Islam and Foreign Policy

Abstract

Pakistan projects its Islamic identity in foreign policy and pays special attention to promoting unity amongst, and forging ties with, Muslim states. The close association of Islam with the establishment of the state and the emotional fervour which developments in the wider Muslim world generate amongst the people of Pakistan have led to a strong ideological imprint on foreign policy, although as this chapter will show, other considerations have also reinforced Pakistan’s projection of Islam in foreign policy. Liaquat Ali Khan, the first Prime Minister of Pakistan, outlined clearly the relationship between Islam and foreign policy:

Pakistan came into being as a result of the urge felt by the Muslims of the sub-continent to secure a territory, however limited, where Islamic ideology and the way of life could be practised and demonstrated to the world. A cardinal feature of this ideology is to make Muslim brotherhood a living reality. It is, therefore, part of the mission which Pakistan has set before itself to do everything in its power to promote closer fellowship and cooperation between Muslim countries.¹

He also declared that ‘our relations with the Muslim countries should not only be friendly but brotherly, and that they should be made stronger everyday because the mission of Pakistan [could] achieve its success only when we make other Muslim countries join it. ’²