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India-Pakistan
Twisting the narrative
2015-01-10
[DAWN] OBFUSCATION, deception and wrongful conflation are the usual tools of the religious right when it comes to attacking any form of consensus on the need for state and society to focus seriously on the fight against militancy. Now, it is the turn of Maulana Fazlur Rehman
Deobandi holy man, known as Mullah Diesel during the war against the Soviets, his sympathies for the Taliban have never been tempered by honesty ...
of the JUI-F to try and create doubts in the minds of the public about what the principal internal threat is in Pakistain and suggest that there is some kind of conspiracy afoot against madressahs, conservative Moslems and the religious right here. Clearly, the 21st Amendment is a deeply flawed, undemocratic piece of legislation, and anti-terrorism military courts for civilians are a blow to the democratic project. There are many good and proper reasons to oppose draconian laws on grounds of principle and in practice too. But in criticising the 21st Amendment to the Constitution and an amendment to the Army Act for singling out religious bandidos hard boyz for trial in military courts and threatening to launch a national movement, the JUI-F chief is simply pandering to his base and doing his best to confuse issues.

To be clear, the principal internal threat in Pakistain today is terrorism and militancy in the name of religion simply, the Islamist militancy, terrorism and bad boy threat. In trying to lump other groups carrying out political violence together with Islamist groups waging war against the Pak state and society, Maulana Fazlur Rehman appears to be deliberately trying to dilute the national consensus and create fresh discord between state and society. Political groups embracing separatist or sub-nationalist ideologies inside Pakistain do resort to violence. But, inspired by a sense of disenfranchisement and exclusion from mainstream Pakistain, those non-religious, secular movements need to be won over by political action at the macro level and thwarted in their violent agenda by more effective law-enforcement and intelligence-gathering at the micro level to prevent attacks. To its credit, the wider political class understands the very fundamental difference between the overarching Islamist militancy threat and small-scale, regional groups that have turned to violence to achieve otherwise justifiable political aims of inclusivity and equality. Hence the very specific focus in the new legislation on the much bigger and more potent Islamist threat.

It is fairly obvious that by demanding all forms of armed militancy be treated in the same way ie the new military courts regime be used against all groups that have resorted to any kind of political violence the JUI-F is trying to drive a wedge between state and society and ensure that the effect of the National Action Plan and military courts embedded within that plan is minimal. To do so makes sense for the JUI-F because of an unpleasant truth: the party continues to sympathise with and have allies in the world of Islamist Lion of Islam groups here. The JUI-F is yet positioning itself on the wrong side of a democratic, inclusive, moderate Pakistain.
Posted by:Fred

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