The militancy business in Pakistan
Like never before, the children of this country are facing unprecedented challenges and an almost uncertain future. We cannot immunise them against polio. We allow them to die from hunger in spite of being an agricultural country. We put them on non-functioning ventilators and suffocate them to death. With terrorism now invading our homes, our children have become its latest target. Can we possibly erase from our memory the gruesome slaughter of our children on December 16, 2014? Nevertheless, have not we condemned our children to a dead life already by choosing not to invest enough on their education? Our children are in a mess and the irony is we are least perturbed by the situation.
The actions so far taken to kick start the 20-point National Action Plan (NAP) are nothing but surface cleaning, lacking the effort to get into the heart of the problem, i.e. the nexus between militancy and profiteering. Though parliament has struck the right chord by putting religion and militancy in the same basket, the follow-up on it lacks the required focus. Already the Ittehad-e-Tanzeemat-e-Madaris-e-Deenia (ITMD), an alliance of five wifaqs supervising thousands of seminaries all over the country, has rejected the government’s registration process that seeks data on teachers, students and the financial sources of madrassas (seminaries).
It is surprising that the organisation would refuse to answer these queries when it provided the same in 2005. Following the London bombing of July 7, 2005, the former president of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf ordered under pressure from the west, all the madrassas in Pakistan to register with the government under the Societies Registration (Second Amendment) Ordinance 2005. The ordinance made it mandatory for every madrassa to carry out an audit of its accounts and prepare an annual educational activity report. It also prohibited seminaries from promoting militancy, sectarianism and religious hatred. Like ever, even then, the ITMD resisted the regulations. The agreement came about only when, in a quid pro quo, the government granted education board status to all the Wifaq-ul-Madaris and accredited the academic certificate and degree of these wifaqs.
That the ITMD is refusing to abide by the government’s demand once again is a bit confusing to say the least. What is so objectionable? Looking into the similarities between the reforms proposed by the present government and Pervez Musharraf’s government, the task is just an extension of an old exercise. What new hitch has caused this latest tussle? Is the ITMD finding it difficult to get the kind of deal they managed from Musharraf? Is there a fear that the funding disclosures might lead to some ugly truth about seminaries taking funds to curtail the very militancy they create themselves? Could there be an exposure about militancy and extremism becoming a thriving business? Like good businessmen, do madrassa owners too not want their balance sheet to be outed without a ‘makeover’? Are they buying time? The madrassas are getting funds for two purposes: either to foment militancy or to curtail it. The Saudis and the Iranians spearhead the former. In the latter category fall the European Union and some Scandinavian countries that want to make Pakistan a humanitarian country, believing that terrorism in this country could unleash terror in their own territories as well. There are even many self-styled ‘secular’ clerics here, Deobandi preachers, who support the persecution of religious minorities while still managing hefty funding to promote peace-building initiatives, all in the name of religion.
Therefore it is not enough to hold religious authorities and organisations responsible for using Islam against the state of Pakistan. Unless this hypocrisy of our religious institutions vis-à-vis foreign funding is exposed, it will be difficult to cut off the power connections these organisations have managed to develop within the large swathes of Pakistan’s population. Nine years on and the answer to a simple question about Red Mosque’s funding and how it managed to build a small arsenal of weapons is still awaited.
What is most monstrous about this reality is that this poisonous money is feeding the little minds this country depends on for its future. There is not much difference between the 10 percent involved in gearing up militancy and the 90 percent preaching non-violence. Both are producing closed, iron-capped minds, trained to cultivate and nurture hatred against other religions and religious denominations within Islam. Are not guns and hatred sides of the same coin? Guns kill instantly while hatred lives on, rubbing salt on the same wound repeatedly. Both of them inflict pain, horror and grievance. The Shikarpur massacre flowed out of a pattern of hatred against the Shias. The hardcore NAP will not be enough to break this pattern or heal these wounds. According to a conservative estimate, 3.5 million children are at the disposal of these madrassas.
Let there be an awakening in the corridors of power that our children are dying one way or the other at the hands of our own divisive policies towards education. Just like madrassa funding needs continuous audit, so does their curriculum. What a disservice have we done by shying away from building the public education system. This long-term planning is as important as nipping the continuous flow of terrorism destroying our society. Like never before the children of this country are facing unprecedented challenges and an almost uncertain future.
Source:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/opinion/11-Feb-2015/the-militancy-business-in-pakistan