What is religious extremism’s definition?
What compels a mob to burn someone to death? What explains such amplified levels of anger that an accusation against some person from a marginalized group leads to a lynching?
What is religious extremism’s definition? What reasoning dictates why groups of people — including state functionaries — engage in the violent policing of a minority group, arresting its members and taking away their sacrificial animals from the private confines of their homes?
All three incidents took place recently. Last week, a man was burnt to death in Swat over the alleged desecration of a holy text. In May, a 72-year-old Christian man was lynched in Sargodha on a blasphemy-related accusation. And during Eid, several Ahmadis across Punjab — the number reportedly as high as 36 — were detained by the police on accusations of practicing ‘Muslim rituals’ leveled by Barelvi extremist activists.
The Drivers of Religious Extremism
Much ink has been spilled trying to understand religious extremism and its outcomes, both in Pakistan and abroad. Existing research points out two sets of factors here — the societal organisation and drivers of extremism; and the role of the state.
Societal Organisation and Indoctrination
On societal organization, it is well documented that such indoctrination is carried out by clerics, not just through in-person contact in sermons and in madrassahs, but also through highly localized WhatsApp and Facebook groups, as well as content on TikTok. They do it because they believe in it and because it sustains their social status within communities. People pay them respect, provide them with gifts, and turn to them for advice and dispute resolution.
The Role of Passive Supporters
There is a wider segment of people in every community who think the objectives of zealots are worthy. Perhaps they have not yet been socialized to such a great degree that they take matters into their own hands. However, they frequently appreciate those who do. These people are the ones who will stand on the side while someone is burnt, lynched, or attacked. Their passive support helps sustain this enterprise of violence.
Broadly speaking, this is the organization of violent religious extremism at the community level. Every case of violence will reveal actors of these three types — the ideologue, the activist, and the passive supporter.
The Persistence of Extremist Ideologues
Let’s assume that ideologues exist everywhere. Extremist preachers who try to outdo each other by being more extreme are a reality in every society. It is less useful trying to understand why they exist. As long as beliefs and ideologies exist, violent interpretations will likely persist.
Socio-Economic Conditions and Extremism
But what explains the level of support for their messaging? Here, research often turns to existing social and economic conditions. One popular interpretation is that poverty, material distress, and other forms of economic anxiety push people towards extremism.
Class Character of Religious Extremism
In Pakistan, religious extremism seems to have an implicit class character. TLP’s street cadres, for example, are overwhelmingly young men from working-class backgrounds, many of whom are un/underemployed. Associating with a movement likely adds purpose to a listless existence. Sometimes it goes as far as to become a source of power, prestige, and status mobility in a supremely unequal society.
Support from Middle-Class Groups
Class politics, however, is not just a preserve of the poor. Relatively better-off traders, merchants, contractors, etc., also offer support (financial and otherwise) for fundamentalist ideology. In my conversations with bazaar traders in Lahore, I found that these groups are motivated for both self-serving objectives — to gain local respect and status — as well as a way to push back against what they think is the hedonistic agenda of Westernized upper classes. There is thus a different type of class-based politics also at play here, one that pits un-Islamic elites against pious middling sorts.
The Role of the State
The second set of factors concerns the role of the Pakistani state in creating fertile conditions for extremism. National identity and the concept of state authority are tied to Islam, which gives plenty of space to non-state actors to weigh in on how it should be interpreted.
Impact of Educational Content
School and even higher education curriculum content is devoted to the creation of ideal (Sunni) Muslim citizens, which casts minority sects and non-Muslims as deviants. Laws have been put in place that police religious practice and create punitive conditions for heterodoxy, which perpetuates vigilantism.
Governance Failures and Political Expediency
Governance failures and the expedient use of religious actors for political ends — such as geostrategic goals in neighboring countries or taking down a popular government domestically — ensure that law and order responses to religious violence are either belated or entirely inadequate.
The Future Outlook
Combining both sets of factors — societal and state-specific — the future does not look optimistic:
Societal Challenges
On the societal front, there are no mass movements that can challenge religious extremism. Mainstream parties are either complicit or too risk-averse to take this issue on, especially when they are in government. Preachers who attempt more pacifist interpretations find themselves irrelevant or at risk of violence. Economic conditions are worsening, leaving more young people stuck in social stagnation and precarity.
State’s Inaction
As far as the state is concerned, it has not demonstrated any serious intent to reform its protocols around religious extremism. Police responses are often belated and biased against minority groups. Prosecution is largely absent. There is not even a modicum of intention to revisit laws that catalyze violent acts. Extremist groups remain valuable as a strategic asset, especially when needed to stifle democratic processes and teach some non-conforming parties a lesson.