Among the Allies
Page 5 of 5
|
|
THE MAN BEHIND the post-9/11 attempts to reform madrasas was Moinuddin Haider, a former army commander who was appointed minister of interior by Musharraf in 1999 and remained until 2002; in 2001, in what was believed to be retaliation for Haider's efforts to curb radicalism, his brother was assassinated. I met him in his home in the posh Defense Housing Authority section of Karachi. "We had religious extremism because of the Soviet invasion," he said. "Jihad movements were also a legacy of the Afghan war. Our western border with Afghanistan had lost its sanctity. We had 3.5 million Afghan refugees, and they had people amongst them who believed in jihad and liberating Afghanistan with American patronage and training. Some Pakistani madrasas followed suit. These are very visible consequences of the Soviet invasion and the American proxy war.
"With hindsight," he added, "we went too far and we failed to foresee the effects of this policy. The Pakistani internal scene was severely disturbed. Those from the Afghan war looked for new fields for adventure." Now, Haider said, the Pakistani government was seeking to re-create Pakistan as a moderate country and "to cut down armies of holy warriors. We have tried to de-weaponize society—we banned many groups." During his own tenure, he had sought to register the madrasas, giving them forms with questions such as who funded them and what school of Islam they taught. But even that provoked an angry response, he said, and the initiative was never implemented.
"Musharraf is pursuing a strong policy against religious extremists to make Pakistan a civilized state," Haider said. "He is sincere in controlling religious extremism in Pakistan." More than 300 members of Pakistan's security forces had lost their lives pursuing members of Al Qaeda and the Taliban, he noted, and Pakistan had apprehended hundreds of wanted extremists. He complained that "the world is not concerned with sectarian killings, which is our largest problem. They are only concerned with what threatens them."
Perhaps the only person I met in Pakistan who didn't seem afraid of either the extremists or the "agencies" was Ardeshir Cowasjee. A former shipping operator whose fleet of five had been nationalized by the Pakistani government, he was a member of the tiny Zoroastrian sect that still survives on the subcontinent. In his 80s, he had become an acerbic commentator on Pakistani culture and politics, appearing on television and writing for the newspaper Dawn. I had seen him on television confronting a politician whose party had threatened to kill him, cut him into small pieces, and throw them into the Lyari River. Cowasjee called him "garbage," much to the delight of Pakistani viewers.
I met him in his home, where he kept a rare collection of works by Dali, Picasso, Manet, and Rodin. He too lamented the dominance of religion in Pakistani life. "Islam was not on Jinnah's program," he told me. "Jinnah categorically stated that religion is not the business of the state and in no way will this country be ruled by priests with a divine vision. You can't be more clear than this." But, he said, "it is extremely difficult to fight ignorance, and the majority of the people are ignorant or bigoted. It is difficult to fight beliefs." Cowasjee recounted a favorite story of his, about a visit by Singapore's leader Lee Kuan Yew to Pakistan. Lee was asked if he had any advice for Pakistan's dealings with extremists. "It is very difficult," he had been quoted as saying. "These people believe in the afterlife."
Cowasjee did not expect Musharraf to succeed. "Whatever Musharraf does now, it will be coming down," he said. "But he's at the top, and he would like to stay there as long as possible." I asked what he expected to happen to Pakistan. "You cannot fight ignorance," he said. "This country is important for what? Its nuisance value?" So what did he foresee? I pressed. "Doom," he smiled.
Nir Rosen began his journalism career in April 2003 in Iraq, where he spent a total of 16 months. In addition to his recent trip to Pakistan, he has also reported from Afghanistan, the Middle East, and Africa for publications such as The New Yorker, the Atlantic Monthly, Harper's Magazine, and Time. His book on Iraq, In the Belly of the Green Bird: the Triumph of Martyr's in Iraq, will be published this February. He currently lives in Turkey.
