Socio-Economic Underpinning of Jihadism in Pakistan

摘要

The rise of the jihadist movement in Pakistan is driven primarily by ideological and religious factors. Decades of indoctrination of a virulent version of radical political Islam has motivated thousands of people-young and old-to take the path of violent jihad to capture political power, and through it, transform the society, economy and culture to bring about what they consider to be a pristine Islamic order. But underpinning the quest for an ideal Islamic state in Pakistan are the harsh socio-economic realities that make jihad extremely attractive to the vast majority of the people-the expanding underclass-that sees jihad as the only way out of the socio-economic deprivation that accompanies their low-level existence in Pakistan.