The Scourge of Religious Extremism

Ever since the creation of the state of Pakistan, this country has been more of a theological state, publicly more than officially. Sectarian violence, religious politics and extremism hatched by the religious schools known as madrasses and ignited by the clergy has been the cornerstones of Pakistani society. However, since the turn of the new millennium, religious extremism, fanaticism and terrorism has reached at it's culmination.

Historically, the main perpetrator of sectarian violence and religious extremism in Pakistan has been General Zia-ul-Haq. In the name of Islam, liberation fighters were invited from all over the Muslim world to fight against the evil empire of communist Russia in Afganistan. The result of this holy proxy-war was the drugs and gun culture that broke out all over Pakistan like a volcanic eruption. The overwhelming flood of the Afghan refugees caused further managerial and social mayhem. Further experimentation of islamization by the general added insult to injury in a long run and the vermin that attacked the nation drug that era resulted in consuming cancer that severely damaged the social and political stability of entire nation. The roots of religious extremism have since then only flourished.

The primary reasons of this chaos and confusion are illiteracy, poverty and extremely irresponsible attitude by the religious authorities and clergy. Besides, education has never been among crest priorities of authorities.

Illiteracy is, perhaps, the biggest cause and the root problem. An illiterate person is far easy to manipulate than a poor but literate man. Lack of education causes the intellectual and cogitative horizons of a person to shrink to the extend that he ceases to have any opinion of his own. His mind can be washed and attitude moulded in any direction. That's exactly the phenomenon that takes place in the religious schools known as madrassas. Students who come to these madrasses belong to extremely poor families and have practically no education at all. In fact, many of them are brought there in the very early years of their lives. They live their throughout the formative and productive years of their lives under the patronage of the clergy-men who themselves have passed through the same vicious phase of existence.

Rather than absorbing the actual essence of religious philosophy and theological sciences, these unfortunate and ignorant children are made rote-learn the Qur'aanic verse without slightest understanding. The empty slates of their brains are impregnate with manipulated history and distorted interpretations and strictly rigidly literal teachings that narrows down their thinking and induces in them intolerance towards opposing views. Their understanding is constructed by the spiritual teachers, their though process is formed by the sermons of hatred and violence and that's how they themselves are treated in these schools. To them, any person who possesses beyond the very basic necessities of life is committing sacrilege, anyone who studies in co-educational institutions should be condemned and anyone who refuses to follow their interpretation of religion is straightaway struck off the books of religion. He's an apostate and the punishment of an apostate is execution!

Studying only religious scriptures practically makes them grossly unfit to exist in a modern materialist society, which ensues grudge against the society. The best most of them can do is to teach Qur'aan to the children and live from hand to mouth. This results in frustration and unconscious hatred against the social class structure, especially against those living with high-standards. Distancing them from scientific knowledge and one step ahead, instilling emotions of hatred against the scientific inventions and discoveries paralyzes their creative spirit. On the whole, the graduates of these schools prove to utter burden on society.

Although Pakistanis have never enjoyed a completely peaceful and prosperous era, today this nation stands severely bruised and humiliated by the scourge of religious extremism. Recent fiasco in Swat and the resulting awakening of the common masses against the spectre of fanaticism are signs of the surfacing frustration and anger the society feels against those who misrepresent and defame the religious identity of this nation. However, with the proper and sincere projection of the authorities, the nightmare of extremism would keep haunting the future generations.