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Countries and regions:
Asia: Afghanistan, India, Pakistan.

Political Islam in South Asia

Are Knudsen (2002)

Bergen: Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI Report R 2002:14)

This report analyses the growth of political Islam in South Asia (Pakistan, Afghanistan and India's Jammu and Kashmir Province). In Pakistan the failure of parliamentary democracy and the weakening of civil society have spurred the growth of social protest in the form of a political Islam. The call for implementing Sharia (the holy law of Islam) and the expansion of jihad (in the sense "holy war") are examples of political protest expressed in a religious idiom. Pakistan is still a moderate Islamic country, but with a growing and increasingly violent Islamic militant lobby. The army is still firmly in charge but because of its patronage of the key militant groups, cannot take decisive action against them. The army likes to portray itself as the guardian of democracy but is in fact an obstacle to it. At the moment, the return to "true" democracy in Pakistan looks bleak. The Kashmir conflict has for half a century marred relations between India and Pakistan and is currently the biggest security threat in the region. The intensification of the conflict since 1989 in the form of an insurgency against Indian rule was in large measure due to growth of political Islam. At the moment, the unresolved Kashmir conflict remains the biggest security threat on the subcontinent. The Taliban movement was created and nurtured by Pakistan and support for its regime in Afghanistan was a cornerstone of Pakistan's foreign policy. Although the Taliban regime has been defeated militarily, it can still present a long-term challenge to a future government in Afghanistan. The presence of the Al Qaeda "cells" in Pakistan's tribal areas and in some of the major cities pose a security threat, especially if they ally themselves with the country's most militant groups. In this sense the Taliban will not go away, but continue to represent a security challenge to Pakistan and the new government of Afghanistan.

Publications with same geographic focus:

Report in External Series

Providing development aid to Africa: comparing South Africa with China, India and Brazil

Elling N. Tjønneland (2013) Cape Town: South African Foreign Policy Initiative, Open Society Foundation for South Africa (SAFPI Policy Brief no. No 25, February 2013) 8 p.

Edited Book

Nye stormakter i Afrika. Utvikling eller utbytting?

Elling N. Tjønneland, red. (2012) Oslo: Scandinavian Academic Press/Spartacus 320 p.

Journal Article (Peer-Reviewed)

Waging war and building peace in Afghanistan

Astri Suhrke (2012) in International Peacekeeping vol. 19 no. 4 pp. 478-491

Author:

Are John Knudsen

Social anthropologist focusing on peace and conflict in South Asia and the Middle East.

By the same author:

ARABIC EDITION: Palestinian refugees: Identity, space and place in the Levant
Jaber Suleiman, Are Knudsen and Sari Hanafi (forthcoming)

Popular Protest, Politics and Post-Islamism in the New Middle East
Are Knudsen and Basem Ezbidi (forthcoming)

War and migration
Are Knudsen, Arne Strand, and Erlend Paasche (2013)

Lebanon After the Cedar Revolution
Are Knudsen and Michael Kerr (2012)

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