Extremism in Pakistan\'s East
The bad press notwithstanding, the US\'s instinct to preserve Pakistan as a buffer to extremist incursions from its north and to its west is supported by reason. If not sufficiently secular, Pakistan is, and always has been, intrinsically moderate in outlook. This is substantiated by the fact that at no time in its history have the religious, leave alone extremist, parties drawn more than 11 percent of the vote count in any election. Not quite so India, where of recent time, the Christians of Orrissa, a state in eastern India, have been subjected to the type of abuse prevalent in \"the world\'s largest democracy\", defined by a report published in the Kathmandu Post on December 27 highlighting Hindu extremists having run roughshod over the Christian minority populace burning six village churches. The New Delhi based Catholic Bishops Conference of India protested that the riots
which followed \"began when Hindu extremists objected to a Christmas Eve show believing the display was designed\" to encourage conversions. This instance serves to highlight the threat of extremism in Pakistan\'s east –the essential rationale behind that country\'s ethos.
