Despite the current wave of informational media that the entire world is supplied with on a daily basis, we continue to face an epidemic of extremism in many regions of the world. The 2020 political election outrage caused by a horde of Trump supporters that stormed the White House due to their leader losing the election is just such an example. But what causes such infantile rioting? Are we not, as humans, rational creatures capable of intelligent thought and critical thinking? Or are we susceptible to something closer to our nature than intellect? To emotion and its influence?
“The opinions that are held with passion are always those for which no good ground exists; indeed, the passion is the measure of the holder’s lack of rational conviction. Opinions in politics and religion are almost always held passionately.” (Bertrand Russell, Skeptical Essays).
Passion and emotion persuade our rational thought to take a backseat as they run rampant and make us believe things that we otherwise, in our right state of mind, would never even give a second thought. That is quite exactly what happens when we step into the religio-political sphere. In Pakistan, we are experiencing a wave of both religious and political extremism in many levels. First, we shall take a look at the religious aspect of this issue. Pakistan has become somewhat of a storehouse for people with extremist religious views, whether they be the tenets of a certain sect within the religion or an Islamic revivalist group who threaten to reestablish the Islamic Shariah rule in the country by any means necessary, there is a growing increase in the amount of people that either ascribe to these ideologies or at least respect and refuse to condemn such ideas and beliefs.
“The aim has been to rally the public behind them by manipulating the sentimental attachment of Pakistanis with Islam. Concomitantly, due to overemphasis on establishing an Islamic state in the public arena, it becomes the central theme of the national discourse and narrative. Gradually, the theme started reflecting in the private arena and soon became a popular demand. Therefore, in order to assuage public sentiments, and to accommodate religious clerical groups and to create legitimacy for them, the ruling elite started reflecting the fulfilment of the demand and the course of it in national documents like the Objectives Resolution and different constitutions.” (Express Tribune, October 29th 2013).
This excerpt from another writing on the rise of extremism in Pakistan greatly encapsulates the reality of the situation, of how the powers that be utilize the religious leanings that we as a population have to influence our decision-making capabilities and rid us of all logical and rational thought. Of showing us the falsehoods masked as truth, the extreme fundamentalism viewed as just the natural course of things, the revival of a state where Islam and the government are one and the same as how things should be. It takes influence from Plato’s Allegory of the Cave wherein people are chained inside a cave, a flame is placed behind them which casts a shadow in front of them. The people cannot see behind them and realize what the reality is as the flame casts shadows on the walls with the person controlling the flame choosing to establish what the reality of those prisoners are, their reality is a controlled one, their truth a falsehood. In the allegory, Plato describes that if a prisoner was to be set free and he walked outside the cave and came to realize the actual truth, he would hasten to go back and tell of it to everyone still in the cave but they would not believe him and call him a liar.
It is just such a case of a biased, controlled reality in the religious sphere of Pakistan in the current day, people who are aware of the truth are termed as blasphemers and sentenced to death, people are afraid of seeking out the truth and if they do, they are afraid of openly confessing the truth lest they be subject to the same punishment to the people who were naïve enough to speak up in the past. Onwards to the political sphere, we see a similar situation in that part of the Pakistani environment. Especially in the current political situation with both the opposition and the administration, we see people mostly on the fringes of their political philosophies and ideologies. We see people seeing their leaders as messianic figures, particularly the leader of PTI: Imran Khan. The idea is that he is a beacon of light and hope, is the perfect Pakistani citizen who showcases and embodies the essence of the Pakistani individual’s needs and wants. And once this idea sets in, he becomes invincible. His followers become almost like cult members, wherein they are willing to lay down either their own lives or the lives of their loved ones or children in service to this figure. They begin to treat this political organization the same way as they do their religion. The political agenda becomes their scripture, the leader the messiah, and the party itself the church.
This is the current political situation in the country of Pakistan and it is increasingly moving towards an even more extreme fringe of this ideology and creating an echo chamber where the followers of a certain party will not only not care to listen to a certain opposing idea, but will also be ready to fight someone who holds a conflicting opinion or thinks that their leader isn’t exactly perfect. So, the underlying reason for this extremism is a lack of awareness and the loss of critical thinking from the minds of the masses through a systematic degeneration of the public sphere of knowledge and common sense.
“Without comprehending the nature of extremism in Pakistan and its dynamics, the formulation of a viable counter-extremist and counterterrorism policy is not possible” (Express Tribune, October 23rd 2013).
The writer is currently studying at International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI)
