The Islamic State in the Post-Modern World: The Political Experience of Pakistan

170 Pages·2014·0.791 MB·English

by  Dr Louis D Hayes

The IslamIc sTaTe In
The PosT-modern World
This page has been left blank intentionally
The Islamic state in
the Post-modern World
The Political experience of Pakistan
louIs d. hayes (emerITus)
University of Montana, USA
© louis d. hayes 2014
all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
louis d. hayes has asserted his right under the copyright, designs and Patents act, 1988,
to be identified as the author of this work.
Published by
ashgate Publishing limited ashgate Publishing company
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
a catalogue record for this book is available from the British library
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
hayes, louis d.
The Islamic state in the post-modern world : the political experience of Pakistan / by
louis d. hayes.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
IsBn 978-1-4724-1262-1 (hardback) -- IsBn 978-1-4724-1263-8 (ebook) -- IsBn 978-
1-4724-1264-5 (epub) 1. Islam and state--Pakistan. 2. Islam and politics--Pakistan. 3.
Pakistan--Politics and government. I. Title.
BP63.P2h39 2014
320.1--dc23
2014000813
IsBn 9781472412621 (hbk)
IsBn 9781472412638 (ebk – PdF)
IsBn 9781472412645 (ebk – ePuB)
III
Printed in the united Kingdom by henry ling limited,
at the dorset Press, dorchester, dT1 1hd
Contents
Preface vii
Introduction 1
1 Conceptualizing the State 11
2 The State in Historical Perspective 19
3 Islamic Models of the State 31
4 A Homeland for Muslims 55
5 Constitutional Dilemmas 67
6 Toward an Islamic State 91
7 Praetorianism 115
8 The Islamic State and International Relations 123
9 The Islamic State in the Twenty-First Century 137
Bibliography 151
Index 157
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Preface
Following the demise of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, it appeared
international security relations might assume a lower level of conflict intensity and
a more localized focus. More resources could be devoted to improving the human
condition world-wide. This optimistic prognosis did not last long. The attack on
the Twin Towers in New York on September 11, 2001 revived preoccupation with
global security threats. But unlike the Cold War which pitted territorial states
against one another, now the threat emanated from a non-state source: international
terrorism. Terrorism is a political tactic that has been around for centuries and has
been a fixture of the politics of almost all states at one time or another. For the most
part, terrorists have had relatively limited objectives. One group uses violence to
suppress another, as in race-based terrorism. Often governments use terrorism to
control their own population. Those seeking to overthrow the existing order, resort
to terrorist violence. But this time it is different. The agendas of the 9/11 hijackers
and others engaged in international terrorism are less clear and more abstract.
There are cultural, political, economic, and even religious dimensions. Prominent
among the influences shaping contemporary terrorism is Islam.
Recent terrorist incidents and political developments in the Middle East have
raised the visibility of Islam’s internal dynamics. In the long history of Islam,
there have been periodic efforts to cleanse what many consider to be deviation
from the correct spiritual path. Reformers have sought to eliminate perversion
and corruption and to restore Islam to its original purity. In the early years of the
twenty-first century, political developments in the Islamic world have assumed
a trajectory that is not only more intense but increasingly prone to conflict both
within Islamic states and with the non-Islamic world. All of this is taking place in
an international environment that is itself complicated and stressed. In contrast,
during the period covered by the Cold War, roughly the end of World War II to
the 1990s, international security relations, while threatening, were stable and
predictable. In recent years, much of the Islamic world has become unstable
and unpredictable in political, security, and economic terms. There are several
dimensions to this situation. One is the tension between Islamic fundamentalists
and Islamic modernists. Another is expressed in the idea put forth by Samuel
Huntington that the Islamic world and the West are on a collision course reflecting
an incompatibility of ideas and values, as he describes it a “clash of civilizations.”1
The conflict between the Palestinians and Israel has ramifications beyond the region
1 Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilization: Remaking of World Order. Simon
& Schuster, 1996.
viii The Islamic State in the Post-Modern World
and continues seemingly without end. The events of September 11, 2001 provoked
the US to transform its policies and actions of a scope unparalleled in American
history. Despite denials, the broad language of the “War on Terror” focuses on
the Islamic world. Iran’s nuclear program and the Israel-US threat to use military
force to end any nuclear weapons program raised tensions even further.
Two issues run throughout all these controversies. One is the sense of
awareness or self-identity in the Islamic world. People identify themselves
according to a variety of criteria: family, tribe, caste, and religion among them. For
many Muslims, identity is shaped in part by frustration drawn from centuries of
disadvantages vis-à-vis the rest of the world, especially the West. The issue of self-
identity is exacerbated by conflict within Islam, especially between the two main
sects: Sunni and Shia. The other issue is the way Islamic societies seek to govern
themselves and relate to others. These two issues simultaneously contribute to the
