Pakistan Extremist Groups’ Security Threats against Islamic Revolution

Abstract In the wake of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran and the ensuing dominance of political Islam discourse and its impact on Pakistani society, the ground was prepared for the spread of Wahhabism and anti-Shiism in that country due to the failure of the Islamabad government to manage the reactive conduct of extremist Salafist groups as well as its engagement in internal disputes. Consequently, plots and threats from Salafist extremism in Pakistan led to the emergence of a confrontational ideological identity against the Islamic Revolution. In response to the question about the main root of Pakistani extremist groups’ security threats and plots against the Islamic Revolution, the hypnosis of this paper is that efforts made by radical Salafist groups for constructing an extremist identity based on otherization triggered the confrontational identity formation against Iran’s Islamic Revolution. This research will first analyze the impact of the Islamic Revolution’s influence on the reaction of extremist groups in Pakistani society. Then, it will study the impact of such factors as poverty, political instability, religious schools and regional machinations on the growth and creation of extremism in Pakistan. The third section will explain Pakistani extremist groups’ security threats and plots targeting the Islamic Revolution.