Polarization of Political Culture

This book examines the relationship between Islam and political culture in Pakistan in the four decades following its naissance. It assesses the validity of the argument that a polarity has emerged in the Pakistani political culture, consisting of Islamism and Islamic modernism. In the case of Pakistan, Islamism refers to the use of the primary sources of Islam in crafting both policy and political institutions. Islamic modernism refers to the systematized use of these primary sources as well as secondary and extra-Islamic sources, as adjusted for contemporary circumstances. These ideologies are gleaned from the discourse of Pakistani ideologues, Sayyid Abu’l A‘la Mawdudi and Fazlur Rahman. It examines the thought of Mawdudi and Rahman as the discursive backdrop to the polarity of political culture. It then provides analysis of three regimes which exacerbate this polarity. These regimes include the Islamic modernist regime of Ayub Khan, from 1958 to 1969, the quasi-Islamist regime of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, from 1971 to 1977, and the Islamist regime of General Zia ul-Haq, from 1977 to 1988.