Fascinating: Terrorism and Public Opinion in Pakistan

Courtesy, this article on the CounterTerrorism Blog, I came across this fascinating survey conducted almost exactly a year ago which has some revealing insights. A small sample:

  1. 33% Pakistanis view Taliban, Al-Qaeda and radical Pakistani Jihadi groups favourably (while 43% oppose them)
  2. 38% favour Taliban (while an equal percentage oppose it)
  3. 37%-49% favour local radical Pakistani Jihadi extremist groups (only 24%-29% oppose them)
  4. 46% of Pakistani’s view Osama bin Laden favorably (only 26% have an unfavourable view of him) and finally,
  5. 76% of those polled believe that implementing strict Sharia law throughout Pakistan is either a “very important” or “somewhat important” long-term goal for the government of Pakistan.

Read the full report here: http://www.terrorfreetomorrow.org/upimagestft/Pakistan%20Poll%20Report.pdf

B Shantanu

Political Activist, Blogger, Advisor to start-ups, Seed investor. One time VC and ex-Diplomat. Failed mushroom farmer; ex Radio Jockey. Currently involved in Reclaiming India - One Step at a Time.

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10 Responses

  1. Indian says:

    http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/aug/11jk2.htm

    100 CHUHE KHAKE BILLI HAJ KO CHALI…..

  2. Dirt Digger says:

    Surprisingly not many of the leading Indian dailies would carry the results of such a poll. They would want the people to believe that India’s neighbors are friendly, moderate and tolerant (all false).
    The only surprising fact is that the numbers probably do not include the far flung provinces, like Baluchistan, which are controlled by the rebels.

  3. Chandra says:

    Why just Land of the Pure? Muslims students living in UK’s universities, presumably many British citizens, had similar approval of jihadis in a recent survey!

  4. B Shantanu says:

    Excerpts from The Saudi-isation of Pakistan by Pervez Hoodbhoy

    The common belief in Pakistan is that Islamic radicalism is a problem only in FATA, and that madrassas are the only institutions serving as jihad factories. This is a serious misconception. Extremism is breeding at a ferocious rate in public and private schools within Pakistan’s towns and cities. Left unchallenged, this education will produce a generation incapable of co-existing with anyone except strictly their own kind.

    …For 20 years or more, a few of us have been desperately sending out SOS messages, warning of terrible times to come. In fact, I am surprised at how rapidly these dire predictions have come true.
    …A full-scale war is being fought in FATA, Swat and other “wild” areas of Pakistan, resulting in thousands of deaths. It is only a matter of time before this fighting shifts to Peshawar and Islamabad (which has already been a witness to the Lal Masjid episode) and engulfs Lahore and Karachi as well.

    …paradoxically, in spite of the fact that the dead bodies and shattered lives are almost all Muslim ones, few Pakistanis speak out against these atrocities. Nor do they approve of the army operation against the cruel perpetrators of these acts because they believe that they are Islamic warriors fighting for Islam and against American occupation. Political leaders like Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan have no words of solace for those who have suffered at the hands of Islamic extremists. Their tears are reserved exclusively for the victims of Predator drones, even if they are those who committed grave crimes against their own people.

    …What explains Pakistan’s collective masochism? To understand this, one needs to study the drastic social and cultural transformations that have rendered this country so completely different from what it was in earlier times.

    …For three decades, deep tectonic forces have been silently tearing Pakistan away from the Indian subcontinent and driving it towards the Arabian peninsula. This continental drift is not physical but cultural, driven by a belief that Pakistan must exchange its South Asian identity for an Arab-Muslim one. Grain by grain, the desert sands of Saudi Arabia are replacing the rich soil that had nurtured a magnificent Muslim culture in India for a thousand years.

    …This change is by design…Today, government intervention is no longer needed because of a spontaneous groundswell of Islamic zeal. The notion of an Islamic state – still in an amorphous and diffused form – is more popular now than ever before as people look desperately for miracles to rescue a failing state.