controversies and are products of them. The central concern of this book is the way
Pakistan has sought to accommodate the contemporary demands of the state with
political and spiritual claims based on the tenets of Islam.
The following discussion is divided into three parts. The first three chapters
address the concept of the “state” as it has evolved historically. The approach is
comparative and also involves a brief review of the theoretical foundations of
political order. The nature of the state in pre-modern times is reviewed first. The
purpose of this review is to provide an illustrative foundation for comparison of
later political forms. The second part of this section is the modern state, i.e., the
Westphalian model. This model of the state has been employed for the past several
centuries to organize the political universe. The territorial state is still the standard
although it has been evolving in new directions for some time. This model is
distinctly a product of Western experience and has been extended throughout the
world by means of imperialism, imitation, and the pressure of circumstances.
Preceding the advent of the Westphalian model by a millennium, there
emerged a state based on Islamic principles and experience. As the Westphalian
state matured, the Islamic version, for various reasons, was unable to compete
successfully with the dominant Western model. The classical or Mohammedan
version of the Islamic state is explored with particular reference to the theoretical
problems posed by it for later Islamic state-builders.
Following the broad discussion of the evolution of the state, the second part
of the analysis focuses on the creation and evolution of Pakistan as an attempt to
bridge the gulf between the demands of the modern (i.e., Westphalian) state and
the philosophical-spiritual attraction of the Islamic model. I refer to Pakistan as
an example of a “modern” Islamic state since it possesses the basic characteristics
of the Westphalian model: territoriality, sovereignty, and a population together
with an overlay of Islam. That there is considerable ambiguity in each of these
characteristics is hereby acknowledged. A conventional method of defining the
institutional dimensions of the modern state is a constitution, usually written.
Pakistan’s efforts to design a constitutional system have been fraught with difficulty.
Preface ix
It has essentially tried to employ the instrumentalities of the Western-style state to
achieve Islamic ends that are not always compatible or clearly defined.
In addition to constitutional issues, the discussion also includes political
forms, i.e., the machinery of daily government. Of special interest here is the
appropriateness of democratic methods, elections, legislative process, and political
parties, to achieve Islamic ends. Matters of public policy as they entail efforts at
“Islamization” are also considered.
The third part takes into account the larger issues of the post-modern world
beginning roughly with the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the
twenty-first and the impact of these issues on the future of political Islam. The focus
here is upon the collapse of the post-Cold War world and the short-lived promises
of peace and prosperity that were ended by the events of September 11, 2001. The
implications for Pakistan and the Islamic world in general are considerable since
the main theaters of conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan have been internationalized.
The civil war in Syria slowly metastasized and involved neighboring countries.
Pakistan has enjoyed a “partnership” role with the US on those occasions when
Washington found Pakistan useful. Islamabad became a key “ally” in the war
on terror, On other occasions, Pakistan has been marginalized. It has limited
economic potential and confronts chronic political instability and, as a result, has
been unable to play a consistent role in the increasingly globalized international
environment. Pakistan’s problems are exacerbated by the intractable conflict over
Kashmir, a vestigial remnant of Pakistan’s continuous, and largely unsuccessful,
efforts at self-identification. The secession of Bangladesh is an even more
dramatic example of this problem. The invasion and occupation of Afghanistan by
Western (NATO) forces and the campaign against terrorism have further deflected
efforts to define and achieve Islamic goals. The attack on several targets in India
in November 2008 by insurgents seeking to reenergize the Kashmir issue, was a
reminder of the precarious security situation in South Asia.
While the US military occupation of Afghanistan continued, the Obama
administration stated it would end in 2014 although some military “presence”
would remain. Transformed from a military effort to eradicate Al-Qaeda and
eliminate its leader Osama bin Laden, the US entered upon a counterinsurgency
campaign against the Taliban and an expensive effort at nation-building. In this
endeavor, Pakistan has proved to be an ally of dubious merit. While cooperating
in the effort to eliminate Al-Qaeda and suppress the Taliban, Pakistan has been
less than reliable. For one thing, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has
consistently played a double game in Afghanistan. For its part, the US soured
relations by conducting raids and drone strikes inside Pakistani territory often
without informing the Pakistanis and by killing Pakistani troops by “mistake.”
The most notorious of these raids was that which resulted in the killing of Osama
bin laden. To complicate matters further, the US has undertaken a campaign to
improve relations with Pakistan’s arch-enemy—India.
Pakistan has attracted considerable attention from students of political
development for several reasons. First, it is a “new” country in that it is a recent,