As Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr, General Zia ul-Haq and the people who followed him decided to “ride the tiger” and make full use of Islam. Ul-Haq was well suited to do this because he was personally a very pious individual, having earned the nickname “the religious scholar” from his military colleagues. One of his main goals was to employ Islam to establish order in Pakistani society:
- “Islamic norms and ideals were to provide the state with normative tools for exercising social control. ...Islamic values and laws were used to bring order to the productive sectors of society by guaranteeing sanctity of private property and restoring confidence among private investors, all of which had been undermined...”
But Islam was not only used to gain greater control over society — just as importantly, it was used to gain control over Islamic dissidents. Previously, dissident organizations could establish themselves as distinct from the more secular state, making a claim for the people’s allegiance based upon their Islamic identity.
But now, with the state making its own claims to Islamic identity, the dissidents lost their ability to claim to be a distinct alternative to the State. The State worked to keep things that way by gaining control over Muslim institutions. Of particular importance was State control over the seminaries: here, the State could influence how Islam was taught and the nature of Islam’s relationship with the government.
Understanding how Islam relates to the State in Pakistan is crucial to understanding how Pakistan has been reacting in the current campaigns against Muslim terrorism. It is obvious that many people in Pakistan are opposed to the West attacking any Muslim nation, including Afghanistan.
Islamic Leviathan: Islam and the Making of State Power
If the government goes too far to support the West, it will lose its “Islamic” credentials, and the people will no longer support it. Without legitimacy, the government will either fall or have to resort to naked force and repression to maintain control. But so many years of Islamization have resulted in a military intelligence community and police forces dominated by very devout Muslims. It is unlikely that they would be willing to suppress widespread Islamic dissent throughout society.
So the government of Pakistan is in a very difficult position. The West will not tolerate it if Pakistan supports terrorism, or supports any government which facilitates terrorism. But the Pakistani people won’t allow their government to go too far in supporting the West. The government is walking a tightrope, and it will be interesting to see if they can manage to avoid falling.
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