strain of a virus that is not limited to the Islamic world, said PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari while addressing a moot organised by the United States Institute of Peace in Washington.

According to complete text of the speech released by the PPP media cell here Monday, the party chairman also categorically stated that while Islamic extremism dominates the post-9 11 narrative other forms of religious extremism are equally dangerous.

Bilawal mentioning that all forms of religious extremism are a serious threat to the nation said his mother in her final election campaign and her posthumously published book ‘Reconciliation’ had laid out a road map to combat religious extremism through reconciliation democracy, social justice and a new Marshall Plan.

However, distracted by the great recession and exhausted by nearly a decade of wars the international community once again ignored her advice, regretted the PPP chairman.He also alleged that extremism in Pakistan was founded by opponent of his grandfather Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and that world then had myopically funded his policy because of Pakistan strategic importance in the first Afghan war.

Bilawal regretted that world also ignored his mother Benazir Bhutto in the 1980s when she warned that supplying arms training and support to the mujahideen to fight the Soviets had created a ‘Frankenstein’ that would come back to haunt us.

Bilawal said many declared these men freedom fighters and dubbed them equivalent to George Washington. After 9/11, again the international community ignored BB when she warned that we must not run with the hare and hunt with the hound, he said mentioning that supporting dictatorship on the one hand while preaching democracy on the other was counter-productive.