Extremism and its forms in Pukhtoons

There is no doubt that we pukhtoons lack the trait of moderation whether it is religious extremism or secularism, being honest or hypocrites, educationist or completely illiterate. We are not in the middle of anything. I have always wondered why this is so. Once I asked my friend Dr.Attaullah khan about it and he came up with some physiological evidences of pukhtoons. That Pukhtoon are mostly residing in mountainous regions. There is a deficiency of iodine in their diet and this deficiency leads to hyper activity of thyroid gland which ultimately causes emotional instability and thus they practice every ideology to its extreme and hence extremism.

Among these extremisms the two which are mostly discussed now-a-days are liberal extremism and religious extremism. If we compare the destructions these two have brought, obviously religious extremism has been more dangerous and has brought nothing but miseries. It has been used both by indigenous and foreign groups for their own so called strategic interests.
In my view here in Pukhtunkhwa there is no liberal extremism. The ones who are perceived as liberal extremists are actually secular because a liberal extremist is a person who might restrict you not to practice your religion as opposite to religious extremism. There has been no incident of violence reported where liberals have forced people to follow their ideas. The known liberals are reluctant to make their views public out of fear of backlash from the radicals. There is no militant liberal organization existing. Who are the liberal extremists?

For being a religious extremist one has to go as far as committing MURDER, for the sake of your spirituality. For being a liberal extremist, it is just enough to reject the above mentioned murderous point of view. Or worse, if you come out openly, and question the inconsistencies of Mullah, you are liberal fascist.

The word secular means “of this world” in Latin and is usually used to describe any philosophy which promotes the development of the physical, moral, and intellectual nature of man , without reference to religious dogmas .Secularism means both religious tolerance as well as religious freedom. There are no liberal extremist, only religious extremists are playing havoc with this unfortunate race.


Now a secular extremist will be one who does not offer his Namaz ( prayer) and doesn’t even call it his weakness or a sin, he will be sarcastic against the one who offer his prayer five times a day. He will probably start fighting if requested to recite the Quran. I have come across such secular many times. He will be a Muslim but will call himself a comrade and follower of Karl Marx. She will be sure that Islam has given rights to women what they needed and deserved, has empowered her and that the violations of women rights is just because of misinterpretation of some portions of Quran and hadith or because of cultural values, but will still call herself a feminist.