Islam and Pakistan’s Political Culture Read online

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  Islam and Pakistan’s Political Culture

  This book explores the ideological rivalry which is fuelling political instability

  in Muslim polities, discussing this in relation to Pakistan. It argues that the

  principal dilemma for Muslim polities is how to reconcile modernity and

  tradition. It discusses existing scholarship on the subject, outlines how

  Muslim political thought and political culture have developed over time, and

  then relates all this to Pakistan’s political evolution, present political culture,

  and growing instability. The book concludes that traditionalist and secularist

  approaches to reconciling modernity and tradition have not succeeded, and

  have in fact led to instability, and that a revivalist approach is more likely to

  be successful.

  Farhan Mujahid Chak is an Assistant Professor in the Department of

  International Affairs at Qatar University, Doha, Qatar.

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  Durham Modern Middle East and Islamic World Series

  Series Editor: Anoushiravan Ehteshami, University of Durham

  1. Economic Development in

  9. The Secret Israeli–Palestinian

  Saudi Arabia

  Negotiations in Oslo

  Rodney Wilson, with Abdullah

  Their success and why the process

  Al-Salamah, Monica Malik

  ultimately failed

  and Ahmed Al-Rajhi

  Sven Behrendt

  2. Islam Encountering

  10. Globalization and Geopolitics in the

  Globalisation

  Middle East

  Edited by Ali Mohammadi

  Old games, new rules

  Anoushiravan Ehteshami

  3. China’s Relations with Arabia

  and the Gulf, 1949–1999

  11. Iran–Europe Relations

  Mohamed Bin Huwaidin

  Challenges and opportunities

  Seyyed Hossein Mousavian

  4. Good Governance in the Middle

  East Oil Monarchies

  12. Islands and International Politics in

  Edited by Tom Pierre Najem

  the Persian Gulf

  and Martin Hetherington

  The Abu Musa and Tunbs in

  strategic perspective

  Kourosh Ahmadi

  5. The Middle East’s Relations with

  Asia and Russia

  13. Monetary Union in the Gulf

  Edited by Hannah Carter and

  Prospects for a single currency in

  Anoushiravan Ehteshami

  the Arabian Peninsula

  Emilie Rutledge

  6. Israeli Politics and the Middle East

  Downloaded by [University of Connecticut] at 18:26 09 January 2017

  Peace Process, 1988–2002

  14. Contested Sudan

  Hassan A. Barari

  The political economy of war

  and reconstruction

  7. The Communist Movement in the

  Ibrahim Elnur

  Arab World

  Tareq Y. Ismael

  15. Palestinian Politics and the Middle

  East Peace Process

  8. Oman – The Islamic

  Consensus and competition in the

  Democratic Tradition

  Palestinian negotiation team

  Hussein Ghubash

  Ghassan Khatib

  16. Islam in the Eyes of the West

  26. Social and Gender Inequality

  Images and realities in an age

  in Oman

  of terror

  The power of religious and

  Edited by Tareq Y. Ismael and

  political tradition

  Andrew Rippin

  Khalid M. Al-Azri

  17. Islamic Extremism in Kuwait

  27. American Democracy Promotion

  From the Muslim Brotherhood to

  in the Changing Middle East

  Al-Qaeda and other Islamic

  From Bush to Obama

  political groups

  Edited by Shahram Akbarzadeh,

  Falah Abdullah al-Mdaires

  James Piscatori, Benjamin

  MacQueen and Amin Saikal

  18. Iraq, Democracy and the Future of

  the Muslim World

  28. China–Saudi Arabia Relations,

  Edited by Ali Paya and John Esposito

  1990–2012

  Marriage of convenience or

  19. Islamic Entrepreneurship

  strategic alliance?

