Pakistan and Afghanistan Essay -- Politics, War, Turmoil

From the 1980s onwards, Pakistan and Afghanistan have been at the forefront of numerous socio-political events germane to the bob up of Moslem fundamentalism. The multifarious factors involved form a perplexing clear of competing narratives that resist straightforward explanation. This essay volition delve into the milieu, seeking utility(a) theories to construct a cogent thesis for the growth of fundamentalism. In doing so, it will examine the Islamisation policies of Pakistans Zia-ul-Haq administration and its congruence with United States interests at the time. peculiar(a) focus will be given to the Afghanistan Pakistan dyad and how the recent give up of international forces perpetuates the conditions that allow Islamic fundamentalism to prosper.As a state whose tip raison dtre is for the protection of Muslims, Pakistan had historically struggled with defining what its Islamic mandate entailed. Arriving in condition via a coup dtat, Zia-ul-Haq employed religion to attai n touristed legitimacy, orchestrating Islamic reform as a deceitful pretence for securing index (Kennedy 1990 73). Correspondingly, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan solidified the role of Islamic politics, with Zia-ul-Haq exhibiting a limpid preference for radical groups as a counterweight to communist political theory (Fuller 1991 11). The most visible sign of creeping religiosity appe ared in 1982 with the closure that national dress and Islamic studies were mandatory for political science employees (Cohen 1988 314). Underlying this conversion, the government funded the expansion of an increasingly radical madrasa based education dust - with the intention to transform the electoral landscape and boost support for Islamic parties (Nasr 2000 147). Through th... ...ndamentalists who demur at the states very existence, we dope opine that Pakistan may already have crossed the Rubicon. This essay has elucidated that Pakistan and Afghanistan are a point of convergence for a li tany of failed, arguably asinine policies by both the chief protagonists and outside interests. As such, the rise of Islamic fundamentalism represents the licit endpoint for an array of policies that mobilised extremist religious dogma to achieve geostrategic objectives. Crucially, the abject failure of all involved to disband and reintegrate those forces into a legitimate Afghan state has proved calamitous in its consequences. With recent international intervention bolstering the ideological sources of fundamentalism and with the nexus of instability spreading fat into Pakistan, the continued prominence of Islamic fundamentalism appears inevitable.