Pakistan’s Drift Into Extremism Allah, The Army, And America’s War On Terror By Hassan Abbas
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Pakistan’s Drift Into Extremism Allah, The Army, And America’s War On Terror By Hassan Abbas
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- Hassan Abbas
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- Pakistan's Drift into Extremism -Allah, the Army, and America's War on Terror by Hassan Abbas 2015 Pakistan's Drift into Extremism examines the rise of religious extremism in Pakistan and analyzes its connections to the Pakistani army's policies and fluctuating U.S.-Pakistani relations. It Includes profiles of leading Pakistani jihad! groups with details of their origins, development, and capabilities based on interviews with Pakistani intelligence officials and militant leaders. In addition to a detailed account of the political developments in Pakistan since 1947, the book also provides a detailed profile of General Pervez Musharraf, evaluates Indo-Pakistani relations. and discusses the country's domestic and regional prospects. The Early Years: A Dream Deferred Ayub Era: Kashmir and the 1965 War with India General Yahya and the Dismemberment of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto: The Charismatic General Zia ul-Haq: The Redefinition of a Country A Return to Democracy: Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif General Pervez Musharraf: A Season of Hope Jihadi Outfits: Pakistan's "Rent-a-Son" Agencies 9/11 and the War on Terror The Road Ahead Foreword by Jessica Stern Foreword Hassan Abbas contributes this important volume at a critically important juncture in Pakistan's history. Will it continue on the path of Islamic extremism and sectarian strife? Or will the Pakistani people learn to value tolerance and peace more than fundamentalist certainties and divisive ethno-religious identities? Will tensions with India continue to rise, or will both parties' nuclear weapons make war increasingly unthinkable? HassanAbbas's unusually broad background enables hirn to address these questions at many levels. He explains the forces pushing Pakistan toward "Talibanization" and sectarian violence as only a police investigator canwith knowledge from the field. His experience working at high levels in the Musharraf govemment enables hirn to explain how the general's early idealism served the country weil when Musharraf first came to power, but that idealism eventually gave way to more traditional power politics, including the military's courting of the mullah for political gain. But Abbas does not rely on his own practical experience to describe these developments. He spent years studying Islamic law and South Asian politics as a fellow at Harvard Law School and as a graduate student at Tufts, and we, partly as a result of domestic pressures on both sides. But he also offers us hope by suggesting a way out of this frightening morass, detailing a role for the United States and the international community. It is to be fervently hoped that his message will be heard worldwide, especially in Washington." -from the Foreword by JESSICA STERN, Harvard University, his readers, are the beneficiaries of his scholarship. In Pakistan 's Drift into Extremism: Allah, the Army, and America 's War on Terror, Hassan Abbas explains many mysteries. Why does Pakistan consistently lurch back and forth between democratic regimes and military dictatorships? And why do Pakistan and the United States have such a complicated relationship? Abbas explains that it has long been clear to Pakistan that despite its stated goal of promoting democracies around the world, the United States cares far more about Pakistan's compliance to its wishes than the nature of its leadership. The Uni ted States is often prepared to overlook military coups, corruption, and, most recently, extraordinary nuclear crimes perpetrated by a Pakistani citizen, as long as Pakistan provides the United States what it needs. On the one hand, Pakistan has played a crucial role in the war on terrorism, turning over hundreds of Al-Qaeda suspects to U.S. law-enforcement authorities. Without Pakistan's assistance, few of the most important successes in the "war on terrorism" could have occurred. On the other hand, why do terrorists choose Pakistan as their refuge? And why was Dr. A.Q. Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuc\ear weapon and a self-described Islamic fundamentalist, allowed to go free after confessing to unpreceden ted nuc\ear crimes? Twin devils plague Pakistan, Abbas explains: fundamentalist extremism and corruption. Abbas attributes much of Pakistan's woes to the Pakistani military's historical practice of courting the "mullah, " a figure he describes as a barely educated religious leader largely ignorant of true Islamic principles, likely to be corrupt, and likely to have a great deal of pull with various political factions. Abbas also describes the history of this practice and traces its developme nt through the alternating civilian and military regimes that have ruled Pakistan since its birth as a nation in 1947. To look different from previous military mlers, Abbas explains, Musharraf suspended only parts of the constitution and did not impose martiallaw. He also made fighting the corruption that has dragged down Pakistan's economy the centerpiece of his early tenure. His decision to establish the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), and to appoint as its leader a general widely admired for his integrity, generated excitement among all those interested in seeing Pakistan thrive. But who in Pakistan could be relied on to force the people with political power-mullahs, industrialists, politicians, and military personnelto comply with laws they had long grown used to ignoring? The Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) was known to have monitored civilian government, known for its cormption, and the NAB assumed that the ISI had acquired sufficient data to prosecute. But, much to the dismay of the new anticorruption officers (of which Mr. Abbas was one), the data were sketchy. In the end, Musharraf chose to compromise with those willing to play along with his regime. He sidelined the liberals, and cozied up to the religious parties, facilitating their unprecedented victory in the October 2002 parliamentary elections. Abbas explains Musharraf's difficuIty: the masses wanted Musharraf to stamp out corruption and political patronage, while the political and military elite wanted the status quo to continue. Musharraf began swinging in between. This swinging applies not only to the anticorruption