Veil and four walls: a state of terror in Pakistan 1

The understanding of terrorism should be expanded to encompass the types of violence most often experienced by women, such as rape. Pakistani men, soldiers and civilians have used rape as a strategy of terrorism against Pakistan's women, particularly those who dare to transgress existing social hierarchies or who belong to stigmatized social groups. Moreover, the complex and sometimes contradictory set of criminal, Islamic, and tribal laws on rape and ‘honour killings’ give women little recourse against gender violence and even permit their re-victimization.     

War on terror. Islam and the imperative of democracy

The war on terror, which began with the horrific terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre (WTC) and the Pentagon in the United States (US) on 11 September 2001, has now entered its second year. Much has been happening since. The Taliban regime in Afghanistan, a regime believed to have harboured Al-Qaeda, is now gone. The terrorist organisation Al-Qaeda led by Osama bin Laden is believed to have been disrupted and weakened. The despotic regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, believed by the US as a regime that supported terrorism and posed a threat to international security, has been toppled, and the country is now under American occupation. Despite such significant developments, however, a clear fact remains: terrorism has not been defeated, and in fact, is increasingly more dangerous and more active in perpetrating horrendous terrorist acts against humanity. As long as the world remains threatened by terrorism and terrorists, it seems that the war on terror will still go on indefinitely.¶This paper provides a reflection on the world since the war against terror initiated by the US, the predicaments of Southeast Asian Muslims in such a war on terror, and the imperative of democracy as an important element in a long-term strategy to counter terrorism.     

巴基斯坦的政治伊斯兰透析

巴基斯坦的政治伊斯兰有温和的民族主义与极端的原教旨主义两个层次。但这两者之间的界限常有不确定性和可变性，有时共生共荣，有时却各自为战。巴基斯坦伊斯兰原教旨主义组织在精神和物质上依赖于国外的伊斯兰原教旨主义中心，它在沟通阿拉伯地区与中亚内陆方面起着桥梁与纽带的作用。     

土耳其和巴基斯坦政教关系对比研究

土耳其与巴基斯坦一直具有传统的友好关系,共同的宗教信仰是土耳其与巴基斯坦相互认同的一个重要基石;两国95%以上的居民都是穆斯林,伊斯兰教在两国的政治、经济、社会、文化和外交等方面都起着非常重要的作用。在两国历史发展中都曾出现伊斯兰政治化和政治伊斯兰化的趋势,在全球化的进程中,伊斯兰复兴是两国都要面对的问题。本文试图在探讨土耳其与巴基斯坦建国之初对伊斯兰教的定位的基础上就两国在政教关系方面的异同作较为深入和系统的比较和分析。     

The (non) event of state terror: drones and divine violence

In this article, we interrogate how the logic of the drone reconfigures state terrorism through the politics of (in)visibility. We argue that the everyday life of the drone can be both dull and disastrous, and thus demonstrates how state and non-state terror operate around different logics of visibility and witnessing. Enhanced sight and interpretation of data wrought by drones are distinct from the politicised act of witnessing. State terrorism, however, benefits from the privatisation and depoliticisation of the witnessing of the event through a minimisation of those who appear “visible”. Further, through the language of technology and security, drones help to classify the witnessing of the event. The event produces terror without witness, and without premonition, invoking the omnipresent power of god and thus blending divine retribution with profane catastrophe. We claim that state terror seeks to: (1) limit the exposure of the state to the act of witnessing and remembrance; and (2) through the ethos of privatisation, legalistically control the narrative of violence. In our conclusion, we discuss the implications of warfare in relation to (in)visibility, memory and drones.     

Islam,Militancy, and Politics in Pakistan: Insights From a National Sample

We use data from an innovative nationally representative survey of 6,000 Pakistanis in April 2009 to study beliefs about political Islam, Sharia, the legitimacy and efficacy of jihad, and attitudes towards specific militant organizations. These issues are at the forefront of U.S. policy towards Pakistan. Four results shed new light on the politics of militancy and Islamic identity in Pakistan. First, there is no relationship between measures of personal religiosity and the likelihood a respondent expresses highly sectarian sentiments. Second, militarized jihad is widely seen as legitimate in Pakistan but there are substantial regional differences in the acceptance of militarized jihad. Third, attitudes towards militant groups vary dramatically across groups, particularly when it comes to the efficacy of their actions. Fourth, while Pakistanis express massive levels of support for Sharia law, this is driven by its perceived connection with good governance, not by sympathy with the goals of militant groups claiming to implement it.     

Spousal visa law and structural violence: fear,anxiety and terror of the everyday

Attending to mundane bureaucratic politics can highlight forms of everyday structural violence. This article draws attention to the spousal visa law in the UK. On the surface, this law does violence to family life, forcing indefinite separation. However, this law is also symbolic of some of the main structural violence in society that cross-cut gender, race, ethnicity, socio-economic class, age, education level and profession, thus making tangible some of the intangible borders in society. Through the vehicle of this law we will consider how structural violence can operate as an everyday terror, disrupting the boundaries of public and private life.     

The Polonium trail to Islam: Litvinenko,liminality, and television's (cold) war on terror

This article examines how Aleksandr Litvinenko's death links the ‘war on terror’ with an emergent New Cold War. Based on an analysis of BBC and Russian Channel 1 news bulletins, it highlights the centrality of the post-imperial legacy of the two sides in the dispute to the manner of its unfolding, and to how war on terror discourse reconstructs national identities and international antagonisms. It draws on narratology to account for Litvinenko's liminal position inside and outside Islam (his deathbed conversion), the Russian security apparatus (his prior conversion from Cold War spy to noble dissident), and the UK (his ‘good asylum seeker’ status).     

