Source: The Express Tribune
Most global jihadis are not illiterates raised in poor slums, but from well-off families and with advanced education degrees.
“Most of the danger comes from us,” said Majid Nawaz, founder of Khudi, at a seminar titled ‘Muslims and the Modern World The State of the Muslim Ummah’. Young people being educated at “elite” schools and colleges were joining the extremists, he said.
“Terrorists are not just from slums – statistically, a disproportionate number of global jihadis come from a higher education background,” said Nawaz, who was formerly a member of the Hizbut Tahrir (HT). He quit the group to found Khudi, which works to counter extremism.
Nawaz said there was a difference between the political and the religious definitions of the word ‘ummah’. He said there was no contradiction between being a Pakistani and being a Muslim. Pakistanis could carry multiple identities, he said, owing to religious or social affiliations. “People themselves organically determine who they are, as a group or a nation,” he said.
He said it was “politically naive” to demand the implementation of the Sharia, the main aim of the HT. He said that when imposing Sharia, a society chooses a particular interpretation of Islam and closes the door on ijtehad. “Islam must be kept free of political interference,” he said.
He called for a comprehensive national strategy to counter extremism. All political and religious factions should agree on “basic social principles”, he said.
He said that the National Counter Terrorism Authority needed to be activated. He said that the government had not even started the “de-radicalisation of society”.
Categories: Asia, Pakistan, Sharia, Uncategorized
It is unfortunate and sad that elite class of people with power and authority use jihadi organisations for their ulterior motives to prolong their rule. It is known that all political parties save a few in Pakistan have their militant jihadi wings or connected to a jihadi Mullah organisation funded and used by them to create disorder and chaos: like attack on Sri Lankan cricket team, attack on Ahmadi Mosques, Lal Masjid Jihadi armed students, murder of Governer Taseer and Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti. Lashkare Jangvi, Sunni Tehrik, Tehreeke Namoose Risalat, Majlise Tahaffuze Khatme Nabuwwat, TTP, JUI, JT, JD and many others with different names are all jihadi groups established by or have links with people in authority. That is why there is respect of rule of law in Pakistan. Judges are afraid to sentence a jihadi man and woman becausd of threats to them and their children of kidnapping and killing. Police Commissioners in Faisalabad recently expressed their disappointment that any time they arrest a jihadi ciminal courts release him. They and their families are afraid from mullah led jihadi groups suggesting Ahmadis to arrange their own securities as the Police is helpless. Shame shame Pakistanis are burning theirr home ‘country’ with their own liters.