The Problem with Pakistan: Too Many Pakistanis

Faisal Shahzad's problem certainly isn't that he was or recently became a devout Muslim. His problem is that he has always been Pakistani. Even after being naturalized, his Pakistaniness came through.

As a fellow Pakistani-American who has researched the matter through my life, I can assert that the vast majority of Pakistanis are not violent. The vast majority of them are not even nuts. Only, say, about half of them are nuts.

The problem is, of course, knowing which half is nuts. Here, there are no easy signs, even among Pakistanis. Privately, we will all concede that half of Pakistanis are crazy. The other half, naturally.

It's like the studies that show that 60% of people think they're above average in intelligence, a statistical impossibility. Or the studies that show that most people think other people are selfish but only a small minority believe themselves to be selfish.
Still, every Pakistani, whether living in Peshawar or Paris or Peoria, insists that it's the other half that's botched that nation's great destiny. They are adamant that no progress can be made until the other half, the crazy half, is removed from the stage. Many insist that a new breed of young Pakistanis might be the salvation of the nation -- as though craziness skips a generation.

In truth, the craziness that sweeps Pakistan is not terribly different from the hot-blooded passions that characterize much of the greater Middle East and Mediterranean cultures. Cultures do have personalities, and these cultural personalities are more powerful than any religion or theology. The difficulty is when a nation with such a culture becomes dysfunctional, and religion is available as a means of rallying malcontents or gaining recognition or blazing a nihilistic train on the impersonal terrain of destiny.