Zulqarnain Sewag is an Urdu poet, freelance journalist and researcher in
public policy. He can be reached at
zulqarnainsewag@gmail.com
Fundamentalism is the mother of extremism. Those nations which stick
to superstitious dogmatism and lifeless traditionalism either destroy or
can’t saunter in pace with the contemporary world of science,
technology, innovations and discoveries. The whole of South Asia is
fussed with this muck and is beset with numerous intrastate and
interstate conflicts.
At this juncture, in South Asia, three major
chunks of overall population, the Hindus, the Muslims and the Buddhists
are fuelling violent extremism. Unfortunately, all these segments link
extremism with religion. What does it mean? Do religions promote
extremism or do their followers who use respective religion for personal
ambitions or is it illiteracy or is extremism fused through external
forces?
Every religion breeds extremism. Moderate forces in all
religions are weak. Hinduism has internal motivation of extremism,
Buddhism motivates from Hinduism and the Muslims on one hand are drummed
in their history and on the other hand are playing in the hands of both
the capitalist US and other Western countries and communist Russia. For
the US and the West, if a persona non grata is elected as a member of
an assembly, s/he remains no more persona non grata. The ostracised
Narendra Singh Modi is its prime example. The invasions of the Indus
valley by Aryans, Muslims and Britishers spurred extremism and damaged
peaceful co-existence in the whole sub-continent which is still existent
and has become protracted.
A Hindu extremist cult leader, Bhagwan
Shree Rajneesh, who was later known as Osho was the one which first
used a dangerous bacteria named salmonella as a biological weapon in a
political rally, a grocery store and a public building which affected
around 700 people while living on a ranch in Oregon, USA in 1984. His
men also tried to strike government by flying a bomb-laden plane as a
weapon in the town of The Dalles much before the tactic was used by
Muslim extremists al-Qaida. All this was done to build a worldwide
commune.
Presently in India, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is
the notorious extremist organization which has around 4.5 million
members, 20000 religious schools, 2.5 million students and 45000
charitable organizations. The political wing of RSS is Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP), which has ruled the country once under Atal Bihari Vajpayee
and now ruling under Narendra Singh Modi, the architect of the Gujarat
massacre. Shiv Sena is the terrorist wing of the RSS. Dozens of
prominent Indian scientists, writers and filmmakers have returned their
prestigious awards to the government against the growing climate of
intolerance, institutionalization of rigid religious mindset and
curtailment of freedom of speech.
It is also working against all
the foreigners and people of all sects other than fundamentalist Hindus.
The saffron extremism is spreading out of its borders as India has put
an embargo on Nepal for her declaring her country as a secular state in
August 2015. It has also strained the societies in Sri Lanka, Bhutan and
Myanmar. LTTE, a terrorist organization in Sri Lanka was also bred in
India. If this mounting transnational extremism is not barred, it will
give rise to the global war on terror and violent extremism.
The
Buddhist monks are honking in Myanmar against the Rohingya Muslims. The
Rohingyas are persecuted, denied citizenship, forced to bondage labour
in government projects and are prohibited to marry without prior
government permission. The Citizen Act, 1982 of the country does not
recognize 1.5 million Rohingyas as inhabitants. They are even outlawed
to attend a government high school. Thousands have been killed. This
Buddhist violent extremism is impinging on the Budhist community living
in the neighbouring countries. The 969 movement is led to contain Muslim
expansionism in the country.
In Sri Lanka, after the LTTE, Bodu
Bala Sena (BSS), a Buddhist nationalist organization was formed in 2012.
BSS has attacked the Bangladesh High Commission and English Media
Channels like BBC in 2013. The attacks were on Muslims, homes, shops,
factories, mosques and a nursery as well a Centre for Society and
Religion in Colombo in 2014. Jathika Hela Urumaya, or the National
Heritage Party founded in 2004 is the political wing of BSS and is led
by Buddhist monks. Mahindra Rajapaksa, former president of the country,
is reportedly going to use it to get another chance to rule but in the
long run if it happens, it will prove to be very destructive.
Afghanistan
is the epicentre of all international evils and games due to its
location, backwardness, guerrilla warfare, divided tribalism,
multi-ethnic composition, and as an axle among the surrounding energy
resource countries. It has always been an easy prey to enter and a
strong wish to safely go back. Once upon a time, it played a role as a
buffer state between the warriors of the Great Game, Britain and Russia,
and now it is facilitating the imposition of the New Great Game from
the 1970’s by the pilots of Capitalism and Communism.
After tribal
fighters, it has produced the Taliban, nurtured al-Qaida and now
accommodating hired killers, Indian agents and ISIS. Peace in South Asia
is based on peace in Afghanistan but as there are negligible chances
of peace in it, South Asia will remain wounded and aching. Indian and
Pakistani factors are also as dangerous for regional peace as forces
playing in Afghanistan.
Pakistan is the victim of incompetent
political leadership, inflated military and mosque mongers. Minorities
are marginalized. Poverty, corruption and illiteracy are rampant. The
appeasing policies of the different governments, law enforcement
agencies (LEAs), military and para-military forces toward extremists,
hardliners, potential terrorists, non-state actors, unbounded mosques
and seminaries and religious organizations have put the country on the
verge of an outrageous and precarious predicament. The image of the
country in the world is tarnished. Globally,other nations are not ready
to accept Pakistanis happily, and every country is suspicious of them.
Though
the country has banned a large number of peace disruptive organizations
many are either implicitly or explicitly functioning under the nose of
the LEAs. After the brutal mass execution of children in the Army Public
School in Peshawar, a National Action Plan was devised but it has
failed to generate due results due to incompetency, partiality and pick
and choose policies of both the military and the incumbent government.
If peace in the country is not restored, if the marginalized segments of
the society are not protected, if the partiality is not addressed, then
the country will undergo more violence and will also keep on exporting
violent extremism beyond its borders.
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