Dr Zainab Akhter
The book Islam and Sectarian Violence in Pakistan: The Terror Within by Eamon Murphy (2019) follows the author’s 2013 important book titled The Making of Terrorism in Pakistan: Historical and Social Roots of Extremism that discussed the many factors that contributed to the rise of terrorism in Pakistan. As the title suggests the central theme of the new book explains how sectarian differences in respect to theology, historical traditions, and rituals among Muslims living in the Muslim majority state of Pakistan have led to the killing and injuring of thousands of innocent men, women, and children whose only crime has been to belong to a member of a rival sect. It broadly analyses the growth of sectarian-based terrorist violence in Pakistan. It undertakes a comprehensive and holistic study to examine the root cause of sectarian violence infecting Pakistan.
The author argues that the upsurge in sectarian violence in Pakistan, particularly since the late 1970s has had less to do with theological differences between the various sects of Islam, but is a consequence of the specific political, social, economic, demographic, and cultural changes that have taken place in Pakistan since it was established as an independent state. A major theme of the book is the increasing violence, extent, and expressions of sectarian conflict which have emerged as new forms of sectarian terrorism. The volume provides an in-depth empirical case study which addresses some major theoretical questions raised by Critical Terrorism Studies researchers in respect of the links between religion and sectarian terrorism in Pakistan and more widely.
Sectarian violence continues with local, national, and regional aspects fueled by politics, colonial legacy problems, and little prospect for an immediate cessation. This book suggests that we desperately need a major re-think of the 20-year-old war on terror with its ill-informed simplistic and ineffective and self-defeating narratives and policies. The complete withdrawal of the US and NATO forces from Afghanistan in accordance with the Doha agreement after twenty years of occupation will lead to another sectarian and refugee crisis at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. With any failure of reconciliation between the Taliban and the Afghan government many have predicted that Afghanistan is heading towards another deadly civil war. If the situation is not handled carefully, the situation can be used to create differences between different tribes in the border regions like Hazara and Pashtun’s for politically motivated gains by different sides. This book that provides an overview on the regional and local dimensions of sectarian conflict and Contempapry sectarian violence in Pakistan is a must-read to understand the nuances of sectarianism in Pakistan and in general to understand the geopolitics of Islam in South Asia.