Global Intifadah? September 11th and the Struggle within Islam

Against the background of two dominant world order theories - the 'End of History' and the 'Clash of Civilisations' - this article argues that September 11th epitomised two interrelated patterns in world politics: first, the idiosyncrasies and perils of globalisation and second the struggle between different directions in contemporary 'Muslim' politics. The former challenges the traditional view that links globalisation solely to phenomena such as economic integration or the spread of liberal-democratic values, while the latter refers to intra-regional developments in the 'Muslim' world, questioning the characterisation of 'Islam' as a monolithic entity destined to challenge the security of the 'West'. Taken together, these two patterns defy traditional categories of international relations, touching on issues ranging from the role of the state to national security considerations.     

Triad of terror: post-START reductions in broader context

Abstract

This paper considers the present condition and future prospects for post-Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (post-START) nuclear arms reductions in the following sequence. First, we review the essential features of the agreement between Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev in July 2009, for a START follow-on agreement. Second, we discuss the larger political and military-strategic contexts within which these post-START negotiations will play out. Third, we perform an analysis to determine whether the START follow-on guidelines would meet prospective requirements for mutual deterrence and, in addition, whether US–Russian reductions could safely go even lower. Fourth, we take a specific look at the estimated impact of defenses on deterrence stability under post-START reductions. Fifth, pertinent conclusions are summarized.     

阿富汗的伊斯兰教

伊斯兰教进入阿富汗已有一千多年的历史,是大多数阿富汗居民的信仰。然而,由于极为复杂的原因,伊斯兰教又不得不与一些前伊斯兰和非伊斯兰的信仰体系分享阿富汗人的精神世界。阿富汗的宗教阶层主要包括毛拉、圣族或圣门的后裔及苏菲派皮尔,由于阿富汗的部落社会特征,宗教阶层或高踞社会之上,或处于社会之外,从而形成阿富汗极为特殊的社会群体。与阿富汗分散、落后的部落社会结构相适应,阿富汗的宗教设施也有自己的特征。苏菲教团是阿富汗伊斯兰教的重要组成部分,不仅影响阿富汗人的精神世界,而且是阿富汗政治与社会生活中的重要角色。     

政治伊斯兰意识形态与伊斯兰教的政治化

伊斯兰并非天生具有政治属性.政治伊斯兰意识形态是政治人将伊斯兰进行政治化加工的产物,即通过重新解释部分教义、发明传统等方法,把特定政治主张包装成宗教责任,进而把民众的宗教热情引入政治轨道.政治伊斯兰意识形态话语兼具宗教和政治色彩,内容包括"真正信仰"、沙里亚或伊斯兰国家、乌玛3个层面,其核心目标指向政治权力.作为载体,政治伊斯兰运动是具体的、多样的.学界对政治伊斯兰成因机制的分析框架大体分为文化本质主义模式、结构-制度模式、认同-安全模式、代理人模式等几大类.政治化是理解政治伊斯兰现象的关键.政治化对伊斯兰自身发展的深远影响值得广泛关注.     

The terror/counterterror edge: when non-terror becomes a terrorism problem and real terror cannot be detected by counterterrorism

On the basis of cases such as the recent ban on the building of minarets in Switzerland or the prohibition on wearing a burka in France and the Netherlands, and the passage of terrorism legislation in various European countries in which there has never been a terrorism problem, as well as the recent history of counterterrorism in the United States, this paper examines how non-terror can become a terrorism problem and non-risk ideologically risky, while at the same time the real threats go undetected. The international prominence gained by Spanish Prime Minister Jose María Aznar when the George W. Bush administration declared a worldwide ‘War on Terror’ shows the political capital attached to terrorist risk. Countries may act as if afflicted by a case of ‘terrorism envy’ when non-risk may be perceived as political irrelevance. This paper argues that the dynamics of terrorism/counterterrorism should be seen in the cultural context of taboo while displaying the qualities of the Lacanian edge: a self-generating process that simultaneously links and separates them in a ‘non-relationship’ that is constitutive of the entire phenomenon.     

Rape as terror: The case of Bosnia

When ethnic minority parties are excluded from government coalitions, are group attributes such as religion related to the groups’ use of political violence? We argue that extremist factions within minority groups make use of divergence in religion to mobilize support for violent action when the group is excluded from government. Thus, we posit that while religion per se is not a source of violence, extremist elements of ethnic minorities, whose religion differs from the majority, may use religious divergence to mobilize group members to perpetrate terrorism. Specifically we test the hypotheses that extremist factions of an excluded group will be more likely to carry out terrorist attacks when the group's members belong to a different religion as well as when they belong to a different denomination or sect of a religion than the majority. To test these propositions, we use data on ethnic minority party inclusion in government coalitions, ethnic minority group religion, and the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) by matching perpetrators with ethnic groups for all democracies, 1970–2004.     

Islam and politics in Europe and in Asia: Comparative reflections

This article compares the role of religion, and of Islam in particular, in politics in Europe and in South and South East Asia. It starts out with the policy dilemmas facing France, Europe's most secular country that also has Europe's largest immigrant Muslim community. After long debates nation-wide Muslim organisation is now sponsored by the state in order to strengthen moderate Islam in France. In contrast, explicit Christian parties are in decline in most of Europe. Those who are still electorally successful are Christian mostly in name only and have turned into centre-right conservative people's parties instead. Religious discourse in politics has hence vanished almost entirely in Europe. In difference in Asia Islamic opposition parties have managed to set increasingly the political agenda in the majority Islamic states. In those countries with an Islamic minority their public religious agitation serves to strengthen their ethnic minority identity. Meaningful bi-continental dialogue needs to be aware of this discrepancy in religious politics.