Paigham-E-Pakistan – OpEd
Paigham-e-Pakistan has now been seen to be the biggest intellectual and ideological intervention to counter the terrorism within the modern Muslim world, which came in a time when Islamophobia is pre-emptively being propagated over the Islamic teachings and the Muslim communities of the world.
The dangerous myth about the so-called Islamic-based terrorism versus the extremist misrepresentation has resulted in prejudice throughout the world, ignorant rhetoric by the population, and the promotion of individuals determined to tarnish the faith as a political gimmick. This biased understanding has been directed towards Pakistan who have received a significant portion of the terrorism, yet they are one of the greatest victims of terrorism. Not only does such stereotypes turn a blind eye to the sheer sacrifices the country has made, but it is also the foundation of which the extremist groups attempt to exploit the sense of religious emotion and go about perpetuating the cycle of violence that ruins Muslim communities the world over.
It is over this scene that Paigham-e-Pakistan was a pioneer project, an official, state approved national fatwa where more than 1,800 of the most prominent thinkers of the various schools of thought of Islam in Pakistan were to sign. The decree is categorical and denounces terrorism, extremism, suicide attacks, vigilantism, and takfiris, and gives a detailed theological answer to militants who would have sought to justify the violence by selective or misread scripture. Its publication was a landmark in the national counterterrorism policy of Pakistan and an overall discourse in the world of the interrelationship of religion and violence. Paigham-e-Pakistan removes seminary justification of extremist discourses by providing a holistic, rational and scholarly use of the Islamic doctrines.
On the contrary, terrorist organizations such as FAK and ISKP continue to release fake fatwa’s that they have fabricated themselves to deceive masses and generate new recruits. Their contents are usually scholarship-free and propagate takfir and condone violence in Pakistan. Their circulations unveil an even greater reality: extremist formations are also knowledge-free, which are founded on the misinformation rather than religious knowledge. They are trying to emulate the religious authority, a fact that shows that they are frustrated with such a document being inclusive as much as it is being endorsed like Paigham-e-Pakistan. The fatwa as a national one, according to the mainstream Islamic jurisprudence, and with the sanction of the state and the constitution has managed to tower the heights of these fake fatwas. The doctrinal ambiguity and misinterpretation are not the only ways that the militants used to recruit followers; everything that allowed the extremist groups to recruit followers is greatly minimized by Paigham-e-Pakistan.
The Pakistan Army in its turn remains one of the primary targets of such organizations precisely because it is the most aggressive force to combat terrorism in the region. Swat and North Waziristan Swat military operations have left the area as a haven, command structure has been shaken, and the area of operation of groups like ISKP and FAK has been reduced in size to a fraction of its former amount. These missions have not only restored security in most of the parts of the country but also exposed how desperate militants have become more reliant on the propaganda instead of actions. The lack of response to the pressure of consistent counterterrorism is the reason of their physical and rhetoric assaults on the Pakistan Army. Once they have grown too small, they resort to misinformation campaigns to make themselves relevant again, but the campaigns are becoming increasingly ineffective in a society where religious clarity has been gained and there is a consensus on extremists.
This desperation is portrayed by the ISKP-related cases in the recent past combined with the new-fangled propaganda efforts by FAK. These groups cannot produce any sensible religious explanations of their acts and due to this fact, they repeat what has been said before, repackage old stories and abuse invented fatwas. In a sharp contrast, Paigham-e-Pakistan is increasingly getting stronger through incorporation in the mosques, universities and civil society institutions. The pure strength of the message it has spread through the mainstream religious discourse is that the theological basis of Islam is well established and determined to fight against terrorism. As internal ideological alignment of Pakistan increases, the extremist discourses get more marginalized and inefficient.
Paigham-e-Pakistan has also had an intellectual influence on transforming the world perception in terms of counterterrorism operation in Pakistan. It reveals that the battle against terrorism carried out by the country is not founded on the military operations of a kinetic type but on the moral clarity, agreement in academia, and social interaction. At the time when Islamophobia is gaining momentum everywhere in the world, the overall religious mood in Pakistan can be regarded as the influential example of other countries that are Muslim dominated and must encounter the radicalization issue. The document earns its credibility on the fact that it has brought unity to a level never seen before among the Sunni, Shia, Deobandi, Barelvi and Ahl-e-Hadith schools of thought. It is also a measure of how seriously the ideological component of counterterrorism is taken in Pakistan because this kind of consensus is not typical in the Muslim world. Combined statement of these scholars leaves no doubt on the fact that terrorism, vigilantism and the privatization of violence have absolutely nothing in common with the Islamic doctrine.
Such groups like FAK and ISKP do not face the greatest problem in military pressure but the isolation of ideologies. The school opinion has destroyed their histories, and the experiment of their knacks to deceive the youth has been restrained by the sense of the people. The further Pakistan sustains the ideological environment hostile to extremist recruitment, through the educational activity, community action and inter-faith dialogue, the more ideological landscape is changed into the Paigham-e-Pakistan drive. The fact that the militant groups rely on misinformation is testimony to their declining strength and a decrease in the support base. By forming an ideological fort against terrorism, Pakistan Paigham-e-Pakistan has reinforced the ideological aspect of the Pakistani front and given the world a clear message that the real Islamic teachings are not a weapon of violence, but a tool against it.
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