Sunni extremist groups in Pakistan

 Initially, the geographical proximity between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Pakistan as well as good relations between the two countries’ governments reduced the pressures on Shi’ahs. But because the country’s Shi’ahs, more than any other group, became pleased with the Iranian Revolution, the idea that the Revolution had only belonged to Shi’ahs and that its next target is Pakistan, raised concerns over Iran’s Islamic Revolution among the political leaders of Sunni religious groups causing their negative reactions regarding Iran and its policies. This gradually led to the intensification of the pressures on Shi’ahs. The proximity of Pakistani Shi’ahs to Iran has led to the objection of the Sunni extremist groups. Some groups within Pakistan’s Sunni community emerged whose main aim was confronting groups that in some way sought the occurrence of an Islamic revolution in Pakistan. One of these groups was Sipah-e Sahabah, which was formed in September 1985 under the leadership of one of the leading figures of the Islamic ulema and also under the influence of Wahhabi ideas. Sipah-e Sahabah expanded rapidly. According to Zia al-Rahman Faruqi, Sipah-e Sahabah is a reaction against Iran’s Islamic Revolution and seeks to prevent its expansion among the people of Pakistan. 

He has repeatedly accused Iran of giving weapons and money to the Movement for the Implementation of Ja’fari Jurisprudence calling on the Pakistani government to close the Islamic Republic of Iran’s House of Culture. Sipah-e Sahabah has been involved in almost all of the religious assassinations that occurred in Pakistan in the last three decades. 

It should be noted that until the 1970s, religious extremism was limited to a few Shi’ah-Sunni conflicts during the mourning ceremonies. In the late 1970s and under the banner of the Islamization plan devised by Zia al-al Haqq, the extremist Islamist Sunni groups such as Sipah-e Sahabah gained more freedom to act increasing their sphere of demands from general governmental demands to the specific ones.

In the face of such excessive demands of the extremist Sunnis, Shi’ahs have also formed religious, political, and military groups to confront them. From that time on, sectarian conflicts intensified and many Shi’ahs and Sunnis were killed. On the other hand, Zia al-Haqq ordered the implementation of Islamic laws and introduced the shari’ah bill in the parliament and gave an Islamic appearance to the government. On the other hand, by attracting many Sunni scholars and indirectly supporting them, he pretended to be a real defender of them in the face of the attacks of Shi’ah Islam.

Thus, the victory of Iran’s Islamic Revolution was the beginning of a new phase in the escalation of sectarian conflicts, which later on also were intensified during the time of Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif, and General Musharraf. Even today, this country is burning in the flames of discord and conflict. Therefore, the spiritual influence of the Iranian Revolution on Pakistan incited and strengthened extremist forces in the country against the Shi’ahs.

Saudi Arabia:

Before Iran’s Islamic Revolution, Saudi Arabia was considered the undisputed leader of the Islamic world and therefore it had a privileged position in the world. After Iran’s Islamic Revolution, this country was also introduced as the leader of the Islamic world and Muslim nations. This ultimately led to the beginning of a kind of ideological competition between Iran and Saudi Arabia over the leadership position in the Islamic world, and Iran and Saudi Arabia became the leaders of two different and even conflicting religious ideologies. The triumph of Iran’s Islamic Revolution coincided with some events which occurred in Saudi Arabia, such as holding mourning ceremonies in the Day of Ashura on November 29, 1979, by the Shi’ahs while they have been banned from doing so, and the uprising of the Ka’bah in the same year. These events increased Saudis’ fears and showed Iran as a threat to them.

Furthermore, these events along with the ideology raised by Iran’s Islamic Revolution caused the Saudi regime to feel threatened by a new wave that emerged in the region thereby entering the relationship of Iran and Saudi Arabia into a new phase of tension. From then on, Saudi Arabia sought to export the fundamentalist version of Islam by updating Wahhabism as an ideological rival to the Islamic Revolution so that to protect itself and carry out cultural invasions instead of cultural defence and guarantee its leadership over the Islamic world. 

