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  • Essay / Terrorism and religious extremism in Pakistan and...

    In 1947, Pakistan was created after being separated from India. A predominantly Muslim country located in South Asia, its history is marked by terrorism and religious extremism. The roots of which go back mainly to the Soviet-Afghan war of 1979. A direct consequence of the war would be the promotion of radical Islam and a militant culture. The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 and the subsequent war on terrorism brought Pakistan's support and involvement in terrorist activities to the international spotlight. Neighboring Iran and Afghanistan to the west, China to the north and India to the west. East Pakistan has a diverse geography consisting of flat plains and mountainous regions. The country is divided into four provinces: Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. Situated in the northwest between Afghanistan and the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan are the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. FATA is home to a number of tribes of Afghan origin known as Pashtuns (Weightman 2011). Punjab, meaning five waters in Persian, is the most populous province of Pakistan and home to the Punjabi people. The term Five Waters comes from the five bodies of water that flow through the region and originate from the Indus River. Punjabi is the main language of the Punjab province and also the most widely spoken language in Pakistan. This province is located in the northeastern region of Pakistan and borders India. Lahore, the capital of Punjab, is one of the richest cities in Pakistan and is known as the cultural heart of the country (Weightman 2011). Sindh province is the southernmost province of Pakistan and neighbors India and the Arabian Sea. This is where the middle of the paper is. Religious extremists know this and will use it to their advantage. Once at school, they are able to shape the young man's impressionable mind to support his ideology and advance his agenda. They are more or less a circumstance of their environment, which is the creation of corruption and tyranny. Works cited1. Reidel, Bruce. (2008) Pakistan and Terror: The Eye of the Stormhttp://www.lexisnexis.com.lib-proxy.fullerton.edu/hottopics/lnacademic/?verb=sr&csi=165641&sr=AUTHOR(Riedel)+AND+ TITLE(Pakistan %20and%20Terror%20:%20The%20Eye%20of%20the%20Storm)+AND+DATE+IS+20082. Hilali, A.Z. (2002) The Cost and Benefits of the Afghan War for Pakistan. Contemporary South Asiahttp://www.khyber.org/publications/pdf/afghanwarcosts.pdf3. Weightman, Barbara. (2011) Dragons and Tigers: A geography of South, East and Southeast Asia. John Wiley and Sons, Inc.