No Easy Choices in War on Extremism, Says Najam
Prof. Adil Najam, Dean of the Boston Univeristy Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, believes that many Muslim countries, including Pakistan, are now very ready but not very able to counter violent extremism in their societies. This is because violent extremism has now become a monstrous global phenomenon that can neither be easily contained nor tackled within individual countries. Prof. Najam said this while talking to the Singapore-based Channel NewsAsia on the US President Barack Obama’s White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism, held on Feb. 18.
In commenting on the White House Summit, with particular reference to counter-terrorism efforts in Pakistan, Prof. Najam suggested that in the last year Pakistan has turned an important corner after a particularly horrendous set of attacks by Taliban groups. As a result, Pakistan is now engaged in its most serious and concerted anti-terrorism effort of this decade. He suggested that in a number of other Muslim countries a similar backlash is seen to the inhuman atrocities now being committed by violent extremists.
While Prof. Najam sees a trend in a new earnestness to counter extremism in Muslim countries, he cautions that the fight itself has become much more difficult for all these countries because of the global connections of militant groups and also because of their new and brutal fighting strategies. Most countries, including Pakistan, are now having a difficult time to implement their new resolve. It is in this connection that a thrust by the United States and a common global strategy against violent extremism is, Prof. Najam says, most timely.