Mullahs on the Radio in Pakistan

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One of the mistakes of some coverage of extremist movements in different parts of the world is the presumption that ideologies are simply generated and transmitted in a vacuum: those people are just crazy, and you can’t change them. In fact, with the consolidation of Nazi Power in Germany after 1933, and, more recently, with the events leading up to the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 (see this), the specific medium through which extremists propagated their ideas — namely, the radio — mattered a great deal.

Radio also figures keenly today in some of the most unstable regions of Pakistan, an issue explored in depth in a story in this month’s issue of Himal Southasian, “Mullah Radio.” In some regions of Pakistan, including the Swat Valley and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), militant Islamists have been particularly effective in spreading their message via FM radio. One key figure is a guy named Maulana Fazlullah:

[Maulana] Fazlullah set up an illegal FM radio station, known as Fazlullah FM, broadcasting on 92 megahertz. The technology to do so was not only quite affordable, costing as little as PKR 15,000 (less than USD 200); it was also completely portable, thus allowing its owners to easily outpace the authorities’ attempts to shut them down. Despite the broadcast’s relatively small coverage area (it was at first unable even to reach the rim of the Swat Valley), Fazlullah’s nightly tirades against the Americans and then-President Pervez Musharraf quickly earned him a degree of fame among the locals, who dubbed him the ‘Radio Mullah’. (link)

The particular ins and outs of Radio Fazlullah are also worth attending to:

At that time, in the early days, Fazlullah was listened to mostly by women at home (and children); indeed, this was the first time that women of the area had ever been able to listen directly to a preaching mullah, as they are traditionally absent from the actual sermons. At his beckoning, these women donated their jewellery en masse, and he amassed a fortune amounting to millions of rupees. But Fazlullah’s popularity among women began to change in late October 2007, when militants loyal to Fazlullah beheaded four policemen, parading their severed heads through Swat. The women started to be less excited about Fazlullah. This incident also marked the start of a reign of fear, as local zealots increasingly looked to the Radio Mullah to fuel a war for the enforcement of Sharia as well as against opponents including politicians, the army, the police and those supporting them. As fighting intensified, the station became increasingly powerful – and ever more threatening to the army, police, politicians and civilians.

The broader reaction mirrored that of the women, though with an ironic twist. In the beginning, the local menfolk and powerbrokers had not taken Fazlullah’s broadcasts particularly seriously. But after a ban was enacted on women visiting markets and on education for girls – both of which were spearheaded by the radio station – the number of listeners increased substantially. This was as much out of fear as enthusiasm, however, with the population now desperate to stay informed on exactly what the militants were planning – what they would say about the fighting, at whom they would aim their threats on any given day. (link)

What I think is interesting about this is, first, the specifics of the listenership (women at home, listening in the daytime). It’s also interesting to see the author’s speculation that the station was first listened to out of enthusiasm, and later out of fear. Later in the story, the author also talks about counter-programming that has been set up, by American-funded groups as well as the government. The FATA-sponsored counter-programming has apparently been quite popular.

In general, stories like these remind one how unpredictable factors can make it difficult to really get a sense of what is really going on in a particular region of the world. You could flood a region with propaganda and aid, but have all your efforts undercut by a Mullah with a microphone and $200 of radio equipment. That said, focusing on the medium might give opponents of extremist movements something concrete to focus on. It’s very difficult to win a point-by-point debate with any kind of religious extremist (as I know all too well); it’s perhaps not quite as hard to block something like a radio station, even a portable one.

You can read the rest of the article here.

28 thoughts on “Mullahs on the Radio in Pakistan”

  3. It’s very difficult to win a point-by-point debate with any kind of religious extremist

    Yes – that’s what I’ve realized after attempting to debate global warming zealots.

    M. Nam

  5. BTW right now we (US, Pak Army and Government) are busy making legitimizing their terror…

    The game that is being played right now is well explained in the LRB article – Taliban v. Taliban Pak will continue to play out a two pronged strategy (something which US did in Iraq by pitting Sunni against Shia to gain an upper hand) of good versus bad Taliban. The good Taliban is for future hedge against India and geopolitical games of currying favor from US to connect Afghan problem with the Kashmir one….whereas the bad Taliban is for US to hit and kill. It will be dangerous for the region including Pakistan if US is all too eager to play on with this just to make progress and bring peace…..It will be a repeat of the past where warlords versus warlords created a mess. It may very well happen that in future all Talibans get together and create more havoc.

  6. These extremists spread their message through the radio in Pakistan…….and through madrassas, and ISI, and Pakistani Prime Ministers….

