Pakistan, Islam & the U.S.

Since September 11, Pakistan is at the center of American foreign policy. Overnight, the U.S. needed Pakistan’s support for the war on Afghanistan. The payoff for the impoverished South Asian country was substantial. Sanctions were lifted, debts were forgiven and aid and loans were offered. Pakistan was created in 1947 when the British partitioned India. That partition resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths, millions of refugees and an on-going conflict over Kashmir. Pakistan’s raison d’etre is Islam. Its 140 million people make it, after Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country.

Recorded at MIT.