There is a myth that speaks about the Muslim supremacy. It
talks of the ancient Khurasan that will be the cradle for the theater of war
and will cinch for Muslims a complete supremacy in the war over infidels. The
ancient Khurasan includes modern day parts of Iran, Afghanistan, the Central
Asian republics and some areas that are now part of Pakistan. The global jihadi
interprets the myth according to his thinking and to suit his own end.
According to the thought process of the global jihadi once
the war is won in the Khurasan theater, he plans a march to the Middle East,
from where he believes al-Mahdi to rise and join hands with them to then wage
war and liberate Palestine. Hence, the global jihadi spurned the thought of
starting the movement from anywhere else but from Khurasan.
Global jihadists have always been hostile to regimes. Early
Islamist revolutionaries in Egypt were virtually always anti-American. Algerian
jihadists in the 1990s were as hostile to the French. Ayman al-Zawahiri spent
thirty years fighting the Egyptian regime before merging his organization with
al-Qaeda. Interwined is the history of Afghanistan having driven out the
British, the Russians and now; the Americans. The modern jihadi draws a
parallel between the events of 1842 and the present scenario in Afghanistan.
So, anything to do with and perceived as western values was also spurned, their education, their medication, their organizational assistance (WHO, UNICEF). Health workers administering polio drops have been repeatedly attacked and killed in Pakistan. Assistance programs have repeatedly been suspended and restarted. Allies of the west were targeted, decried as heretics for standing by them.
Fatwas were issued against them- people joined
the ranks of the global jihad, individuals as well as organizations. It draws
support from all kinds of people, educated as well as uneducated and
semi-educated. Their local objectives are usually supported so long the overall
objective does not suffer. Drone attacks made indoctrination of jihadi
philosophy easier. It justified acts of terrorism. The bomb blasts. The suicide
bombers. The kidnappings. Fueling sectarianism. Ends justified the means. The
Internet revolution in the 2000s has greatly helped in the production and
distribution of jihadi propaganda. The state machinery in absence of a workable
anti-terrorism strategy has inadvertently facilitated the non-state actors in
spreading the act of terrorism and leaving death and fear in its wake.
The global jihadi is largely believed to have turned against
Pakistan and her army after the Lal Masjid incident. Lal Masjid was aimed to
use the existing Islamic seminaries to rise against the west on the war on
terror. Negotiations between the government officials and Maulana Abdul Aziz had
to fail in light of this aim. Neither did the effort of reasoning by Mufti Taqi
Usmani, a known Islamic scholar and Maulana's spiritual guide, who especially
flew in from Karachi to reason with the Maulana bore fruit.
Peace talks are used by the global jihadi mostly to buy time
to regroup. This again makes logical sense in light of the overall philosophy
followed. Hence it is not surprising that Ehsanullah Ehsan was sacked as
spokesperson of TTP on charges of making comments that raise a danger of divisions
between the TTP and its Afghan counterpart. This global philosophy may well be
the reason why Doha parleys were a non-starter. As to why the global jihadi
agreed to the idea may well be to give a false feeling of progressing on the
issue to those it opposes-playing for time. The cord was snapped early owing to
the death of TTP deputy commander Waliur Rehman in a drone strike. This was
followed with the Doha flag row.
In a new development recently, the Pakistani Taliban has set
up camps in Syria ad joined the rebels in the war against President Bashar
al-Assad. Later the Pakistan Taliban denied having sent anyone officially over.
This was confirmed by UN as well. A Taliban official told the BBC upon visiting
Syria that the base was set up with the assistance of ex-Afghan fighters of
Middle Eastern origin who had moved to Syria in recent years. The sectarian
card is being played here, taking the high moral ground that Sunni Muslims, who
constitute a majority in Syria, are being oppressed by Syria's predominantly
Shia rulers, although UN has investigated and found the allegation of Syrian rebels leveled at
the government having used chemical weapons that killed many is baseless.
Rather, it is the rebels who have used them.
The Al-Qaeda political philosophy is radical Islamism - the
doctrine that governments must be forced to conform to Islamic law as they
conceive it to be. It may support Islamist groups and draw support from them
but through sustained, focused and objective related materials imbibes them with
their philosophy, swelling is ranks and broadening its own base all the time.
This linking- up joins the groups in a bond known as "blood brothers.' Is this
a reaction to the current Tenth Crusade as promoted by some researchers?
The fact remains, any interpretation by the Global Jihadi
that justifies innocent killing of innocent people, of posing hurdles in the
way of education, of treating women as cattle, cannot be justified by any law
or religion. Such an approach can only be deemed to be misguided.
In the current scenario after nearly 11 years of war led by
the American invasion in Afghanistan, Afghan security forces will just not be
prepared enough to fight the Afghan Taliban once US exits. Intelligence
gathering and logistics need support. This is a soft area and on the eve of
American troops withdrawing its combat forces from Afghanistan, may well result
in the country descending into civil war. US are also seriously considering a
complete withdrawal in 2014.This however may also be a warning to Karzai to
support US led peace efforts. Pakistan is already facing continuing and
on-going terrorism within its borders and is completely ill-equipped to handle
a further spill-over of the same. There is an absence of a realistically
workable anti-terrorism policy. A bird's eye view of issues involved must be
identified first to make any such policy work.
The
writer is a lawyer, academic and political analyst. She has authored a book, "A
Comparative Analysis of Media and Media Laws in Pakistan.' Twitter handle: @yasmeen_9