    When Osama Met the Taliban – Who introduced them? Our intelligence “allies,” Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Agency: http://www.slate.com/id/116991 Inconvenient Truths – The media’s disingenuous failure to state the obvious: http://www.slate.com/id/2206233 Pakistan Is the Problem And Barack Obama seems to be the only candidate willing to face it: http://www.slate.com/id/2200134 Don’t mention the Afghan-Pakistan war: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3724/is_20080726/ai_n27994317

    “…Meanwhile, by the late-1980s, with the war in Afghanistan slowing down, the vast network of training camps for Afghan Mujahideen was transformed by the ISI into a center of Islamist terrorism throughout South Asia, as well as the melting pot of the world wide Islamist Jihad…”http://www.kashmir-information.com/bodansky/article1.html

    “…Essentially, whoever controls the access roads to Kashgar and Yarkand controls the gateways to China on the Silk Road….The Pakistani strategic calculation is that if Pakistan is the dominant or hegemonic power over the western gateways to China — a crucial component of both the Silk Road (actually) and the Trans-Asian Axis (strategically, metaphysically) — Islamabad will be in a position to exert influence over the entire Trans-Asian Axis. … [T]he Pakistani strategic logic behind the drive to control the western gateways to China is to transform Islamabad’s strategic position as the linch-pin between the Islamic Bloc and China into a tangible reality on the ground.

    Sophisticated as the Pakistani strategic grand design may be, it nevertheless confronts a very grim reality — the tracks of road Islamabad is determined to control, or at the very least secure hegemony over, happen to be on the sovereign territory of Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and India. However, this reality does not seem to deter or restrain Islamabad. Therefore, in pursuit of these objectives, the ISI has recently launched a relentless drive to ensure that local Islamist irregular forces — most of them already Pakistan’s proteges for they are sponsored by the ISI — will control all key roads and axes in order to create a regional dependence on Islamabad to ensure safety of traffic — in other words, recognize Islamabad’s hegemony over the western gateways of China.

    Recent ISI operations in Afghanistan can be considered the trend setter. The accumulating Afghan experience of the ISI convinced Islamabad of the strategic importance of roads and provided precedents for using state-controlled irregular warfare — like the Afghan mujahideen forces — as strategic instruments for state policy. By the mid 1990s, the ISI would support major campaigns of its protege forces in order to ensure Islamabad’s control over strategic sites and assets…..

    ….However, it was only by mid December 1994, that the Taliban “proved” to the ISI that they were fully aware of Islamabad’s strategic interests and regional priorities….Consequently, in late 1994 and early 1995, Islamabad “saw the light.” The ISI began assisting the Taliban in a massive way, providing new Kalashnikov assault rifles, large quantities of ammunition, training, logistics, etc. Indeed, in a meeting in Islamabad in December 1994, Hekmatyar complained to then ISI chief Lt.Gen. Javed Ashraf about the ISI’s growing assistance to the Taliban. At the same time, the ISI was closely monitoring the increasing flow of Pakistani-Pushtun volunteers to join the Taliban. Significantly, the Taliban’s emerging political religious leadership was made of proteges of the Pakistani (and increasingly regional) Jamiat-i-Ulema-Islam under the leadership of Maulana Fazlur Rahman. By mid 1995, the Jamiat-i-Ulema-Islam is increasingly an umbrella organization for a dozen smaller Islamist organizations including some of the most violent in Pakistan……” http://www.kashmir-information.com/bodansky/article2.html

  7. Hello,

    I’m doing research on terrorism, and I’ve put together a pre-survey questionnaire that I’m circulating in order to get feedback on what a non-biased (non-western, white, male) survey might look like. The final survey will go out later this year.

    The survey can be accessed at johnmaszka.com/SURVEY.html

    Would you post it, and possibly circulate it? I’m very interested in incorporating the views of women, non-whites, and people living outside of America and Western Europe.

    I’d appreciate it.

    Thanks! Take care,

    John Maszka

  11. the specific medium through which extremists propagated their ideas — namely, the radio — mattered a great deal.

    You see this even now…in the United States. It is the reason that many Dems were recently proposing bringing back the Fairness Doctrine to regulate speech on talk radio. Obama came out against it of course because it is a very tough position to support politically and it is a slippery slope to censorship. Still, it is kind of scary. Folks like Glenn Beck are no different than the Mullahs in Pakistan.

  12. Seriously, Glenn Beck is no different than a Pakistani Mullah? Seriously? He might be a joke, but that comparison is ridiculous.

  14. Varun Gandhi will cut the arms of Mullah Radio.

    See, this is where I lose you, again and again… you are so concerned with Hindutva-types but rarely address the actual Islamist issues being addressed. To you Varun is a serious threat but Mullah Radio seems like a joke.

    What does Varun Gandhi even have to do with this thread anyway??

    Needless to say I condemn Varun’s idiotic statements.

  15. See, this is where I lose you, again and again… you are so concerned with Hindutva-types but rarely address the actual Islamist issues being addressed. To you Varun is a serious threat but Mullah Radio seems like a joke.

