THE KHUDI (“AWAKENING”) MOVEMENT TO COUNTER EXTREMISM IN PAKISTANI UNIVERSITIES

Maajid Nawaz to Asharq Alawsat newspaper: “All terrorists are extremists… but not all extremists are terrorists”

Islamabad: Omar Farouk
Translated by Maryam alHajbi

The expression “countering extremism” has recently made its way into the socio-political lexicon in Pakistan. Yet despite this, increasing numbers of young Pakistanis have fallen prey to religious extremism in the past decade, resulting in disastrous consequences for Pakistani state and society. It was Maajid Nawaz (32 years of age) who introduced the expression “countering extremism” to the media and to political and social circles in Pakistan. Through his speech which espouses liberal political ideologies alongside a religious dialogue, Maajid told Asharq Alawsat: “we make use of religious discourse in the hope of convincing young people that extremists are imposing a false interpretation of Islam”. Maajid’s endeavour is the first of its kind, as -apart from the evenings that are attended by pro-government religious scholars- the government had never before attempted to organize talk shows with the aim of countering extremism affecting Pakistani youth. This neglect on behalf of the governmental has resulted in a wave of extremism which is reflected in the growing numbers of young extremists, both men and women, some of whom are final year universty students who came under the influence of extremists and militant groups. During his presentation of Khudi -which translates as “awakening” in English- an organization which he recently launched and describes as a social movement, Maajid affirmed: “We will work towards changing this reality. As of last year, we have been organising programs to tackle extremism among university youth”.

Maajid Nawaz has been active in political and social circles in Pakistan over the past year and launched the movement in the second week of 2010. He describes it as “an anti-terrorism social movement which works to promote a culture of democracy in Pakistan”. He admitted that the movement’s agenda was secular, despite the fact that he continues to use religious sayings and quotations from the Quran and to base himself on Hadith and Islamic history to prove that extremism is wrong and amounts to straying away from the right path of Islam. Imran Khan, media coordinator for the Khudi movement says: «Since the launch of Khudi, Maajid Nawaz has dominated the media scene in Pakistan. Since June the 14th, news channels have broadcast countless interviews with Khudi’s founder and published a number of news reports on the movement’s activities. Local media -including (Geo TV), (Express TV) and (Business Plus)- in addition to many other channels and newspapers have also extensively covered Khudi’s work.

Much like his expression of “countering extremism”, Maajid Nawaz is a newcomer to Pakistani society. Indeed Maajid is a British citizen. He was born to Pakistani parents who had emigrated to the United Kingdom 40 years ago in search of a better life. Maajid allegedly encountered extremist ideologies while growing up in Britain. Having been a member of the global extremist organisation of Hizb ut-Tahrir for 14 years, he is very familiar with extremist movements’ ideologies and methods of recruitment. “I first joined the organization because of my growing.

sense of alienation and because of the racist abuse I faced while growing up in Essex, which was a predominantly white county in the eighties”. Like many young people who asked themselves similar questions regarding identity, race and religion, he turned to rap music, which provided a voice and a personality to those who felt they were somehow different or outsiders. As a result of his sufferings and subjection to verbal abuse, Maajid developed an interest in politics, and went on to adopt anti-establishment views. At the time, there was no one within the minority Muslim community who was able to help or clarify many of the uncertainties he faced. Indeed, many of the imams who had immigrated to the UK were unfamiliar with British culture and did not have the strong religious knowledge (‘ilm) that would have enabled them to answer questions relating to religion and identity.

Maajid’s involvement in Hizb al-Tahrir took him to Egypt on a mission to create a unit linked to the extremist party, but he was subsequently arrested by the Egyptian Intelligence Services and sentenced to five years in prison. “My cellmates were members of extremist groups involved in the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. It was during my time in prison that I began thinking about how to counter extremism”. The time Maajid spent in prison proved to be a life changing experience. Indeed, he devoted his time to studying and deepening his knowledge of Islam, Islamic history and jurisprudence and the study of Hadith. Talking about that period, he says “I also had the opportunity to exchange ideas with a number of Muslim thinkers. He engaged in debates within the prison cells with some of the most famous Jihadist minds (some of whom had been convicted of the assassination of President Sadat) who had renounced jihadist ideas and who were urging Maajid to do the same. “Countering extremism is a gradual process. Through simple steps we persuade extremists to live a normal life”. However he adds that instead of spending time convincing far-gone extremists to live a normal life, “we will focus on preventing Pakistani youth from falling into the clutches of extremist groups. We must use traditional means of interaction with young people in Pakistani society to root out extremism and prevent radicalisation.”

With this aim in mind, Maajid Nawaz’s movement is attempting to build alliances with youth organizations in Pakistan. According to Imran Khan: “During the past year, we held a youth forum to which we invited all youth organizations ranging from political-rights groups to Islamist political parties. The feedback was positive and encouraging”.

Maajid believes that there is a big difference between the terms “extremist” and “terrorist”, as according to him all terrorists are extremists but not all extremists are terrorists. Maajid clarifies this statement by explaining that an extremist might try to impose his ideology on individuals through non-violent means, as opposed to a terrorist who would leans towards more violent methods. However, he quickly added that both are reprehensible and should be openly condemned by civil society. Maajid Nawaz is currently establishing contacts with the Pakistani government to seek support for his strategy in the fight against terrorism, but his primary objective is the interaction with the social and political groups in Pakistan with the aim of forming a consensus to reject religious extremism.