THE national media is currently engaged in a protracted and tortuous debate on the ills of our society, particularly the grievous divide in our polity between religious ideology, often manifest in extremism, and the liberal/secular mindset, that shuns religiosity and self-righteousness.

The debate is generally emotional and partisan, with the Urdu press and electronic media espousing the former, and the English media leaning towards the latter. Both sides denounce each other as unpatriotic and partisan.

This is very unfortunate, as a meaningful debate can only take place if there is mutual respect and intellectual honesty. However, such an elevation of the level of debate is not foreseeable in the near term, and we have to deal with the actual situation on the ground.

Most of our analysts and commentators are focused on the debate and are either unable or unwilling to look for a solution that can take us out of this morass. Their writings and commentaries are prescriptive of the problems, but devoid of suggestions for correction of the attitudes and approaches.

One immediate message that can be propagated and disseminated is that the violence must stop. Whatever the tanzeems and extremist groups may be advocating should not be done through violent means, by shooting individuals and throwing bombs, by killing, burning and destroying. If the nation as a whole is sensitised to this demand, the ground support for violence, which must certainly exist, will start to disappear.

In every terrorist act that is committed, there are people around the terrorists who are witness to what is going on. Some are directly aiding or abetting the perpetrators. Some feel compelled by pressure and compulsion exercised upon them by the terrorists not to denounce them. But many others endorse the actions for various extraneous reasons — anger at the United States for carrying out drone attacks, or anger at India, or even anger against the state. They need to be made to understand that such actions are destroying us. There is a famous tale by Aesop, where a rat was being bothered by a fly dancing around its head. The rat was at its wits’ end as to how to get rid of the fly. At that juncture a horse carriage approached on a track near the rat. On the spur of the moment, the rat decided to put its head under the wheel of the carriage to get rid of the fly. As it did so, it was itself crushed by the wheel.

Let’s first stop the violence. This message should go out, loud and clear, and in unison, from all our opinion-makers to the ordinary citizens. Whatever be the reason, there should be no resort to violence. Perpetrators of such acts should be exposed, their arms and ammunition isolated, exposed and confiscated, or surrendered to the authorities.

The perpetrators, or would-be perpetrators, should be denounced in the village or town square. Only when the common man rises up against violence will the menace be curbed and eliminated.

If we live to see another day, as the saying goes, we can talk about religion and dogma, state and society, and external interference. If the extremists are able to convince the moderates, so be it. If we want to be an Islamic state, let a consensus be developed for it. But there should be no violence.

As regards extremism, it exists every where, it exists in India, in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, in Iran, even in Europe and the United States. The difference between the extremists in other countries and the extremists here is that ours indulge in large-scale violence, including resort to suicide bombings, while those in other countries do not. One important reason for the violence is, of course, the weak enforcement of law and order in our country. But that is unlikely to improve overnight. Therefore, it is now up to the citizenry to stop it.

Let me offer a few comments about the drone attacks which are certainly worth condemning for the death and destruction of the lives and properties of innocent civilians subjected to its horrors. Their unabashed incursions are certainly the violation of our sovereignty. However, we need to ponder why the US carries out drone attacks in our territory, and hardly any elsewhere. It does so because it has a mortal fear, whether justified or imaginary, of terrorists holed up on our soil who may plan and wage an attack on US territory.

Moreover, the terrorists, the Arabs and Uzbeks and Chechens, aren’t they violating our sovereignty? Did they enter Pakistan with valid passports and visas? Did Osama bin Laden have a residence permit for living in Abbottabad? We close our eyes to the latter fact and rant about the former.

So to go back to the point that has been made earlier. Let’s first stop the violence. Just as when a house is on fire, the first priority is to put out the fire. We can then address the cause that led to the fire. As for the extremists, they are our present-day anarchists and nihilists. And it is quite likely that they will go away the same way as their 19th-century parallels disappeared. Whatever be their fate, we must stop them from wreaking havoc in our society, we must stop the violence.

The writer is a former ambassador.