With
a fourth-grade education, Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the sole surviving
terrorist of the Mumbai bomb blast, went to Lahore and got a job,
paying at 200 rupees or $ 3.30 a day. But, in his confession to the
Indian police, he said that he and a 22-year-old co-worker "were not
getting enough money, so we decided to carry out dacoity (a
robbery) at some place so that we will get a large amount." The two
guys went to Rawalpindi and the buddy identified a place with a large
amount. They bought guns in a Raja bazaar and then realized that they
needed weapons training. To get the training, they signed up with
Lashkar-e Taiba, a terrorist organization created by the Pakistani
intelligence service to fight a proxy war in Kashmir against India. So
a simple Bonnie-and-Clyde-type fantasy of two young men who could not
find good jobs ended up in a terrorist attack on Mumbai, with 163 dead.
Initially, Kasab was not motivated by religion or politics. He just
wanted a better job.
Kasab's story illustrates the sorry state of affairs in Pakistan
today, a country of 140 million. Pakistanis lack adequate education,
employment and health care, and thus are frustrated and furious.
Pakistan is a nominal democracy where power rests with the military,
stunting the growth of a responsible civil society.
The prime minister of Pakistan, Asif Zardari, still carries his
reputation earned during the administration of his late wife, Benazir
Bhutto, of a "10 percent man" - his take on every deal the government
made. Prior to the Pakistani election last year, I asked a Pakistani
Silicon Valley entrepreneur about what he thought about Zardari and he
responded: "Everybody else is a 20, 30 or 40 percent man."
Yet, I find hope. In recent elections, the religious parties lost
ground to secular, peaceful politicians. Pakistani Islam is cut from
the same social fabric as India and Bangladesh - historically,
culturally and even religiously. While the Taliban are increasing in
Pakistan, they are a minority. Most of the 450 million Muslims in
Pakistan, India and Bangladesh - a third of the Muslim world - practice
a gentler, more tolerant Islam.
But two external forces have pushed Pakistan in a more militant,
violent direction: Saudi Arabia and U.S. foreign policy. The Saudis,
funded with petrodollars, have exported their fundamentalist Wahabi
Islam since the early '90s. Through substantial investment in Pakistani
madrasas and mosques, which brainwashed students and produced
terrorists, the Saudis are nurturing a "hate the West" culture.
The United States has played a destructive role in Pakistan. For
decades, the United States supported the Pakistani military. Just since
the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the United States has invested $10 billion
in Pakistan's military - not in education, civil society or democracy.
Now the U.S. funded army has been infiltrated by Saudi-funded jihadism
- and the attack on Mumbai is only one of the consequences.
Change in Pakistan is imperative, and should come from three key sources:
1) The United Nations and the international community needs to
pressure the Saudis to stop supporting madrasas. If the Saudis want to
help their Muslim brothers, let them invest in genuine education for
Pakistani boys and girls.
2) U.S. foreign policy should stop investing in the military.
Instead, it should support civil society institutions, education for
girls and boys, and increase employment opportunities.
3) Pakistani women need to be brought into leadership roles - the
reserved seats they have in parliament don't make up for the very low
participation by women in the workforce at the grassroots level, nor
for their lack of access to schooling.
These three steps will encourage Pakistani citizens to reclaim their
true faith - peaceful Islam. They must recognize that Islam can have
nothing to do with terrorism. But renewing Islam requires that Pakistan
move beyond its status as a failed, feudal and militaristic state.
The fault lines of Islam in the world- fundamentalist versus
moderate - lie in Pakistan. Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the United States
and the international community can shape the future of Islam in the
world. But will they rise to the challenge?
Shahnaz Taplin Chinoy is a media consultant to
foundations and NGOs in the Bay Area. She is writing a book on women's
Islam and starting a Muslim women's fund.