One of the first policies pursued by Saudi Arabia regarding the countries exposed to the effects of the Islamic Revolution was establishing good relations and expanding bilateral cooperation with them. On the other hand, after the Islamic Revolution succeeded in Iran and the United States lost its most important regional ally in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia began to play a more central role in American policy. Hence, supported by the United States, Saudi Arabia undertook the task of supporting the country’s strengthening of which in the face of revolutionary ideas seemed necessary. Thus, with the triumph of the Islamic Revolution and the promotion of the Shi’ah position in the region and the world, Saudi Arabia tried to take steps towards consolidating its position in the face of Shi’ah groups in Islamic countries. Pakistan was one of the countries where the new situation in the region could have the greatest impact; therefore, Iran’s Islamic Revolution encouraged Saudi leaders to pursue their Salafist goals in Pakistan at various levels especially the public level. From then on, Saudi Arabia’s petrodollars flowed into Pakistan to advance Saudis’ goals and policies, and many social, cultural, and political parties and propaganda groups received support from the Saudi government. 

Given the existing situation and also the geographical position, Pakistan has chosen to maintain good relations with both Iran and Saudi Arabia. As a result, Iran and Saudi Arabia enjoyed full freedom to pursue their ideological activities in Pakistan, which resulted in sectarianism and tensions between pro-Iran Shi’ahs and pro-Saudi Wahhabis. However, the influence of Saudi Arabia and Wahhabi ideas on Pakistan were first felt during the jihad in Afghanistan, and Saudi Arabia helped Pakistan greatly in promoting jihad in Afghanistan. At that time, such financial aids were mostly spent on the establishment of religious schools in Pakistan, so that students of these schools would become a jihadi in Afghanistan and fight against the Soviets. Given that most of the teachers of these schools had educated in Saudi Arabia’s extremist schools, their lessons were based on teaching religious intolerance and, as a result, introducing those who do not follow Salafi and Wahhabi movement as infidels and polytheists. Therefore, during the years of jihad in Afghanistan, a large volume of extremist and sectarian literature was published in Pakistan. One of Saudi Arabia’s goals in spreading Wahhabi ideas has been to stir up anti-Shi’ah sentiments and create divisions among Shi’ahs and Sunnis. Saudi Arabia’s political inclinations to exploit this religious extremist current in Pakistan and Afghanistan so that to limit the implications of Iran’s Islamic Revolution and prevent its dissemination are so obvious that no explanation is needed.

Pakistani and non-Pakistani analysts have repeatedly stated that over the past three decades Pakistan has been involved in a proxy war taking place between Iran and Saudi Arabia on Pakistani soil. In an article titled “Salafism and Terrorism in Afghanistan,” an Afghan author addressed this issue and stated: “With the triumph of Iran’s Islamic Revolution and the export of Shi’ah values ​​by Iran to neighbouring countries, and considering that Iran supported and encouraged the Shi’ah minorities in those countries to stand up against the governments whom Iran saw as enemies on the one hand and the occupation of Afghanistan by the Soviet Communist forces, on the other, the revival of Salafist jihadist movements by the Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries became necessary so that they could confront the influence of Iran and introduce themselves as those who fight against Communist infidels.”

Relations between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan reached their peak during Zia al-Haqq’s rule. Ruling for more than a decade, General Zia al-Haqq who was following the Deobandi school of thought, visited Saudi Arabia twenty-seven times. This is a sign of the depth of his relationship with Saudi Arabia. During this period, Saudi Arabia’s propaganda and religious activities reached their peak, and with the policy of Zia al-Haqq to Islamize Pakistan, the grounds were provided for the spread of Wahhabism in Pakistan. Wahhabism is propagated in Pakistan through various cultural, scientific, educational, financial ways including providing assistance to the Pakistani government, educating and paying money to the students, building mosques, academic activities, financing religious schools, building propaganda centers, promoting the Arabic language, hiring the Pakistani labour forces in Saudi Arabia and helping the Wahhabi-affiliated political organizations. Such activities will only result in the strengthening of terrorist and violent groups and the escalation of the Shi’ah and Sunni tensions as well as the increase of violence and sectarian killings. Furthermore, the combination of Wahhabism with Pashtun ethnocentrism and the Deobandi school of thought also gave rise to Talibanism in the region, which has played a major role in promoting a culture of violence and terror against Shi’ahs.

The United States:

The occurrence of Iran’s Islamic Revolution in the American island of stability has, on the one hand, upset the balance of power and on the other hand caused the emergence of a new power on the basis of the Islamic ideology and separate from the world’s dominant ideologies as Iran’s main foreign policy framework was declared, that is to say, “neither East nor West – but the Islamic Republic.”

Countless facts and reasons show that the United States and the West were surprised by the Iranian Revolution and could not take any action to prevent it; But the subtle point is that, unlike in the case of the occurrence of the revolution, in the case of the reflection and influence of the revolution on other countries, they had enough time to anticipate its transnational influences and implications in addition to having the experience of dealing with other revolutions, such as the French Revolution, and enjoying more time and facilities. 

