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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Pakistan
Index
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto introduced certain Islamic
practices,
notably prohibition of alcoholic beverages, into the army,
and
Zia encouraged still more, including the assignment of
mullahs (see Glossary)
as chaplains, some of whom reportedly go
into
combat with the troops. Modest mosques have been built in
military training areas, Islamic texts are being
introduced into
training courses, mid-grade officers must take courses and
examinations on Islam, and there are serious attempts
under way
to define an Islamic military doctrine, as distinct from
the
"Western" doctrines that the Pakistanis have been
following.
In the early 1990s, Islamic military doctrine had not
replaced more traditional military doctrines, and it
probably
never will. Military affairs specialist Stephen P. Cohen
has,
however, highlighted several interesting points that have
emerged. For instance, Islam has traditionally been
identified
with the concept of jihad, a righteous religious
"striving"
against unbelievers, and Islamic governments have been
assiduous
in describing whatever wars they fight--even against other
Muslims--as jihad. Recent thinking, however, has
emphasized that
jihad is not a perpetual invitation to wage war against
nonbelievers and, indeed, that it need not necessarily
entail
violence. More specifically, Pakistani writers have
rejected as
un-Islamic the idea of total war that emerged in Europe in
the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They emphasize the
Quranic
injunctions to conciliation and persuasion and see force
only as
a last resort.
Further, these Pakistani theorists see the function of
force
less as a capability for combat than as something that
strikes
terror into the hearts of enemies and thus can actually
prevent
war. There is an obvious parallel here to the idea that
the most
terrifying of all weapons, nuclear ordnance, can act as a
deterrent to war. Many Western military writers have
portrayed
the era of United States-Soviet mutual deterrence in these
terms,
and some have even applied this view as a rationale for
Pakistani
and Indian nuclear capabilities. Pakistani writers find
this
approach a convenient justification for their nuclear
programs,
and, indeed, most of the "Islamic" thinking on war still
looks
more like retroactive rationalizations for strategies
already
adopted rather than guideposts to new departures.
Furthermore,
Pakistanis are well aware that air combat tactics or
at-sea
replenishment techniques are not determined by religion,
and the
armed forces will continue to look for secular guidance.
At the personnel level, the generation of cosmopolitan
officers who were trained in British and United States
traditions
and consider religion a purely personal matter is passing
from
the scene. The new generation of officers is less exposed
to
foreign influences and is, increasingly, a product of a
society
that has been much more influenced by "orthodox" Islam, in
which
the primacy of Islam is continually emphasized and
accepted.
Relatively few Pakistanis have turned to Islamic
fundamentalism, and because of the demands of their
profession,
Pakistani officers and soldiers seem likely to keep at
least one
foot in the modernist camp. Senior generals are reportedly
concerned about religion looming too large in military
affairs,
but unless there are major changes in society and
politics, the
armed forces may increasingly see itself as an Islamic as
well as
a nationalist force.
Data as of April 1994
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