If Fundamentalism is “fading” then what are the 150,000 Allied Troops doing in Afghanistan?
Fundamentalism is not fading, fundamentalism is on the rise. What Harvey Cox terms as “inherently fractious”[1] nature of fundamentalism, is in reality a breeding ground for variety in fundamentalist interpretations of religion. This diversity, not only does not indicate towards a demise of fundamentalism, but on the contrary, suggests towards a pluralistic and spacious nature that can encompass many forms and therefore help sustain a multi-dimensional reproduction mechanism. Fundamentalism, the “seemingly unstoppable force” is not “being undone from the inside,” not as yet, unfortunately.
To think of decreased popular support for Taliban in Afghanistan is nothing but a wishful thinking. The realities of life in Afghanistan are a proof of this. After 9 years of continuous engagement of almost 150,000 allied troops and investment of billions of dollars, the side that seems to come out victorious is Taliban. The Afghan Government with the support of the entire international community cannot even secure the capital city of Kabul and is forced to restrict the celebrations of the Afghan Independence Day, the only national day that could help strengthen a sense of Afghan unity as a nation, to the premises of the Presidential Palace. A government can be rendered this week and incapable only when its people decide to stand behind the enemy. In case of Afghanistan and at least for now, the fundamentalist group of Taliban has people standing behind it, not the Afghan Government.
Ground realities beyond Afghanistan suggest the same with an even stronger tone. Pakistan’s Governor of Punjab Province, Salman Taseer was murdered on January 4, 2011. Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan’s Minister for Minorities and the only Christian Cabinet member was killed on March 2, 2011. The former was killed by his body guard, for no other reason but opposition to the Blasphemy Law, a statute under which people who insult Islam could be sentenced to death.[2] Guess why the latter was killed: for the very same reason, yet not by an angry body guard but by the “Taliban Al-Qaida Punjab.”[3] If one may argue that the body guard and the Punjab wing of Taliban Al-Qaida do not represent anything but a minority, then who are hundreds of people who came out to the streets and chanted slogans asking for the execution of Aasia Bibi? Can we brush them under the carpet and ignore them? Why do hundreds of people want the execution of a poor Christian laborer woman? What can a reaction this extreme for allegedly blasphemous words that she uttered for the Prophet Mohammad represent but fundamentalism? If her husband and five children are on the run for their lives for over a year, who are they running from, but from fundamentalist violence?
This is not a trend limited to Muslim societies only. The story of Ed Hussain depicts a picture of London, the capital of a European country as a city where fundamentalism in its worst form grew silently for years, cultivating its ideas in the minds of the owners of our future: the young generation. Is New York, California, or Virginia less a heaven for such fundamentalists? Not really. The fact that religion plays a central role in many 20th century civil wars is an indication of rise in violent fundamentalism.[4] It can also indicate that the number of people who believe in sacred text as the source of ultimate truth is a lot higher than the number of people who believe in what we might like to call a reformed Islam. Believers in a reformed version of Islam have been termed apostates and have been threatened for their lives time and again by no one but Muslims turned fundamentalists. Taslima Nasreen of Bangladesh is one such example. The days of exemplary tolerance exhibited by Prophet Mohammad are bygones now. What is becoming the trend of today is intolerance; the case of Aasiah Bibi to the threatening and full of violence statements of protestors against the Danish cartoons, all tell the same story. If the sacred text of Quran says that “there shall be no coercion in matters of faith” (Q2:256) then why is there so much coercion in matters of faith? And if this coercion is not fundamentalism, then what is it?
We are living in a fundamentalism blighted age. Religious extremism, political Islam and fundamentalist violence are yet to hit their peak, only after which a demise could be predicted, that too if our assumption that every rise will have a fall to follow it, is true. Harvey Cox rightly diagnosed the source of the undoing process: fundamentalism must be “undone from the inside.” For the accomplishment of this task is why we need Islamic scholars who preach moderate and Sufi Islam. For this very reason we must engage with the Islamic Ulema everywhere and in particular in conflict zones. And for this very purpose, we must make an effort towards understanding the role that religion plays in the socio-political debates. The answer to fundamentalism, Islamic extremism and terror and violence in the name of God and religion has to be sought within Islam and not without. If there has to be a Jihad, it has to be towards peace, as Dr. Tariq Ramadan rightly states in an interview with Trinity Institute in 2008. No doubt, the path to peace goes through Jihad. However, it is for the Muslims and Muslim scholars to redefine this path which shall not be directed against the world outside, but with oneself: a Jihad to self-salvation from the inner state of tension.
[1] Harvey Cox, “Why Fundamentalism will Fail: A seemingly unstoppable force is being undone from the inside”, Boston.com, November 8, 2009, http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/11/08/why_fundamentalism_will_fail/
[2] Asif Shahzad and Nahal Toosi, “Salman Taseer Pakistan Governor Killed”, The Huffington Post, January 4, 2011, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/04/salman-taseer-pakistan-go_n_804026.html
[3] Declan Walsh, “Pakistan’s Minister Shahbaz Bhatti Shot Dead in Islamabad”, The Guardian, March 2, 2011, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/02/pakistan-minister-shot-dead-islamabad
[4] Monica Duffy Toft, “Getting Religion? The Puzzling Case of Islam and Civil War” MIT Press Journal, Vol. 31, No. 4, 02 April 2007, p. 98, http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/isec.2007.31.4.97