campaign, but also to Musharraf's relationship with the jihadis. Pakistan's intelligence agency, the ISI, has long supported numerous jihadi groups, which it used as "volunteer fighters" in the conflict with India over Kashmir. Pakistan looked the other way as the groups beg an to harbor ambitions that reached beyond their original mission. They established close links with Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and other international jihadi organizations that emerged from the earlier Afghan war against the Soviets. After 9/11, Musharraf officially banned a number of these jihadi groups, renounced the Taliban, and arrested hundreds of Al-Qaeda suspects, turning them over to the U.S. government. But even as Pakistani officials were arresting some terrorists, factions within the Pakistani military continued to support those same terrorist groups. Pakistani jihadi groups fought beside Al-Qaeda and the Taliban against the Vnited States and its aIlies . They are leading suspects in a number of terrorist strikes since September 11. Sunni sectarian terrorists, also assisted by the military since their inception, have grown increasingly brazen, gunning down large numbers of Shia civilians in broad daylight. Shia terrorists have responded in kind. But the jihadi groups seem to have crossed a line when they attempted-apparently with assistance from members of the military-to assassinate Musharraf hirnself in December 2003. Musharraf's swinging in regard to the jihadis may have ended for good, but it may eventuaIly speIl the end of his regime. It is not clear that Musharraf can completely control the military he ostensibly commands. The power of the army to control the mullahs is increasingly a fac, ade, Abbas argues. Mr. Abbas is uniquely qualified to teach us about these issues. A former senior police officer, Mr. Abbas has earned several master's degrees, and recently completed a fellowship at Harvard Law School, where he studied Islamic law pertaining to jihad. He also served in the administrations of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and President Musharraf. The fate of Pakistan will affect the entire world. Will Pakistan's military continue to use the mullahs to achieve its short-term political and military goals? Will the sectarian killers-created by the ISI-get involved in sectarian crimes in other countries, for example in Iraq, further destabilizing that country? Will terrorists continue to see Pakistan as a hospitable place of refuge? If Pakistan is to be saved from a Taliban-like future, and the rest of the world saved from future Dr. Khans, it will have to make accommodations with India over Kashmir, and stop flirting with the mullahs. It will have to spend less of its national income on defense, and more on educating its youth. It will require that a true democracy take hold. But none of this will happen, Abbas warns, without assistance from the Vnited States. After all, the V.S. government helped to design and fund the strategy of employing violent Islamist cadres to serve as "volunteer" fighters in a war that seemed critically important at the time, but Ieft those cadres to their own devices once they were no longer important for achieving V.S. strategic goals. The idea of international jihad-which was promoted by the Vnited States and Pakistan when it was expedient, took hold and spread, ultimately resulting in deadly terrorist crimes throughout Asia as weIl as the September 11 strikes. V.S. assistance to Pakistan helped to create the problem we now face, and V.S. assistance will be required to undo it. But that assistance cannot be exclusively military. The enemy is not just a military target, but a bad idea Fighting that idea will require providing alternatives to the youth who are currently educated at extremist schooIs, who find solace in hate. Targeted development assistance, especially in regard to education, is the most important aspect of the war on terrorism, as Mr. Abbas makes clear. Mr. Abbas wams of a frightening future-one in which extremists gain more military support and more military might, and tensions between India and Pakistan continue to rise, partly as a result of domestic press ures on both sides. But he also offers us hope by suggesting a way out of this frightening morass, detailing a role for the United States and the international community. It is to be fervently hoped that his message will be heard worldwide, especially in Washington. Jessica Stern Harvard University April 2004 "Hassan Abbas has written a book that will be required reading for anyone hoping to understand the dense thicket of Pakistan's jihadist organizations and the social and political milieu in which they have flourished. Abbas draws on his wide experience as a senior Pakistani police officer and government official, allied to his experience as an academic, to write a book that is nuanced, authoritative, and weil written. Any student of Pakistan will find Abbas's work richly rewarding." -PETER BERGEN, Terrorism Analyst, CNN, and Author of THE HOLY WAR /NC.:/NSIOE THE SECRET WORLD OF OSAMA BIN LADEN "After a long but mixed history as a sometime-ally of the United States, Pakistan itself might evolve into Washington 's worst foreign policy nightmare: a nuclear-armed state, rife with Islamic te rrorists, and in direct conflict with its neighbors. No one is better prepared to explain how Pakistan arrived at this point than Hassan Abbas, who knows the country and especially its Islamic radicals from the inside. This book not only traces Pakistan 's trajectory over the last forty years, but it provides valuable insights into the workings of its establishment and should be required reading for anyone interested in a deep understanding of this troubled state." -STEPHEN PHILIP COHEN, Brookings Institution "Hassan Abbas is a brilliant geopolitical psychoanalyst who has put schizophrenie Pakistan on his couch and discovered the roots of the country's permanent state of denial as it slipped into the clutches of religious extremists and condescending spooks. The remedy lies in a new America that finally learns how to conjugate soft and hard power. " -AANAUO OE BORCHGRAVE, Editor-at-Large of THE WASHINGTON TIMES and UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL "Abbas warns of a frightening future-one in which extremists gain more military support and more military might, and tensions between India and Pakistan continue to rise
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Pakistan's Drift into Extremism -Allah, the Army, and America's War on Terror by Hassan Abbas 2015
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