    Would you expect anything less from him.

    Does anybody know if the merger between XM radio and Sirius will any impact on Mullah Radio.

  16. but rarely address the actual Islamist issues being addressed.

    selective memory. pafd has been scathing in his contempt for islamic fundamentalists on many threads.

  17. selective memory. pafd has been scathing in his contempt for islamic fundamentalists on many threads.

    This is probably true, on reflection. But I still don’t see why Varun Gandhi had to be brought into this. As if to say that “fine, Mullah radio is sort of bad, but don’t you know there are equally crazy people in India too”…

    It just seems unnecessary.

  19. Does anybody know if the merger between XM radio and Sirius will any impact on Mullah Radio.

    they have to rename themselves Sir Mullah X.

  20. While we are busy with Pakistan Talibans our own US backed so called liberal president Karzai passed a new law under which,

    the law grants Shia husbands the right to have intercourse with their wives every fourth night.
    Under the new measure, Shia women would be banned from working or receiving an education without their husbands’ permission,

    And I thought we went to Afghanistan to save it from communist Russia not to push them back into dark ages.

  21. The extremists are winning the hearts and mins campaign. And if you’re like me, a Pakistani who’s been slowly diassociating with what’s happening at home, here’s something that is going to shock you right into life. – a video a woman took of a woman being flogged in Swat for leaving the house with a namehrum..

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/02/taliban-pakistan-justice-women-flogging

    How are we going to stop this? How do we support the Pakistani activists working on this? Please comment if you’re interested in learning more about what you can do and what our activists at home are doing.

    Thanks.

  22. And I thought we went to Afghanistan to save it from communist Russia not to push them back into dark ages.

    And I thought that it was for taking revenge on Soviets for our defeat in Vietnam – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Cyclone

    Carter’s national security advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, has stated that the U.S. effort to aid the mujahideen was preceded by an effort to draw the Soviets into a costly and presumably distracting Vietnam War-like conflict. In a 1998 interview with the French news magazine Le Nouvel Observateur, Brzezinski recalled: “We didn’t push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would… That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Soviets into the Afghan trap… The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter, “We now have the opportunity of giving to the Soviet Union its Vietnam War.”

  23. Apparently it was all a Jewish conspiracy:

    http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\04\05\story_5-4-2009_pg12_3 “KARACHI: Federal Minister Senator Azam Khan Swati of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) said on Saturday that the flogging of the 17-year-old girl in Swat was a Jewish conspiracy aimed at destroying peace in Swat and distort the image of those Islamists who sport beards and wear turbans….”

    Those conspiratorial Jews sure get around framing Islamists for the beating of the 17 year old girl, for the 2008 November Mumbai Massacre (with the help of Hindus in this case), and the most famous was framing Islamists for 9-11.

  26. Even the 17 year old girl shown beaten in the video denies now it ever happened; perhaps she also believes it was a Jewish conspiracy. So it looks like there is nothing to fix in Swat, people. It is all good in Swat:

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,512785,00.html “Hussain said that upon questioning by the Islamic judge, she denied neighbors’ claims that she had been dragged from her home, held down and flogged. She also denied reports that she had been charged with having an illicit relationship with a local man — who witnesses claim also was beaten — or that the Taliban forced the two to marry, the Times reported.

    Instead, Hussain said, the girl told the judge the man was her husband, and that the video was a fake distributed to disrupt the peace process in the region.

    “We condemn the acts of repression against women…. But the incident depicted in the videotape never took place in Swat,” Hussain said. Related Stories

    Pakistani officials had no comment Monday on the girl’s claims, a day after thousands of women turned out across the country to protest her alleged treatment.

    But a spokesman for the Pakistani Embassy in Washington told FOXNews.com that the government is investigating the video to determine who, if anyone, is at fault.

    “The people of Pakistan were outraged by this video and there are many questions: if this has been manufactured by some groups of vested interest, or if it is real. And so investigations are still going on,” said Nadeem Kiani, press attache for the embassy….”

  27. Religion is bad for Pakistan, India and everyone else..it separates us all… Mullahs should not be alloweed to educate kids, anymore than Sikh Priests should be used to teach Punjabi…

    Had posted thi on wrong blog first

  28. 17

    It was unnecessary. It was a tu quoque logical fallacy.

    “Tu Quoque is a very common fallacy in which one attempts to defend oneself or another from criticism by turning the critique back against the accuser. This is a classic Red Herring since whether the accuser is guilty of the same, or a similar, wrong is irrelevant to the truth of the original charge. However, as a diversionary tactic, Tu Quoque can be very effective, since the accuser is put on the defensive, and frequently feels compelled to defend against the accusation. ” http://www.fallacyfiles.org/tuquoque.html