Prescription against Partition: injections of theocracy to immunise the country from more 1971-itis. Taking this medicine took Pakistan’s already fragile psyche into a spooky space. Namely, “the dilemma of choosing between rival interpretations of the dominant religion…and deciding which receive state support”. Through the 1970s and 1980s a succession of Pakistani leaders began making the country overtly Sunni. As Shaikh stresses, “the idea of making Pakistan an Islamic state began with the politicians not the ulama”.
Another trauma, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and its consequences, brought the mullahs to the fore. Elite groups like the military who tried to use these radical clerics for their own purposes fell sway to the latter’s stronger vision. Military officers began to talk of jihad rather than war.
In the old school, fighting for Kashmir was about reclaiming lost land or strategic depth. In the new school, it was about liberating a “sacred space”. Shaikh wrote the book before the anti-Taliban offensive by the Pakistani military, so it’s unclear if she feels if the old school nationalist worm has turned. But her book provides no map of how a country that has drifted so far from the goal of liberal, inclusive nationhood can find its way back. She dismisses those who see hope in personalities.
http://newageislam.com/making-sense-of-pakistan--the-sick-man-of-asia/books-and-documents/d/1819
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5:09 AM
Moderate Islamist here
