Reflections from Pakistan XII: Malala’s Swat Valley

Until a few years ago, Pakistan's Swat Valley was a serene, beautiful region known only to a handful of foreign and Pakistani domestic tourists. All that changed with the gradual infiltration of the valley by Taliban extremists during the 2000s. In fact, by 2006 the Pakistani state had lost control of most of the valley. The Pakistani state was left protecting Buddhist relics in the Swat Museum and a few other isolated pockets of authority, mostly in the form of minor paramilitary bases.

However, with the gradual Taliban takeover of the valley, alarm bells rang in Islamabad. Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, is approximately 250 kilometres and a four hours drive from the Swat's largest town, Mingora. (As the crow flies, the distance between the two cities is approximately 135 kilometers.)

Additionally, Swat is part of Pakistan 'proper,' civil courts, Constitution and all. The Swat Valley is not part of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). There is no comparison between Swat and South Waziristan.

Pakistani soldiers raise the Pakistan flag at the Baine Baba Ziarat, the highest point in the Swat Valley located at a height of approximately 2,130 meters 

Initially uncertain about how to respond to the Taliban's encroachment on Pakistani territory, the state marshalled its forces and acted in 2009. Taking advantage of an unprecedented act of 'Islamic' justice – the whipping of a teenage girl by extremists in a public square – the government lined up public opinion behind a massive military offensive intended to eject Islamic militants from the Swat Valley.

Following bloody street battles and hand to hand combat, the military emerged victorious and declared victory a few months after Operation Rah-e-Rast began in May 2009. The operation came with a heavy price tag: millions of Swatis became temporarily homeless and street fighting had destroyed much physical infrastructure in the valley.

As Malala's optimism testifies, the war was worth the cost. The Swat Valley is open for tourism again. As a visitor to the Swat Valley myself late last year, I bear witness to the Valley's beauty and also its return to normalcy.

Surely, isolated (and unacceptable) acts of violence still occur across the Valley. However, the Taliban has been driven out. Girl schools are open. Women walk the streets alone – subject to 'pre-Taliban' social constraints imposed by the traditionally conservative Pashtun culture. Swat's residents radiate hope and happiness; more so than most other parts of Pakistan. Electricity shortages mean nothing to Swat's residents, they are happy simply to breathe freely again.

Most importantly, an unambiguous and defiant message has been delivered to the Pakistani Taliban by the Pakistani state and people: there is a line in the sand beyond which Islamist encroachment onto the country's 'mainland' will not be tolerated.

One may find many reasons to criticize the Pakistan army, beginning with General Zia's disastrous 'Islamization' process in the 1980s. However, any visitor (or resident) to the Swat Valley can do nothing but praise the Pakistani military. The army has brought order back to the valley – restoring hope and sanity in the process. If Pakistan has only one success story from its war against the Taliban, the Swat Valley has to be it.

View a small selection of my photos from the Swat Valley here.

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Imran is a business and management consultant. Through his work at Deodar Advisors and the Deodar Diagnostic, Imran improves profits of businesses operating in Singapore and the region. He can be reached at imran@deodaradvisors.com. 

Burning mosques, fasting and the world's extremists

These days it is the Islamic world which typically finds itself on the wrong side of human freedoms. The list of 'taboo' subjects not addressed by most Muslim societies is long. Often the subjects are dominated by issues pertaining to religious orthodoxy and women's rights. Witness the mental energies spent discussing the participation of Saudi Arabian women (two in total) in the 2012 Olympic Games.

Sometimes, however, the shoe is on the opposite foot.

I am not referring only to the Norwegian white supremacist who tragically shot many of his compatriots about one year ago. There are several other instances which beckoned me to write this post.

Consider the firing of four French local government workers for fasting (it is the fasting month of Ramzan for Muslims) during working hours. The town council is managed by the French communist party and it seems communists are as rigid in interpreting Marxist 'Holy Scriptures' as Muslims. However, at least this is not a case of white supremacist ideology but rather a particular version of 'secularist' philosophy.

Farther afield, in the US, circumstances are slightly different.

The shooting of American Sikhs allegedly by a 40 year old US army veteran seems very much like a hate crime. The shooter is apparently a neo-Nazi targeting non-white Americans. Or the mosque burnt to the ground in the state of Missouri. It may be too early to point fingers at white supremacists in the mosque burning incident, however, it is difficult to argue the Muslim place of worship was a random target.

There is no dearth of international 'hate crime' incidents for me to cite. But preparing a longer list serves no useful purpose, other than perhaps providing more empirical evidence. Instead, it is more helpful if to draw some conclusions from the facts.

1. Islam has no monopoly on extremist nutcases;
2. Extremists are dangerous, period. Any ideology taken to an extreme and rigidly interpreted is dangerous;
3. Stopping violent crimes is important but is only one part of the equation. Longer term, addressing the philosophical underpinnings of violent extremism is as important, if not more, in arresting the proliferation of dangerous ideas.

Undoubtedly, the Muslim world has problems with extremist thought. However, the problem is not Islam's alone. Islam's dangerous ideas did not develop in a vacuum. These ideas developed in a post-war world dominated by Western powers often demonstrating brutally arrogant behaviors against ideological opponents, Islamic or otherwise.

Extremists from differing sides of the secularist and / or white supremacist - Islamist divide have a symbiotic relationship which thrives on each others' unreasonableness. After all, politics is not immune from Newton's Third Law of Motion which states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

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Imran is a business and management consultant. Through his work at Deodar Advisors and the Deodar Diagnostic, Imran improves profits of businesses operating in Singapore and the region. He can be reached at imran@deodaradvisors.com.