IIIP — Fighting extremism

As I am writing this article, I am overwhelmed with emotions of all sorts. Because a year ago at this time, I was fighting for my life in hospital after a young man, who I had never met, opened fire on me with the intention to kill me. I became a victim of his hatred for the following two reasons. One, I spoke about building an inclusive and progressive Pakistan as envisioned by our founding father MA Jinnah. Second, I upheld the constitution of the Islamic republic of Pakistan while discharging my duties as the Federal Minister for Interior. But I am thankful to my Creator for giving me another life, and I am indebted to the people of Narowal, in particular, and Pakistan, in general, for their prayers, support and love which motivated me to recover and continue my fight against the forces of hatred and violent extremism. The attack on my life, with bullet in my body for rest of the life, put me through immense physical and psychological pain, but it has also provided me a new vigour and energy to dedicate rest of my life for the fight against forces of hatred, discrimination and violent extremism.

My fight against the violent extremism started from the hospital bed in Lahore, where I completed the final draft of the National Internal Security Policy, 2018-2023 (NISP) which was approved by the cabinet of former PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on May 29, 2018. NISP was developed after the consensus of all relevant stakeholders, and it provides the holistic way forward on how to consolidate the gains made by our security forces in kinetic operations. NISP emphasises the importance of social, economic, cultural and ideological factors in fight against violent extremism.

It is important to point out that the problem of hatred and violent extremism is not just peculiar to Pakistan or our region, rather it is a global issue. The recent tragic incidents in New Zealand and Sri Lank are the fresh reminders that we cannot lower our guards and must address the problem of violent extremism at its core, ie ideological, socio-economic and psychological factors which lead to violent-extremism must be addressed.

Every religion in the world preaches peace and harmony, but yet we continue to see that the name of religion is being used to justify acts of violence. One of the biggest ironies of the contemporary epoch is that the name of Islam is being misused by narrow vested interests who propagate hatred and extremism. This is partly because of the fact that we have been unable to effectively disseminate the true message of Islam across the world. The message of Islam is of peace and inclusion.

There is a hadith in Muslim & Bukhari: “Do you know what is better than charity, fasting and prayer? It is keeping peace and good relations among people as quarrels and bad feelings destroy humankind.”

For last one year, I have been struggling to find a way to pay back for the gift of new life. Finally, after consultations with friends, I am launching the ‘International Islamic Institute for Peace’ (IIIP), an independent, nonpartisan institute that seeks to work for conflict resolution and promoting dialogue for an inclusive and peaceful Pakistan, in particular, but also wants to promote harmony and peace at the global level, by advancing a sophisticated knowledge and an inclusive spirit of Islam and hosting dialogue on cooperation of civilisations. The IIIP will engage in research, outreach, dialogue and advocacy on the most pressing challenges of our times and promote true image of Islam based in peace, harmony and inclusiveness.

At the global level, there has been an attempt to create divisions among human societies based on faith, culture and traditions. Diversity among human beings is portrayed as a ‘clash’, eg Islam and East has been pitted against ‘modernity’ and West. This conceptualisation of the world fuels the narrative of religious extremist across the world.

The IIIP aims to counter this by promoting a global humanist values which cut across religion, culture and civilisation. There will be three major flagship centres of the IIIP. One, the Centre for Interfaith Harmony, as name suggests, it will focus on building interfaith harmony and peaceful coexistence between all religious communities in Pakistan and beyond. Cooperation and competition are learned behavior. If we promote and teach the message of cooperation and coexistence, it will bring us together as one human community. The second centre is The Centre for Cooperation of Civilisations. It will utilise a cross-sector approach to build mutual respect and partnerships between faith based and cultural civilisations across the world with the key emphasis on addressing social, economic and cultural determinants of a range of challenges that lead to religious extremism and discrimination. The third centre is the Peace Memorial Centre, it will document and exhibit the events and experiences of violent religious extremism and more importantly will showcase the stories of how people have fought back against forces of violent extremism and showed defiance and resilience against forces of extremism. The scope of this centre is truly global and multi-religious. This centre will help bring to the fore that despite all the repression and fear propagated by extremists and terrorists, people across the world, especially in Pakistan, have showed amazing courage and bravery to defeat their evil intentions. The IIIP’s headquarters is going to be located in Narowal, and the Phase1 of the project is envisaged to be completed by cost of Rs500m.

On May 4, we held first event of the IIIP ‘Paigham-e-Pakistan Conference on Peace building and National Cohesion’ in Narowal to give a message of unity and harmony. Our gallant security forces have fought a successful kinetic battle, but it needs to be accompanied by non-kinetic measures to uproot violent extremism from Pakistan. Academic and faith scholars of different religions participated in the conference, alongside representatives of different political parties, and everyone unanimously advocated for the mutual respect and peaceful coexistence. It was an emotional moment for me because a year ago, I was shot at in Narowal and a year later, people from different faith, political orientation came to Narowal to stand up for the cause of building an inclusive and progressive Pakistan.

Pakistan came into being to protect the rights of people against the tyranny of the majority. Therefore, it is our foremost duty to ensure that there is not any discrimination or victimisation of religious minorities in Pakistan. Protecting the rights of every single Pakistani irrespective of his/her religion and ethnicity should be the top priority of the state of Pakistan. We are a pluralistic and tolerant nation; it reflects in our arts, culture and literature. As Pakistani, we may belong to different faiths and different lingual groups, but what unites us is our common national identity and our aspiration for peace and development in Pakistan.

I urge and invite religious scholars, civil society and media to become a part of IIIP initiative so that we can collectively transform Pakistan into a truly inclusive and prosperous country which was envisioned by Quad-i-Azam and Allama Iqbal.

(Author is a member of National Assembly and former Minister for Interior, Planning and Development email: betterpakistan@gmail.com)