    …Villages have changed drastically; this transformation has been driven, in part, by Pakistani workers returning from Arab countries. Many village mosques are now giant madrassas that propagate hard-line Salafi and Deobandi beliefs through oversized loudspeakers. They are bitterly opposed to Barelvis, Shias and other sects, who they do not regard as Muslims.

    …“Classical music is on its last legs in Pakistan; the sarangi and vichitraveena are completely dead,” laments Mohammad Shehzad, a music aficionado. Indeed, teaching music in public universities is violently opposed by students of the Islami Jamaat-e-Talaba at Punjab University. So the university has been forced to hold its music classes elsewhere. Religious fundamentalists consider music haram or un-Islamic. Kathak dancing, once popular with the Muslim elite of India, has few teachers left.

    …Pakistan’s self-inflicted suffering comes from an education system that, like Saudi Arabia’s system, provides an ideological foundation for violence and future jihadists. It demands that Islam be understood as a complete code of life, and creates in the mind of a school-going child a sense of siege and embattlement by stressing that Islam is under threat everywhere.

    …On the previous page, the reader can view the government-approved curriculum….By an act of parliament passed in 1976, all government and private schools (except for O-level schools) are required to follow this curriculum…It sounds like a blueprint for a religious fascist state.

    …Fearful of taking on the powerful religious forces, every incumbent government has refused to take a position on the curriculum and thus quietly allowed young minds to be moulded by fanatics. What may happen a generation later has always been a secondary issue for a government challenged on so many fronts.

    …Still, the primary vehicle for Saudi-ising Pakistan’s education has been the madrassa. In earlier times, these had turned out the occasional Islamic scholar, using a curriculum that essentially dates back to the 11th century, with only minor subsequent revisions. But their principal function had been to produce imams and muezzins for mosques, and those who eked out an existence as ‘maulvi sahibs’ teaching children to read the Quran.

    …according to the national education census, which the ministry of education released in 2006, Punjab has 5,459 madrassas followed by the NWFP with 2,843; Sindh has 1,935; the Federally Administrated Northern Areas (FANA), 1,193; Balochistan, 769; Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), 586; the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA), 135; and the Islamabad capital territory, 77. The ministry estimates that 1.5 million students are acquiring religious education in the 13,000 madrassas.

    …These figures appear to be way off the mark. Commonly quoted figures range between 18,000 and 22,000 madrassas. The number of students could be correspondingly larger. The free boarding and lodging plus provision of books to the students, is a key part of their appeal. Additionally, parents across the country desire that their children be “disciplined” and given a thorough Islamic education. The madrassas serve this purpose, too, exceedingly well.

    …Madrassas have deeply impacted the urban environment. Until a few years ago, Islamabad was a quiet, orderly, modern city different from the rest of Pakistan. Also, it had largely been the abode of Pakistan’s elite and foreign diplomats. But the rapid transformation of its demography brought with it hundreds of mosques with multi-barrelled audio-cannons mounted on minarets, as well as scores of madrassas illegally constructed in what used to be public parks and green areas. Now, tens of thousands of their students, sporting little prayer caps, dutifully chant the Quran all day. In the evenings they swarm the city, making women minus the hijab increasingly nervous.

    …The Saudi-isation of a once-vibrant Pakistani culture continues at a relentless pace. The drive to segregate is now also being found among educated women. Vigorous proselytisers carrying this message, such as Mrs Farhat Hashmi, have been catapulted to the heights of fame and fortune. Their success is evident. Two decades back, the fully veiled student was a rarity on Pakistani university and college campuses. The abaya was an unknown word in Urdu. Today, some shops across the country specialise in abayas. At colleges and universities across Pakistan, the female student is seeking the anonymity of the burqa. And in some parts of the country she seems to outnumber her sisters who still “dare” to show their faces.

    …I have observed the veil profoundly affect habits and attitudes. Many of my veiled female students have largely become silent note-takers, are increasingly timid and seem less inclined to ask questions or take part in discussions. They lack the confidence of a young university student.

