4. THE PROBLEMS
RELEGIOUS EXTREMISM IN PAKISTAN
• DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEMS
• A usually religious movement or point of view characterized by a return to fundamental
principles, by rigid adherence to those principles, and often by intolerance of other views
and opposition to secularism.
More formally, it is the act of taking an extreme view regarding a specific religion.
• In Holy Quran: “And hold fast all together by the rope of Allah, and be not divided
among themselves.”
• The Holy Prophet (PBUH) said: “Beware of extremism in religion, for extremism
destroyed those who went before you.”
5. Background
• Religious extremism begun when some Muslims started to follow Imam-e-Aazam
Hazrat Imam Abu Hanifa (R.A) and others to Hazrat Imam Shaafi (R.A).
They teach people according to Holy Quran but with different way of teaching.
They had same subject but people followed them as two different leaders.
6. Reasons
• There is no difference between religion and culture in present.
• We demand basic education for Engineers & Doctors but unfortunately, there is no basic
education for Relegious scholars.
• Some people have no clear difference between “Farz” and “Sunnah”.
• In some areas, children are send to Madrasa where they can be easily brain-washed.
• Terrorist acts across the country, improper security situation and faulty political system.
• Lack of law enforcement also leads to religious extremism.
7. External factors
• Drones/ presence of NATO “Ethnic cleansing policy” against Muslim states
(Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine etc.) causes frustration and revolt in the
masses.
• No step is taken by authorities when foreign countries violate the laws. Example:
Afia Siddiqi case, Raymond Davis case etc.
• Allowing domestic interference of USA is also one of the many reasons of
religious extremism in Pakistan.
8. External factors
• Back in 1979, million of Jihadis were trained in Pakistan to achieve US interests
of containing Soviet Union in Afghanistan. These Mujahedeen were tagged as
“terrorists” soon after the 9/11 incident. They felt used and deprived of their rights
and showed their reaction in the form of extremism.
9. Consequence of the problem
• Religious extremism threatens the faith and life of other people. It does not allow
them to practice their religious rituals freely & openly.
• It threatens and harms the peace and internal security of the country/nation.
• Religious extremism results in clashes between social groups and religious sectors
causing domestic war.
• It weakens national solidarity and allow other countries to invade.
• It gives rise to terrorism and people miss understand the difference between Jihad
and terrorism.
10. Solutions
• Educating the society about the contents of the Qurán and Sunnah of Prophet
without any furnishing or censoring, and reforming the actions to match the
Qurán and Sunnah.
• Increasing the awareness of the principles of moderation in Islam.
• Scholars who lecturer in the Mosques should give their lecturers addressing
these issues.
• There should be basic education for becoming religious scholar.
• Government should take measureable steps to stop religious extremism,
hanged up Extremists.
11. Solutions
• Teaching and practicing religion within family from childhood.
• Youth must be provided with facilities to engage themselves in something constructive
during the free time.
• Radio and TV stations can play a prominent role in overcoming extremism by airing
program about these issues
• Increasing religious publications in newspapers to raise the awareness.
12. Best Solution
• I think the best solution of this type of extremism is that the government should take
the serious measures to educate the population of the country, as religious extremism
has its base in the fact that Pakistan has a high rate of ignorance and illiteracy.
• It is easy to brain-wash a dull mind, but it is impossible to convince an educated
person about thing that has no rotational justification.
13. Conclusion
• My point of view is that religious extremism is basically a state in which a person goes far
beyond certain limits. The person or group of people hold rigid beliefs and are not ready
to bring any sort of change in it. They cannot even rationalize their rigidty and their point
of view. They belief that they are always right and other should adopt themselves
according to their belief like in case of terrorist.