LAHORE: Scholars, academia and intellectuals discussed on Wednesday terrorism, especially in the Punjab context, at an event by Islamabad-based think tank PIPS.

Prof Tahir Kamran from the Government College University spoke about the history of sectarianism in the region.

“Until about a century ago, Shia and Sunnis would go to the same mosque, but during the 18th century, the State of Oudh and Lucknow sponsored some of the ulema to go to Qum for education and likewise ulema from Deoband had their educational influences from other countries,” he explained.

“It was these extraneous influences that caused a kind of rift. For us, it is not a question of a clash of civilisations, it is a question of a clash within the civilisations.”

He said if theology was taught at higher educational institutions in the form of comparative religion, it may give students food for thought. He said that Partition itself was a huge influence on Punjab’s situation. Seminaries on the other side of the border relocated themselves to this side, including Jamia Rasheedia, Tajweedul Quran, Jamia Ashrafia etc.

Lahore University of Management Science’s Prof Dr Muhammad Wasim said that migration during Partition had brought religion to Punjab’s society.

“Punjab was brutalised during Partition and this brutality was dubbed ‘sacrifice’ by people,” he said.

“The concept of injustice was ingrained as well as insecurity. These became our collective psyche.”

He said that militants were attacking anything Western in the nation. These jihadis, he said, know of the West in terms of its dominion over Eastern countries. At the same time allowing extreme right wing forces to be politically involved in the system, the agenda of anti-terrorism begins to get confused. Institutions of higher learning can be used for countering extremism by having discourse and analysis, he added.

Prof Iqbal Chawla from the Punjab University spoke on external and internal factors influencing terrorism. He said that the waves of terrorism within the country worsened once during the Zia regime and then after 9/11.

Rights activist Diep Saeeda said that according to government’s own information, Rs650 billion zakat was collected every year, of which 78 per cent went to militant organisations.

Journalist Subookh Syed said that because of TRPs the media had closed down many programmes where important discourse took place. But social media gave space to academics for discussions.

“Up to 35pc of the public has now stopped watching news channels,” he claimed. “At the same time there has been a rise in users of social media and today 45 million users from Pakistan are online.”

Participants suggested promotion of festivals, arts and literature as well as cultural activities and sports to counter extremism.

MPA Naushin Hamid said legislators were not doing enough as there was a dire need for several laws along with the implementation of the National Action Plan. She said there was a need for laws on hate speech, custodial torture and hate speech in syllabus and curriculum. She also noted that some groups in particular dominated educational institutes and this often led to on-campus violence.

The manifestos of all political parties needed to be restructured and an anti-terrorism agenda given priority, she added.

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2017