Western politicians have concluded that the Iranian Revolution would influence the entire Middle East if it is not disturbed by the foreign and regional elements of the international and regional system. Meanwhile, the idea of ​​exporting the Revolution as one of the unchangeable principles of Iran’s foreign policy added to American concerns. Thus, awareness of the geopolitical situation and the teachings of the Shi’ah revolution in Iran led the United States to do its utmost to prevent Iran’s success in the region.

Therefore, the United States began monitoring all countries to which the revolution could be exported in some way. On the other hand, after the Iranian Revolution, while Afghanistan was under Soviet occupation, the United States lost its important base in the region. Therefore, to prevent the infiltration of the ideas of the Islamic Revolution into the neighbouring countries and oppose communism in the region it tried to strengthen governments that might be affected by these developments. In the meantime, Iran’s easy and quick access to Pakistan due to their shared borders, the presence of a significant Shi’ah population, and the activities of Iranian institutions in that country doubled the United States’ concern. That’s why Iran became a priority in American foreign policy.

While launching a propaganda campaign, the United States has sought to portray Iran’s Islamic Revolution as a Shi’ah revolution that seeks to establish another Shi’ah government in Pakistan with the help of its Shi’ahs in order to export its values. In this regard, emphasizing Shi’ah and Sunni differences has provided the pretext for intensifying this propaganda, so much so that the American could make Pakistan’s Sunni religious groups have a negative view of the Iranian Revolution thereby opposing it.

The second axis pursued by the United States to prevent the Iranian Revolution from influencing Pakistan was to encourage the Pakistani government towards Islamism.

Given the inclination of Pakistani Muslims towards Islam, the growth of Islamism in Pakistani governments would give them more legitimacy and also prevent the spread of the revolutionary ideas of Iran’s Islamic Revolution. As former American Secretary of State Henry Kissinger points out, the best way to counter the spread of the Islamic Revolution and prevent its spread and influence among other Islamic societies is creating a guided Islamic movement among Sunnis, which must also be in line with the policies and demands of the American government. This policy was pursued both inside and outside of the territorial borders of Iran. Thus, by planning and spending large sums of money in Pakistani religious schools, extremist groups such as Sipah-e Sahabah in Pakistan and later a phenomenon called the Taliban were formed. Zia al-Haqq’s government played a key role in implementing these policies. General Zia al-Haqq, who was the pioneer of Islamism in Pakistan during his rule which lasted more than a decade, then, in coordination with the United States and Saudi Arabia, ordered that the Islamic law should be enacted and made decisions regarding the pass of shari’ah law. By issuing orders such as banning the sale of alcoholic beverages he tried to make the government seem more Islamic to Islamists. On the other hand, by supporting many Sunni scholars indirectly he could introduce himself as the one who defends and advocates Sunnism in the face of the ideologies stem from the Shi’ah Iranian Revolution.

Therefore, it was natural that the United States welcomes the implementation of such laws to prevent Iran’s influence in Pakistan, so we see that when the Shari’ah Act was passed in Pakistan in 1991, the American ambassador to Islamabad expressed congratulations on Zia al-Haqq for the success of enforcing the Islamic laws.

Finally, the influence and trans-territorial, informal, and non-governmental power of Shiism in the region as a very favourable setting for exercising soft power has shown that the idea of ​​the Islamic Revolution, in terms of the nature of Islamic behaviours and approaches, can be an influential and strategic alternative to the “Wahhabi-British Islam” and “American liberal Islam” in the modern world and create internal cohesion in the Islamic world by strengthening the logical and moderate elements of the Islamist political character; Therefore, it has provoked many reactions, the most obvious of which is the anti-Shi’ah sectarian violence. On the other hand, external elements in Pakistan are seeking to strengthen the collective identity of Pakistani extremists by directing the acts of violence against the Shi’ahs of Pakistan and use them for their regional strategic goals. If the United States, the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia feel that there is a general political current in the region in favour of Iran as the “Shi’ah Geopolitical Heartland,” they will increase their pressure on the Shi’ah community in the region, including Pakistan. In this regard, anti-Shi’ah sectarian violence is the most dangerous of such pressures. Accordingly, anti-Shi’ah violence in Pakistan is also a kind of preventive attack against the influence and empowerment of Shi’ahs in this region.

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