Religion

Madiha Afzal, a young Pakistani economist, details the rise of religious extremism in Pakistan and explains how the state has been both complicit in extremist violence and victimized by it. She offers a useful survey of the many pressures—cultural, religious, economic—that add to social and political instability in Pakistan. One of the ironies that emerges is that although commentators have long focused on the intersection of extremism and poverty in the country, the combination of extremism and growing prosperity may prove even more dangerous.

Mohammed Hanif