Pakistan, June 8 -- Militancy, violent extremism & religious terrorism are often analyzed purely as political or security crises. However, treating terrorism merely as a series of physical security breaches fails to address the root of the problem. Terrorism is the ultimate physical act but it is driven by a pre-existing, coherent, and deeply flawed theological framework. In contemporary Islamic history, this psychological and ideological framework is best understood as Kharjiyat. To understand the ideological framework, one must examine the first deviant sect in Islamic history: the Khawarij. Derived from the Arabic word khuruj, meaning those who left. This group emerged during the 7th century during the first Islamic civil war.

Khawari...