  Rasem N. Kayed and

  Naser M. Al-Tamimi

  M. Kabir Hassan

  29. Adjudicating Family Law in

  20. Iran and the International System

  Muslim Courts

  Edited by Anoushiravan Ehteshami

  Cases from the contemporary

  and Reza Molavi

  Muslim world

  Edited by Elisa Giunchi

  21. The International Politics of the

  Red Sea

  30. Muslim Family Law in

  Anoushiravan Ehteshami and

  Western Courts

  Emma C. Murphy

  Edited by Elisa Giunchi

  22. Palestinian Christians in Israel

  31. Anti-Veiling Campaigns in the

  State attitudes towards

  Muslim World

  non-Muslims in a Jewish State

  Gender, modernism and the

  Una McGahern

  politics of dress

  Edited by Stephanie Cronin

  23. Iran–Turkey Relations, 1979–2011

  Conceptualising the dynamics of

  32. Russia–Iran Relations Since the

  politics, religion and security in

  End of the Cold War

  middle-power States

  Eric D. Moore

  Suleyman Elik

  Downloaded by [University of Connecticut] at 18:26 09 January 2017

  33. Islam and Pakistan’s

  24. The Sudanese Communist Party

  Political Culture

  Ideology and party politics

  Farhan Mujahid Chak

  Tareq Y. Ismael

  25. The Muslim Brotherhood in

  Contemporary Egypt

  Democracy defined or confined?

  Mariz Tadros

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  Islam and Pakistan’s

  Political Culture

  Farhan Mujahid Chak

  Downloaded by [University of Connecticut] at 18:26 09 January 2017

  First published 2015

  by Routledge

  2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

  and by Routledge

  711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

  Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

  © 2015 Farhan Mujahid Chak

  The right of Farhan Mujahid Chak to be identified as author of this work

  has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and

  Patent Act 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or

  utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now

  known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in

  any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing


  from the publishers.

  Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or

  registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation

  without intent to infringe.

  British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

  A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

  Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

  Chak, Farhan Mujahid, author.

  Islam and Pakistan’s political culture / Farhan Mujahid Chak.

  pages ; cm. -- (Durham modern Middle East and Islamic world series ; 33)

  1. Islam and politics--Pakistan. 2. Islam and politics. 3. Political culture--

  Pakistan. 4. Knowledge, Theory of (Islam) 5. Pakistan--History.

  6. Pakistan--Politics and government. I. Title. II. Series: Durham modern

  Middle East and Islamic world series ; 33.

  BP63.P18C435 2015

  306.2095491--dc23

  2014007886

  ISBN: 978-1-138-78838-1 (hbk)

  ISBN: 978-1-315-81908-2 (ebk)

  Typeset in Times New Roman

  by Taylor & Francis Books

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  I wish to dedicate this book to my mother who will, forever, be my

  greatest teacher. Her spirituality, devotion and ‘Fira-sa’ translated

  every life experience into a God-sent message that taught me to be

  both strong and innocent, warrior and poet, proud and humble.

  And to my father, whose life has been a symbol of self-sacrifice,

  lofty idealism, loyalty and courage. His quiet struggle to provide

  for his family made him sacrifice so much of what he loved.

  Esra,

  As¸kım,

  Bir Tanem,

  ‘Me chu she sith mohabbat’.

  All that I did not like,

  Was exactly what I needed

  Faris,

  Janan,

  Hayatim,

  maang kenhteh,

  A precious gift from God,

  Your presence allows me to feel

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  His Divine Mercy.

  The Cruel and the Critic

  My heart is a glass

  Caught between the two stones

  Of the Cruel and the Critic

  I lay shattered between fools

  Who offer nothing new,

  Or know only to mimic

  This madness,

  My mind

  Struggles to resist

  Painting the Image of God as Tyrant

  Or removing Him from His Throne

  To sit

  This dark night my soul mourns

  By those who take

  Fragments of Truth to justify

  This dark night by body scorns

  With hands that forsake

  Constants of faith to vilify

  The Cruel speaks only of hate

  A despise for the ‘Other’

  The Critic loathes his own self

  Speaking in the tongue of another

  The Cruel wishes to live in the past

  The Critic wishes to bury it

  Spite takes my soul as a burden

  Shame kills its will to exist

  The touch of the Cruel is scorching

  The Critic cannot be felt

  An unpleasant breath lingers

  With confusing breaths that melt

  The Cruel refuses to think

  To carve a path to a bright, new day

  The Critic refuses to listen

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  Walking a path that will not stay

