AN ANALYSIS OF EXTREMIST'S AND COUNTER EXTREMISM NARRATIVES IN PAKISTA

Abstract

Extremism and counter-extremism have significantly been focused on in literature over the last few decades. Counter extremist narratives have been emphasised lately as a meaningful way of addressing extremism and extremist narratives, along with other means of countering extremism. There have been some efforts· in the post 9/11 period to build some peaceful narratives to counter extremism. However, this study asserts that state-led narratives have securitised extremism resulting in security-driven counter-narratives, which appear to have limited appeal and credibility. These security-driven narratives primarily focus on the violent manifestation of extremism while undermining the importance of extremism's ideological, ideational, cultural, social and political aspects. Additionally, the counter-narrative building process does not appear to be built on the themes propagated in extremist narratives or counter the extremist's influence effectively. Extremist elements seem to have successfully built their narratives based on public grievances while associating themselves with the local culture, language and identity. In contrast, the counter-narratives does not cater to these aspects. Dissemination of extremist narratives has been very effective since the state has been a facilitator of these narratives, along with non-state and foreign actors, which makes building and disseminating counter-extremism narratives more problematic. Hence, narrative and counter-narrative building leads to furthering the divide at social, political, cultural and religious levels. This study proposes a more socially constructed narrative with greater appeal for the masses to counter extremism since it appears that the counter-extremism narratives are not circulated well and do not seem to accommodate the cultural and linguistic sensitivities adequately. Also, the state-led narratives have not been substantiated through adequate policy implementation. Hence the counter-extremism achievements have remained limited. Without addressing the social, economic, and political grievances, which tend to translate into a source of exploitation and resentment, without building counter narratives around the extremists' themes, any effort to counter extremism and extremist narrative cannot have impactful appeal.