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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
Islam and Pakistan’s Political Culture Page 1