TORONTO – The Muslim world should form a new international order based on “modernity” to protect and preserve itself from the sudden swell of extremism launched by the Islamic State, according to a senior BJP leader.

“Unless Muslim world evolve global strategies to practice ‘modernity’ which has four non-negotiable fundamentals – democracy, freedom of faith, gender equality and economic equity – Jihadi movement would devastate Muslim communities,” BJP spokesperson M J Akbar said here yesterday.

Speaking at a reception here hosted by the Indian Consulate, Akbar said that a fundamental requirement of Jihad in Islamic theory was that it could only be declared by the state.

A large number of community leaders, politicians and diplomats from South Asian countries, including Pakistan, were among those who attended the function.

ISIS or IS has captured a swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria, and an Islamic State.

IS is a splinter group of the al-Qaeda which has distanced itself from the outfit, chiding it for its aggressive and brutal expansion.

“Pakistan became the first Islamic state in the post- colonial era, and, inevitably, a sanctuary for myriad terrorists flying the flag of Jihad in order to gain popular legitimacy,” said Akbar, who was in Canada to attend 6th International Security Forum Meeting at Halifax.

He said that the region between Pakistan and North-Africa is an arc of turbulence, in which most governments survive in isolation while nations spin out of control.

“Many countries today are successful without being modern, since they fail on the first two counts namely democracy and freedom of faith. Wars are being fought not merely for the variables of geographical space, but also for social change,” Akbar said.

“The difference between victory and defeat in the Muslim world namely: ‘turbulent arc’ would mean the difference between a stable world order and an expanding vacuum teeming with shadow militias with a vested interest in chaos,” he added. — PTI