An intense debate is raging in the country over whether peace will be achieved through dialogue or if an operation necessary to get rid of the menace of extremism and terrorism. I have bad news for the nation. Neither dialogue nor a military operation will end militancy and extremism in the near future.

This beast has been fed and nurtured over decades and has not become the monster that it is overnight. The nation’s attention is focused on the apex of the problem – and rightly so, because it is the most immediate concern. However, the nature of extremism is much like the safety pyramid used for improving safety systems in the industrial world. The worst thing that can happen in an industrial accident is a fatality. But if all you do is deal with the most proximate causes of the incident which caused a fatality then you will never have a truly safe work place. For that you have to have a holistic programme.

At the base of the safety pyramid are unsafe acts and unsafe behaviour and at the pinnacle is a fatality, with increasing severity of injuries in between. Similarly extremism can also be seen as a pyramid. At the base are intolerant beliefs and intolerant behaviour and at the pinnacle is violent murderous militancy. In safety systems the rule of thumb is that if there are 3,000 unsafe acts it will result in one fatality. In other words pervasive unsafe attitudes are directly linked with fatalities. So if you want to avoid fatalities you have to shrink the base of the pyramid – reduce unsafe behaviour.

Applying this concept to the fight against militancy, the battle will not be won unless we take a holistic approach. Till intolerance and hatred is rampant in society no operation or dialogue with a group of people will be the permanent solution.

This is not to argue against the need for an urgent resolution to the crises at hand, just an acknowledgement that this reprieve, even if successful, will be short-lived. The ‘supply chain’ of extremism and hatred will generate a new crop of militants.

We have to go to the root causes of why and where such intolerant behaviour is taking shape and dry up the swamp. How are we seemingly losing the ideological battle against people who preach a myopic hate filled view of the world?

We have the most potent weapons in our arsenal and yet we continue to cede territory. No I am not referring to our nuclear weapons or the loss of physical territory. I am referring to the teachings of the Quran and the life of the Prophet (pbuh). How can the followers of a faith which says the killing of one innocent is the equivalent to the killing of the entire humanity, kill innocent people with abandon? How can the followers of a Prophet (pbuh) who forgave his worst enemies and even showed concern for someone who only abused and tormented him, be so full of hatred and intolerance?

How can the land where the Sufis preached the message of Islam, from whom the world learnt the meaning of tolerance, become so intolerant? What is it that we are teaching in our schools, our seminaries and our homes which is driving our people away from the true message of Islam and away from the dream of Iqbal and the vision of Jinnah?

We need a dire change in our priorities to make sure that every child is in school and studying curricula that teaches them not just functional skills but the true meaning of the Quran, the life of unparalleled tolerance of the Prophet (pbuh), the message of love and brotherhood spread by the likes of Data Ganj Baksh, Bulleh Shah and Shah Abdul Lateef, who have bequeathed us an incredible legacy of humanity. Every child in Pakistan needs to learn about Iqbal’s dream of Pakistan and every child must be made aware of the vision of Quaid-e-Azam.

We must crack down on hate speech and hate literature. These are available in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad; one does not need to reach the hills of Waziristan to find the sanctuaries of these hate mongers. The south of Punjab has been a hot bed of sectarian militias for decades now. What has been stopping us from clamping down on them? Thousands of people have been gunned down in sectarian killings. What more are we waiting for before we act?

The state of Pakistan has been getting weaker as the years go by. This has encouraged those who challenge the state. The mindset of dealing with the weakness of the state by outsourcing or bypassing it is a very dangerous state of mind. We must realise that it is not possible for the state to be a failure and for citizens and society to be peaceful and prosperous. Our fates are linked with the capacity of the state and unless we work assiduously to strengthen it there is no turnaround.

Unless we strengthen the capacity of our intelligence agencies and equip our police to fight extremism and terrorism we will continue to struggle. The army was never meant to deal with these challenges and the fact that we have no choice but to fall back on it for dealing with internal strife is an admission of monumental failure and the result of misplaced priorities.

We must also start to address the injustice and inequality in society, which create the conditions that make disenfranchised youth vulnerable to messages of hate and intolerance. Society has direct interest in addressing issues like elite capture and abuse of state institutions, and increasing inequalities in society. With TV channels showing these glaring examples of injustice daily, the people of the country are in an angry mood. It is easy in an atmosphere like this to sell the message of hatred and give people a way to vent the frustration and humiliation they face in their daily lives.

The first step in dealing with any challenge is to admit that it exists. We must realise that the message of hate poses an existential threat to the nation. There is a physical element of the threat that is seen almost on a daily basis with loss of lives of innocent Pakistanis. However, for me the threat is even bigger than that. It is the threat of losing the battle for the soul of Pakistan. This battle for the soul of the nation is worth fighting for, but we must remember that this battle will never be won just through the gun. We have far more potent weapons in our arsenal for this fight and we must use all, and not just some, of them.

The writer is senior vice president of the Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf.

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