  A Cruel practice of faith

  Hating those that do not

  They wish to share their misery

  While compassion having forgot

  A Critic’s insolence to faith

  Hating those who do

  Reminded of their shortcomings

  I only wish they knew

  My scattered pieces are trampled

  By those without balance

  Who offer burnt flesh

  Or the flesh of my dead brother

  I gasp for air

  As they persist to smother

  A child is not born

  The children will not play

  From this misery, Oh Allah

  Show me a way, away

  Farhan Mujahid Chak

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  Contents

  List of figures

  xiv

  Maps

  xv

  Chronology of major political events

  xvii

  Acknowledgements

  xxiv

  1

  Introduction

  1

  Research design, strategy and method

  5

  Motivation for this book

  8

  Organization of this book

  11

  2

  Deconstructing political culture

  14

  Introduction

  14

  The importance of political culture

  14

  Defining political culture 17

  Political culture research

  22

  Hegemony

  23

  Clash

  25

  Phenomenology

  27

  Conclusion

  29

  PART 1

  Foundational sphere of inquiry

  33

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  3

  The theory of knowledge and Qur’anic epistemology

  35

  Introduction

  35

  Deconstructing occidental epistemology

  38

  Plausibility

  39

  Denial

  40

  Qur’anic epistemology – ‘certainty of knowing’ 42

  Sources of knowledge

  43

  Intrinsic and extrinsic knowing

  44

  How can I know?

  46

  xii

  Contents

  The Gettier problem and the Qur’anic formula for knowing 47

  Conclusion

  48

  4

  Political values: the Qur’an, Prophetic sayings and

  the Rashidun Era

  54

  Introduction

  54

  Political values from the Qur’an and Prophetic sayings 56

  Rashidun Caliphate – 632–61 AD 65

  The first Caliph: Abu Bakr 632–34 AD 65

  The second Caliph: Umar 634–44 AD 66

  The third Caliph: Uthman 644–56 AD 68

  The fourth Caliph: Ali 656–61 AD 70

  Conclusion

  71

  5

  Islamic civic culture

  76

  Introduction

  76

  The importance of peaceful coexistence

  77

  The conceptual framework for inclusion

  79

  The spirit of coexistence in Islam: a normative framework

  80

  The myth of the ‘Other’ 82

  Linguistic heritage

  88

  Jihad, jizyah and justice

  89

  Conclusion

  90

  PART 2

  Contextual and individual spheres of inquiry

  95

  6

  The Pakistan movement and competing ideologies

  97

  Introduction

  97

  The interaction of religion and society in Islam
/>
  99

  Leadership and the Pakistan movement

  101

  Traditionalist leaders

  102

  The secularists

  103

  The revivalists

  104

  Muhammad Iqbal

  105

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  Muhammad Ali Jinnah

  106

  Conclusion

  108

  7

  Constitutional development in Pakistan

  112

  Introduction

  112

  History

  112

  Birth of a nation: the interim constitution 1947–58 114

  Exploring constitutional development

  114

  The constitutional cases

  117

  Contents

  xiii

  The constitution of 1956

  118

  Collapse of the 1956 Constitution

  119

  The Dosso case

  121

  The third constitution: General Ayub Khan

  121

  The constitution of 1962

  122

  Ayub Khan’s resignation 123

  The 1970 Elections and the Rise of Zulfiqar Bhutto 125

  The Asma Jilani case

  126

  The constitution of 1973

  127

  The scourge of constitutional amendments

  128

  Conclusion

  133

  8

  The ideological discord promoting civil and military hegemony

  138

  Introduction

  138

  Military interventionism in Pakistan

  138

  Two political propensities in Pakistan

  141

  A military-hegemonic political system

  142

  Weakening of military hegemony

  143

  The ‘dominant-party’ political system 145

  Persistence of hegemonic forces

  147

  Conclusion

  149

  9

  Conclusion: the real to the ideal

  155

  Conclusion

  155

  Theoretical assertions

  156

  Applying the ‘foundational’ values 160

  Final thoughts

  162

  Index

  168

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  List of figures

  1.1 Graphic representation of the requisites for political stability in

  Muslim polities, which requires a balance between the three

  spheres of inquiry

  2

  2.1 Graphic representation of the two dominant trends of political

  culture research and their trajectories

  23

  5.1 The normative characteristics of Islamic Civic Culture

  79

  9.1 This graph outlines the entire research and analytical scope

  of this study. It begins with describing political culture research

  trends, leading to Islamic political culture and its three spheres of