Jihad culture runs deep in Pakistan: Farhan Bokhari

Jihad culture runs deep in Pakistan
By Farhan Bokhari
Published: July 27 2005 03:00 | Last updated: July 27 2005 03:00

"The most supreme jihad [holy war] is offering one's life for sacrifice - the reward for which is eternal life for a martyr."

This line comes neither from a firebrand Islamic preacher armed with anti-western vitriol, nor from a sermon in a predominantly Muslim country where the Taliban brand of Islam influences many.

Instead, it comes from a school textbook, used for teaching Pakistan studies (history, culture and politics) to 15-year-old children.

Fifty thousand copies of its latest edition, titled "Pakistan Studies for Class 10", were printed in April - more than three years after General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's military ruler, turned his back on Afghanistan's Taliban regime and promised to root out militancy in his country.

The textbook is one of many examples cited by those who see a gap between official promises and reality.

Across small towns and poorer neighbourhoods in larger cities it is not uncommon to see wall slogans urging Muslims to resist infidel westerners, or stickers at book shops highlighting the importance of jihad.

Such symbols become even more frequent in the north-western frontier and Baluchistan - the provinces bordering Afghanistan, ruled by Islamic clerics belonging to the coalition of six Islamist groups known as the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal.

"This is shocking. Before reading this book, I hadn't realised we continue to ignore militant influence, although we say we are trying to remove them from our society," says Hasan Askari Rizvi, a commentator on security and national affairs, who has recently reviewed textbooks for militancy-related content.

"There can be no greater contradiction between Gen Musharraf professing to be a liberal leader and some of the realities of our society."

Three of the four suspected British suicide bombers who died in the July 7 attacks in London were of Pakistani origin.

At least one is said to have visited a madrassah, or Islamic school, in Pakistan in the past year.

Last week, Gen Musharraf ordered all madrassah - there are an estimated 13,000 - to put themselves up for official inspection by the end of this year and warned banned militant groups against emerging under new identities. But analysts such as Mr Rizvi are sceptical over promises of a crackdown.

"This is not the first time these warnings were delivered," says Mr Rizvi. "We have seen the same promises from the same leader before. You have to ask if such a clean-up is immediately possible when it is so widespread."

The answer to that question lies partly in Pakistan's history. In the 25 years since troops from the former Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, Pakistan's powerful military, which returned to power in 1999 under Gen Musharraf, has encouraged the promotion of the concept of jihad in two ways.

First, the US-backed resistance of Afghanistan's mujahideen fighters in the 1980s relied on Pakistan as a conduit for the supply of arms. During that period, the Afghan resistance was organised by Pakistani and US intelligence officials under the banner of jihad, essentially to give a common objective to ethnically diverse groups.

In addition, Pakistan encouraged the use of a similar concept in supporting Muslim insurgents in Indian-administered Kashmir and only backed away once a new peace process began in January 2004.

Second, the politically powerful military has used the concept of jihad to motivate its troops facing much larger foes, such as India.

"The question for the Pakistani military is, really, are they ready to give up a position and a belief which they have nurtured for so long?" says Brigadier [retired] Shaukat Qadir, an Islamabad-based analyst on military and security affairs.

Others, however, warn Gen Musharraf must retreat from his opposition to Pakistan's mainstream and relatively liberal political parties - the Pakistan People's party of Benazir Bhutto and the Pakistan Muslim League of Nawaz Sharif. The two former prime ministers live in exile, which Gen Musharraf refuses to end.