Socio-Economic Underpinning of Jihadism in Pakistan

The rise of the jihadist movement in Pakistan is driven primarily by ideological and religious factors. Decades of indoctrination of a virulent version of radical political Islam has motivated thousands of people—young and old—to take the path of violent jihad to capture political power, and through it, transform the society, economy and culture to bring about what they consider to be a pristine Islamic order. But underpinning the quest for an ideal Islamic state in Pakistan are the harsh socio-economic realities that make jihad extremely attractive to the vast majority of the people—the expanding underclass—that sees jihad as the only way out of the socio-economic deprivation that accompanies their low-level existence in Pakistan.