    …While social conservatism does not necessarily lead to violent extremism, it does shorten the distance. The socially conservative are more easily convinced that Muslims are being demonised by the rest of the world. The real problem, they say, is the plight of the Palestinians, the decadent and discriminatory West, the Jews, the Christians, the Hindus, the Kashmir issue, the Bush doctrine – the list runs on. They vehemently deny that those committing terrorist acts are Muslims, and if presented with incontrovertible evidence, say it is a mere reaction to oppression.

    Read the article in full

    See also this comment to the Notes from an Island Post.

  5. Kaffir says:

    It’d be interesting to see the results of a similar survey done in India and compare the response of Indian Muslims to Pakistani Muslims.

  6. B Shantanu says:

    Thanks to Acorn for highlighting this. Excerpts from What Do the Pakistanis Think?:

    …a recent opinion poll of Pakistanis…by the International Republican Institute….conducted between March 7 and 30, 2009 (revealed that)…

    More Pakistanis believe the United States was behind last year’s Mumbai terrorist attacks (20 percent) than believe the Pakistani anti-Indian terrorist group Lashkar e-Toiba — whom India accuses of culpability in the mass murder — was responsible (seven percent).
    …there’s a strong base of support for the Swat deal that left the Taliban effectively in charge of the Swat Valley, with 80 percent backing it and 74 percent believing it will bring peace to the region, which it manifestly didn’t.

    Over half of Pakistani respondents, 56 percent, support similar accomodations with the Taliban “in areas such as Karachi, Multan, Quetta or Lahore….

  7. B Shantanu says:

    Selected excerpts, from an ICM survey of 500 Muslims in the UK over 16 years old conducted earlier this month:

    When asked what they thought about British-born Muslim soldiers serving in the two countries, just over half said it would be wrong but almost a third said it would be right.

    …when asked what the Pakistani authorities should do (regarding the Taliban)…Only 67% said the Pakistani army should take action against the Taliban – and almost a quarter said it would be wrong

  8. tarun garg says:

    “100 saal baad bhi kuttey ki dum tedi hi raheygi”. pakistan will remain pakistan. who is this taliban or other terrorist they are pakistani only, name changes and place or enamy changes but ppl are pakistani only. it is our fault that we always expect that they will change or things will change. no matter how much USA or WORLD pressur them, nothing gona change cos it is by people’s choice.it is there will to support this so called JEHAD. it is not a new thing just confirmation of wht we all know.
    but the actual point is wht lesson or preparation we as india or neibour is doing. are we really prepare for future? are we ready to live with JEHADIES as our neibours? do we have THAT WILL to keep them under control? do we have that system and people, so our country is safe as neibour?

  9. B Shantanu says:

    Pl see point #5 in the post above and then read Majority of Pakistanis for ‘Islamisation’ of society: Poll:
    PTI | Jun 1, 2011, 04.48pm IST

    ISLAMABAD: A majority of Pakistanis favour the government taking steps for the “Islamisation” of society..
    A total of 67 per cent replied in the affirmative when they were asked during the survey carried out by Gallup Pakistan whether the government should take steps to “Islamise” the society.

    ..Forty eight per cent of respondents said steps to Islamise the society “should be taken one by one” while 31 per cent said the “steps should be taken at once”.

  10. B Shantanu says:

    Positive news: Concerns about Islamic Extremism on the Rise in Middle East. Some excerpts:
    …As well-publicized bouts of violence, from civil war to suicide bombings, plague the Middle East, Africa and South Asia, concern about Islamic extremism is high among countries with substantial Muslim populations, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center. And in the Middle East, concern is growing. Lebanese, Tunisians, Egyptians, Jordanians and Turks are all more worried about the extremist threat than they were a year ago.

    Meanwhile, publics hold very negative opinions of well-known extremist groups, such as al Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah.

    In Nigeria, the vast majority of respondents, both Muslims and Christians alike, have an unfavorable view of Boko Haram, the terrorist group that recently kidnapped hundreds of girls in the restive north of the country. And a majority of Pakistanis have an unfavorable view of the Taliban.