By Hassanal Noor Rashid
The International Movement for a Just world (JUST) joins together with many other organizations, enraged individuals and communities in condemning the Taliban in Pakistan (TTP) for the barbaric and mindless massacre of 145 people in a Pakistani school in Peshawar on the 16th December 2014. The vast majority of the victims—132 to be exact— were school children between the ages of 12 and 16. This is what makes the cruel massacre — the worst in Pakistani history — utterly reprehensible.
The actions of the gunmen who had committed these vile atrocities, which have notably been criticised by the Taliban in Afghanistan, are representative of a virulent ideology and a perverse view of Islam which utilizes the religion to justify the actions of brutal murderers.
The misrepresentation of the Islamic faith by these groups is an increasingly worrying trend that has resulted in many unwarranted tragedies, but like in many instances of events such as these, religion is not the core driving motivation.
The rationalization given by the group responsible for this heinous act was to avenge the killings of hundreds of innocent tribesmen in provinces such as South Waziristan, North Waziristan and the Khyber Agency according to a spokesperson of the TTP.
The military actions by the Pakistani government within these provinces are reflective of its flawed approach to the fight against terrorism, an approach continuously found within the rhetoric of various Washington pundits that persists in the post- 9/11 political environment, 13 years later.
The government’s response to these perceived terrorist threats has been one where laws are introduced which curtails civil rights, and legitimizes the use of torture and assassinations.
All these have created a political and social environment which in fact diminishes security and endows extremists with a sense of perceived legitimacy to carry out their morally disengaged and ill-conceived actions.
The injustices that have befallen the Palestinian people which have also been a large part of the Muslim world’s conscious reality, have served to be an ideological focal point for many militants and has contributed further to the rise of militancy.
These terrorists’ worldview is ultimately an ideological response to the invasive activities of countries like the United States of America and its allies, who are seeking to dictate and influence how the structures of power in the region benefit their own interests and agendas.
These countries and their nefarious hegemonic agendas are as much responsible for facilitating the rise of extremist militancy, as they are in many ways responsible for the brutal slaughter of hundreds of thousands of people at the hands of the extremists.
The victims of this ideological dogma however, as this incident has shown, are rarely Western civilians. They tend to, more often than not, be other Muslims, who are seen by these militants as colluding with the foreign aggressor and therefore traitors to the nation and the religion.
So long as these policies and practices continuously persist, and alternative actions are not implemented to engage with these threats more effectively and sustainably, atrocities like these may well become a political-social norm.
Justice demands we never let that happen, and Muslims all over have a responsibility to not allow Islam to be hijacked by peddlers of violence.
20 December 2014.
Hassanal Noor Rashid is the programme coordinator of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST)