ABSTRACT
Before exploring the post–September 11, 2001, scenario and analyzing Pakistan’s role in the war on terror, it is imperative to identify the forces and philosophy that drives Pakistan’s religious extremists. When Musharraf stepped in as head of state on October 12, 1999, the harvest he was left to glean was significantly more bitter than those of the leaders who had gone before him. Through the active fostering by Zia ul-Haq, the funding of Saudi Arabia, espousal by the United States, and the venal abandon of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, the seed of religious fanaticism sown more than two decades earlier had come to confront him as fully grown trees perversely balanced by the empty coffers of the state.
