No other Islamic nation in the world gives as much trouble to its massive neighbor as Pakistan does to India—a country several times its size in both military and economic power. Despite being widely criticized as a bankrupt nation on the brink of collapse, Pakistan harbors a brand of radical fundamentalism that puts Arab nations to shame, driven by a deeply embedded, Mughal-style deceit that runs through its veins. It is a mindset that declares: even if our citizens starve, even if we are soundly beaten and destroyed by India, we will never let India live in peace; we will continuously challenge them.
Why is this? Why does Pakistan possess a level of per-capita religious fanaticism unseen anywhere else in the world? Two conventional answers are often given. First, that it is simply Islamic fundamentalism acting according to its nature. Second, that Pakistan is backed by global powers like the United States and China, who continuously use it as a tool against India to stall its growth.
Both answers are historically and contemporarily accurate. Yet, there is a third, deeper explanation: Pakistan is not merely a country; it is a bizarre, toxic state of mind. Adherents of this mentality carved out a vital portion of Indian territory (with the help of certain Western powers) and called it Pakistan. As long as this state of mind exists, India’s territory and way of life will remain under constant threat. It is a radicalism so intense that Pakistan has historically opposed the socio-religious reforms initiated by Saudi Arabia.
Violence in the name of religion has a long history, starting with imperialist caliphate wars and the subsequent Crusades. Over centuries, various rulers invaded nations to expand their religious empires through bloody reigns. However, the psychological dimension that birthed Pakistan is unique. It began inside undivided India during the 19th century and matured throughout the 20th century.
In 1928, Hassan al-Banna (1906–1949) founded the Jam’iyat al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun (Muslim Brotherhood) in Egypt, dreaming of a global Islamic brotherhood. It sparked the creation of nearly every modern Arab terrorist organization, including Hamas, and has since been designated a terrorist group by several Arab nations themselves.
Paralleling the Muslim Brotherhood, another massive organization served as the foundational blueprint for jihadist terror: the Jamaat-e-Islami. The ideological powerhouse behind it was Maulana Abul A’la Maududi (1903–1979), who was born in the Hyderabad province of India and later migrated to Pakistan.
Maulana Maududi was no ordinary figure. As one of the most influential and notorious Islamic theologians of the 20th century, he provided the ideological compass for thousands of Bin Ladens, Al-Baghdadis, and Zakir Naiks. What Karl Marx is to Communism, Maududi is to Political Islam. The Jamaat-e-Islami, which he founded in 1941, remains the largest fundamentalist network in Asia, dictating socio-political life in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Maududi’s Urdu books, especially his 1920s treatises on Jihad, were translated globally, fueling militant movements. Long before television or Zakir Naik’s ‘Peace TV’ existed, Maududi’s fiery speeches ignited an extraordinary “Pakistani fire.” His vision of a “Total Islamic State” later drove Pakistani dictator Zia-ul-Haq to enforce strict Sharia law. The ISI, Kashmiri jihadist outfits, Hizbul Mujahideen, and Hafiz Saeed’s Lashkar-e-Taiba all trace their lineage directly back to Maududi. Analysts note that even the Muslim Brotherhood and Osama bin Laden were heavily influenced by his writings.
Today, global media frequently dissects Wahhabi extremism. Originally pioneered by Muhammad bin Abd al-Wahhab (1703–1792) in the Arabian Peninsula, this doctrine argues that Islam has been corrupted by foreign influences and must return to the pure, unadulterated ways of the early Caliphate. While most Sunni Arab nations adopted Wahhabism, Maududi picked up the mantle exactly 200 years later to enforce it through political means. In recognition of his theological alignment, Saudi Arabia honored Maududi with its highest civilian award (King Faisal International Prize)—an honor later bestowed upon Zakir Naik as well.
The internal rot of this system was perfectly captured a few years ago by Pakistani columnist Dr. Farrukh Saleem in his famous article analyzing why radical political structures prevent ordinary citizens from leading normal lives.
Here are the excerpts and data from Dr. Farrukh Saleem’s original article:
“There are an estimated 1,476,233,470 Muslims on the face of the planet… For every one Jew there are 100 Muslims. Yet, Jews are more powerful than all the Muslims put together. Why?
“The Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) has 57 member countries and all of them put together have around 500 universities; one university for every three million Muslims. The United States has 5,758 universities and India has 8,407. Not a single university from the entire Muslim world is in the top 500 ranking universities of the world.
“According to data compiled by the UNDP, literacy in the Christian world stands at nearly 90 per cent and 15 Christian-majority states have a 100 per cent literacy rate. A Muslim-majority state, as a average, has a literacy rate of around 40 per cent and there is no Muslim-majority state with a 100 per cent literacy rate. Some 98 per cent of the literates in the Christian world completed primary school, while only 50 per cent of the literates in the Muslim world did the same. Why are Muslims powerless? Because we aren’t producing knowledge.
“The Muslim world has 230 scientists per one million Muslims. The US has 4,000 scientists per million and Japan has 5,000 per million. In the entire Arab world, the total number of full-time researchers is 35,000 and there are only 50 technicians per one million Arabs (in the Christian world there are up to 1,000 technicians per one million).
“The Muslim world spends 0.2 per cent of its GDP on research and development, while the Christian world spends around 5 per cent of its GDP.
“Daily newspaper circulation per 1,000 inhabitants and number of book titles per million inhabitants are two indicators of whether knowledge is being diffused in a society. In Pakistan, there are 23 daily newspapers per 1,000 citizens while in Singapore the ratio is 360. In the UK, the number of book titles per million inhabitants stands at 2,000 while in Egypt it is 20.
“High-technology exports as a percentage of total exports is an indicator of knowledge application. Pakistan’s high-tech exports are a mere 1 per cent of its total exports. The same for Saudi Arabia is 0.3 per cent; Kuwait, Morocco, and Algeria are all at 0.3 per cent. Singapore alone is at 58 per cent.
Our conclusion? The Muslim world is failing to produce knowledge, failing to diffuse knowledge, and failing to apply knowledge. And our future belongs to knowledge-based societies.”
Dr. Farrukh Saleem is by no means an apologist for India; he shares the standard biases of an average Pakistani when it comes to bilateral issues. Yet, it is profound that the sheer excesses of Pakistan’s religious politics have made even its own internal intellectuals suffer.
While a handful of thinkers in Pakistan have begun questioning this irrational emotionalism, the state continues to pull itself into a deeper abyss. Other Islamic nations have moved on. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) focuses on global commerce. Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, has rejected state-sponsored global terrorism; despite its own battles with local extremism, it does not run factories to export jihad. Most Islamic countries today strive for stability, private citizen growth, and economic development.
Pakistan has none of this. It feeds every household a diet of “Mujahedeen” fantasies and “Jihad” propaganda. Its society cannot afford wheat flour, yet its streets are governed by the gun.
According to several modern Islamic reformists, Maulana Maududi did a grave disservice to his own faith. They argue that the radical political ideology he branded as “true Islam” is entirely self-manufactured—and it is this very brand that global terrorists copy today. It remains the foundational source of the destructive Pakistani state of mind.
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