ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the discourse of militant newspapers in Pakistan to understand how extremists construct a socio-political reality of the world, especially after 9/11. One of the significant challenges that Pakistan faces is to counter the violent religious extremism that poses an existential threat to the country. To counter the extremists’ narrative is a significant challenge for Pakistan and the Western world as well. This narrative, rooted in a Manichean theological mindset, divides the world into a battle between good and evil. There is a struggle between the state and extremist organisations to win the hearts and minds of the people by selling their respective narratives. That is, the war is fought in the realm of information. For this purpose, the extremists have established a network of newspapers that represent the world as divided into two opposing geographies or poles—the land of Islam and the land of the infidel. Using the post-structuralist theory of Ernesto Laclau and Chantel Mouffe, this chapter unpacks the discourse of newspapers run by extremist/militant organisations in Pakistan.
