While much of the reporting on the rise of the Islamists in Pakistan focuses on Pakistan’s tribal areas and the spread of the Taliban into the northwest, the problems within Pakistan run far deeper than that. Over the years, the spread of radicalism has extended far beyond the tribal areas, into the more ‘civilized’ provinces of Sindh and Punjab. Mohammed Hanif, a Pakistani ex-patriot and author, returned to Pakistan and described how the seeds of extremism have been planted in Pakistani society. Hard-line and radical clerics, along with naked opportunists, have taken to the airwaves to evangelize, Hanif says:
Not only do they crop up on every discussion on every topic on earth but now they have their own TV channels as well, where they can preach 24/7, interrupted only by adverts for other mullahs. The mosque imam, who served an essential social function, has given way to another kind of mullah: the power mullah, who drives in a four-wheeler flanked by armed guards; the entertainer mullah, who hogs the airwaves; and the entrepreneur mullah, who builds networks of mosques and madrassas and spends his summer touring Europe. And then there is the much maligned mullah with his dreams of an eternal war and world domination. Since “mullah,” when pronounced in a certain way, can be read as a derogatory term, and since we don’t want to offend them (because we all know that they do get very easily offended) we should call them evangelists or preachers. Mullahs, maulvis, imamas, or ulema-i-karam as many of them prefer to call themselves, have never had the kind of influence or social standing that they enjoy now. A large part of Pakistan is enthralled by this new generation of evangelists. They are there on prime time TV, they thunder on FM radios between adverts for Pepsi and hair removing cream. In the past few years, they have established fancy websites with embedded videos; mobile phone companies offer their sermons for download right to your telephone. They come suited, they come dressed like characters out of the Thousand and One Nights, they are men and they are women. Some of them even dress like bankers and talk like property agents offering bargain deals in heaven.
Hanif notes that Pakistan’s “aspiring middle classes” and the upper classes have been seduced by the mullah’s siren song, which has “has changed our social landscape beyond recognition.” Hanif also notes that the opportunist and charlatan preachers pave the way for a more radical breed to fill in behind, and that Pakistani society has ignored this threat.
“In Karachi, there are frequent warnings that the Taliban are headed this way. There are posters warning us about Talibanisation. Altaf Hussain thunders about them at every single opportunity. But nobody seems to warn us about the preachers who are already here: the ones wagging their fingers on TV always tend to precede the ones waving their guns, smashing those TVs and bombing poor barbers.”
Pakistan is the greatest problem we face moving forward, with the possible exception of a nuclear Iran. In Pakistan, the Taliban and allied extremist are growing stronger militarily. The civilian government is fractured and exercises little control over the military and the intelligence service, many of who sympathize or support the terror groups. And as Hanif notes, the Pakistani people have become more pliant to the message of extremists.
